Amen. I am trying to realize how much control I do have, and I am exercising it. The supermarkets are still selling beans, rice and veggies. So far, it's still legal to take a walk or hike. I have a library card and still get books and magazines. I have a cheap flip phone in my purse just for emergencies, or if I want to call home to see if anybody wants anything while I am out. It's always off otherwise. People have said outright they think I am lying when I tell them I have never sent a text. Ever. (Obviously, I'm not a social butterfly.) I am increasingly realizing I probably will end up needing a Dummy -- er, Smart -- phone for various reasons. I am puzzled when YouTube asks me to rate my ad experience. I can honestly say I don't remember a single one of them. My form of protest has been to train my brain to completely check out during them.
All of those things are being increasingly eroded.
"The supermarkets are still selling beans, rice and veggies" - where I am at, and increasingly exorbitant prices, 10x what they used to be 20 years ago, with 2x at best wage increases.
"So far, it's still legal to take a walk or hike" - but increasingly unsafe in many cities, or unpleasant and unworkable due to how others are made with cars as a priority.
"I have a library card and still get books and magazines." many once great magazines have shut down in the past 20 years, or became a shell of themselves, and libraries are increasinglly underfunded and many are closing.
"I have a cheap flip phone in my purse just for emergencies, or if I want to call home to see if anybody wants anything while I am out. It's always off otherwise." and then all kinds of businesses, from banks to the government increasingly ask for a smartphone app to access them (and if they offer an alternative, it's through taking hours off of work to go there in person)
I can only speak for myself and my own life. I can afford food. I can safely take walks and hikes in the beautiful area where I live. My town of @65 K residents has 3 branches of its library, and last year did away with library fines. I only read gardening magazines. The one area I am being forced to change is my phone situation. Once I get a Smart phone, it will be treated precisely like my current flip phone: off and away unless I need to use it. My heart goes out to those who are not similarly situated in life in terms of finances, location, etc. I still think we all can find areas where we can make the most of our lot in life.
The reason i ask is bc im leaning heavily towards getting rid of mine. Im assuming i can do all the things i "need" to on a laptop(like credit cards, bank, shopping), but is that not the case?
One of the main reasons is wanting to have GPS. I get nervous driving places I haven't been to before and that are far away unless somebody is in the car with their phone and can help guide me if we get lost. (I still look up directions and write them down on paper.) Another annoyance: having to log in to FB or other places and sometimes they want to send a code to your phone, and I have to use one of my daughter's numbers or my husband's. They're getting mighty sick of it. There are other things that have cropped up that I can't call to mind at the moment.
Yeah gps is handy, and frustrating. But it does save alot of time in my work, trying to get good directions has always been dubious. Thats one thing i didnt consider:/ But perhaps they still make gps units.
My dad taught me how to read a map and write down directions when i was 16, long ago lol. I imagine we're a dying breed
"All of those things are being increasingly eroded."
It's a war, and isn't ending anytime soon. We must stay steps ahead in the battle to wear each other out, and that means increasingly, resiliently -- and stealthily (i.e. make sure you have private tactics/strategies you won't discuss here) -- up our games.
There's a hell of a lot more of us than them, and even though they have AI, their AI *doesn't* have adequate novelty.
Even low/retro tech denies them: DVDs/CDs, use old computers w/ports until the drive dies, flip phones; available at garage sales, flea markets, etc. ...
The corporations need to learn that to *survive*, they need again to *create*.
Flip phones are still available. I had to replace my last one a couple of years ago when 3g was phased out. It's 5g compatible, but I don't worry about that too much, I only use it when we lose power or I'm out of the house and my wife prefers she can reach me. On our VOIP Ooma land line....
