Thinking about how the Internet and other information and communiations technologies affect the economy of symbols? As additional food for thought, the following paper is available at http://www.galbithink.org : A New Account of Personalization and Effective Communication To contribute to understanding of information economies of daily life, this paper explores over time given names of a large number of persons. Analysts since at least the 1940s have both condemned and praised mass media as a source of common culture or shared symbolic experiences. Names, however, indicate a large, long-term decline in shared symbolic experience, a decline that the growth of mass media does not appear to have affected significantly. Study of names also shows that action and personal relationships, along with time horizon, are central aspects of effective communication across a large population. The observed preference for personalization over the past two centuries and the importance of action and personal relationships to effective communication are aspects of information economies that are likely to have continuing significance for industry developments, economic statistics, and public policy. ―--------------------- Comments and suggestions welcomed.