No, it's a family memento, now a garage queen. When Dad was a USAF liaison to the Army VIIth Corps headquarters, Kelly Barracks, Stuttgart (70-73), being the fighter pilot he was, he decided to get the Porsche instead of a Corvette (same price, good choice). He went to Ramstein AFB, checked out a jet, and flew to the AF base at Torrejon, Spain to order one because Porsches were much less expensive there. He ordered lots of special options that were/are rare, like factory A/C, driving lights and fog lights, etc. We drove it all around Europe: Throughout Germany, to Paris and Laon France, Britain, and Holland. He passed in 2004 and I've been the caretaker ever since. It's been surprisingly inexpensive to maintain, probably because the MFI E's engines were the same basic architecture as the 917s that ruled Le Mans for several years. It has about 110K miles on it, but I'm not sure because the odo died at 75,300 miles, which is typical of the VDO gauges in those cars. It'll stay with me until I kick the bucket, then one of the twins will get it. Probably the one who doesn't already have a beautifully restored 71 T.
Exactly. I don’t use even half of all that stuff. I do not like watching videos on my phone. I listen to streaming radio while I read my email or Substack or play wordle. It doesn’t have to be like this.
Yes, super annoying way to go about clicks and scroll’s. But the great thing is we can decide not to adhere to their madness. I cancelled Netflix a long time ago. Every now and then, if they have something i want to see I resubscribe for a month and then leave. If you love movies Mubi is great, and yes they have an app too, but they curate the movies which only stay streaming for 30 days.
Another to add to the list: incessant requests for feedback and reviews. My inbox inundated with requests of "only 10-15m of my time" to rate my service. You charge me for your service, why not pay me for my time to rate it?
Refuse to give them your time- I even get those requests from my Dr.’s office. The first- and only- response I gave them was “I I didnt like my doctor or the treatment I received, I wouldnt continue to be a patient” there….
It does begin to make sense that some of the information driving these companies' decisions are being skewed by the weirdos who login and give that feedback.
However, feedback response rates and rating levels are likely affecting the livelihoods of hapless minimum wage workers. It is truly sad to walk into a bank branch, for example, and have a teller try to encourage me to fill in the email rating request, or worse, hawk me some bank product, when it is clear most of them must be just doing their best to survive.
In burner emails separate from then account-linked ones, I've written scathing anonymous but on-point criticisms of this neo-feudal practice, and have dropped bank accounts (re teller and CSR ratings) on two occasions. "If you representative were *actually* doing something unacceptable, trust me, you'd hear about it, at least from me. Try brainstorming how to shave your CxO pay, I know that will go a long way to making this practice unnecessary."
The message about annoying pleas for subscription fees is a little ironic on SubStack which auto-inserts a $6 per month subscription button on every article. I pay for several authors here, but it is starting to add up. I wish they would rediscover the magazine model and offer a bundle deal.
A minor but important clarification: substack authors choose to add the subscriptions buttons within their posts where they like, it’s not an automated choice made by the platform.
The journalist Cory Doctorow coined a colourful but accurate term for this phenomenon: Enshittification. His podcast, Who Broke the Internet, is well worth a listen.
Every company you have ever interacted with sends you coupons for your birthday. YouTube pushes ads about getting rid of ads. Online retailers will keep sending you email reminders if you abandon a cart. Now Google says I need to pay for more storage space because my inbox is full from spam. Make it stop!
Our ten year old daughter was curious about The Simpsons so we decided to let her watch a couple of episodes last night. The only place we could find them without needing to subscribe to something was YouTube (and they generously put three episodes per season on there - wow!!!). So we started watching one and there were at least four ads prior to the actual episode starting and then many sprinkled throughout. Our daughter used that time to go to the bathroom or draw on a notepad. :)
That's so wonderfully old fashioned. Old timers remember television ads that would give one just enough time for a snack or a quick bathroom break. I assume Youtube has channels full of out of copyright videos loaded with ads like old fashioned UHF movie channels.
All things old are new again. I assume someone got a big promotion for reinventing the wheel.
I recommend using an email alias for every sign up you don’t want to keep hearing from. I get mine (a different one every time) from the privacy-first browser DuckDuckGo. They redirect emails to my real account until I decide I’ve had enough and terminate that particular alias
You may laugh but I’m actually trying to find a new dentist based on the music, they play in their waiting rooms and offices. After my long time dentist retired, she had always played classical music softly in her office, I switched to a new practice. Between their loud, jarring music and of course TV screens emitting completely different sounds, never mind how this ambience distracted the practitioners working on me, which caused lengthy and multiple appointments, I have been searching for a new dentist. I have done this by entering the waiting rooms of a new office, on the pretext of asking whether or not they take my dental insurance. It took four of these escapades until I found a quiet waiting room and decided to schedule an appointment in a couple of weeks with a dentist who I I have no knowledge of except his address. The receptionist did say that it was quiet because of lunch hour so I still can’t be sure whether or not this new practice will be any different from the others. Can you imagine putting the atmosphere above the skill of the dentist? And why do most of these dentists have to title their practice with something inane like “Smile Society” or “Signature Smiles”!
My old school dentist only plays classical music. I will never change him for any new age or whatever other stuff. He has a lot of the qualities we are rapidly losing. Like - integrity and actual skill.
My dentist of thirty years retired last year. His office had classic jazz, he's of Chinese descent, short and round, has a deep voice with a Texas drawl, and loves college football, particularly his A&M Aggies. I miss him because of those features, and because he was a truly exceptional dentist. I've tried one since; I'm looking for another right now.
You'd think Spotify would have medical office playlists.
I know one medical company that, as part of its marketing, gave doctors music cassettes timed for surgery, basically music to perform operations with. He said it was classical music that he was fond of and perfectly timed.
There's an old pattern at work here. Cable television once promised content without ads. But after customers acclimated to the subscription model, the ads came back, allowing the companies to take in two distinct streams of revenue. Streaming services have followed the same playbook. First its free, ad supported content. Then its subscriber pay -- to escape the ads -- then despite paying your subscription fee, you begin to see ads again. I expect the same thing will happen to AI and every other digital service as each company succumbs to pressure to deliver more revenue to the bottom line.
They got us hooked on their drug, now they're cutting it. You've gotta pay extra to get the "pure" stuff from the old days, or you can get this new cheaper stuff.
And may I humbly add: The music in the retail stores -- it's awful, you can't focus on what you're trying to shop for (sorting out the 87 kinds of ibuprofen, for example), and there's no one to complain to. As to the streaming ads -- not only are they mediocre video/audio productions, but on some of the services (YouTube, for example) they just randomly interrupt the content. Public standards are declining and advertisers are happy to help. Same strategy as the airlines -- "How much worse can we make the customer experience and still have people put up with it".
So true...I'm very conscious of the music played in public places and so much of it is UNBEARABLE. Today I was treated to an absolutely abominable autotuned, drum machined cover of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. What's wrong with the original? I don't get it.
The airlines also let you pay to get rid of annoyances like not being able to choose your seat, not being able to check a bag or not having anything to eat. I'm amazed they don't have pay toilets or riddle their in-flight media with ads.
Another big piece of this, I think, is that no one who signs off on these annoyances actually uses the products. There is no corporate exec at Netflix who has anything below the top premium tier. There is no exec at CVS who shops for things at a CVS. There is no Apple exec who doesn't have the highest level of icloud storage. They don't see the barrage of crap we see.
This was a big problem for Detroit in the 1980s. All the US executives drove company cars and had company provided service, so they had no idea of what their competitors in Japan were doing and no idea of what their customers experienced.
Corporate America makes us work for everything. My wife and I skip ad-supported streaming because every commercial feels like labor. Some shows just aren’t worth it.
And it’s not just streaming. Need help from a business? Good luck. You're stuck navigating offshore call centers just to fix basic problems. It’s exhausting.
Everywhere we turn—restaurants, grocery stores, customer service—we're doing more and getting less. Our economy has become so greedy, there’s no end in sight. The balance is gone, and people are burning out.
I spent 4 hours on the phone with internet co setting up new router and modem, then getting the tvs acceptance. After that, I spent 3 hours on Monday with specialty pharmacy to straighten out my prescription medication. Ridiculous!
I've had so many experiences like this lately with: Verizon, T-mobile, Frontier, Cigna, Texas electric companies, etc. I'm convinced that leaders in these companies are not aware of the collective time and stress we're all experiencing doing business these days. This is fairly new and AI is taking it to a whole new level. It's not user friendly, difficult, and a cold way to be treated as a customer. I think you could position a campaign that says: "we're easy to work with and you can talk to a fellow human when you do business with us."
Oof...I sound like a cranky old man. Probably, and really disappointed with how commerce has evolved in the U.S.
Verizon? When I switched from a post-paid to pre-paid plan, I needed some serious hand holding. Even the bumped-up-to reps on each side of the transfer had to talk to someone who had handled something like this. It took a lot longer than it should have, but everyone spoke good idiomatic English and I got the impression that they were as distraught as I was about the complexity of a simple transfer.
Here’s a way to turn lemons into lemonade: the length of ad breaks included in streaming content is usually 90/120/150 seconds long. Take time to record how long it takes to perform small tasks (make a cup of coffee; take a pee break; put laundry in washer/dryer; fold laundry, etc.). Whenever an ad break begins, go do one of these tasks while the ads run to finish. It’s surprising what you can accomplish in two minutes: get your chores done and escape advertising aggravation!
Muting is the answer. I don't have anything to doomscroll with, so I just converse with my wife. I enjoy it, especially because it keeps her from swiping at her IPad.
This used to be a standard joke in the 1960s. Dig up an old Mad or Reader's Digest. Apparently, there's an entire generation that grew up with premium cable and then early ad-lite internet. Baby boomers probably have their bladders calibrated for those times already.
I can tell you the genesis story of the Annoyance Economy.
The year is 1989, and I am traveling uptown on the 1/9 subway in Manhattan. We pull into the 50th Street station, the doors open, and a disheveled mop of a man shuffles into the crowded car, carrying a beat-up saxophone. The doors close.
The man puts the horn's reed to his cracked lips and blows -- as hard as he can. A high-pitched screech pierces the entire car, and we all wince. He does it again, and again, filling the space with the ungodly squeal. I cover my ears.
Then he lowers the sax and shouts: "IF YOU PAY ME, I WILL STOP!"
I hate to admit but I look forward to and save the CVS receipt in the car for the next time I go because often I have a few cvs dollars to spend and I go about once a month to pick up the families prescriptions. Our cvs used to be a Longs Drug and they used to have the best plant selection and luckily cvs has continued to use the same nursery distributor and I pick up a pretty plant or fresh herbs for cooking for free when I pick up my rx. It’s fun for me.
Nothing annoys me more when I get sucked into paying for a "software upgrade" which actually turns out to be a "software DOWNGRADE" requiring a whole new, completely unnecessary, learning curve providing the same output as the "original" software. Has anyone else experienced this?
That's a real problem. I avoid updates as they usually break something or another, usually both. I was rather amazed at my latest Mac update. It barely broke anything. No wonder all the pundits are saying Apple has lost its mojo.
Unplug. Shut off. Turn off. Open a book. Go for a walk. Engage in conversation. Simplify.
Amen. I am trying to realize how much control I do have, and I am exercising it. The supermarkets are still selling beans, rice and veggies. So far, it's still legal to take a walk or hike. I have a library card and still get books and magazines. I have a cheap flip phone in my purse just for emergencies, or if I want to call home to see if anybody wants anything while I am out. It's always off otherwise. People have said outright they think I am lying when I tell them I have never sent a text. Ever. (Obviously, I'm not a social butterfly.) I am increasingly realizing I probably will end up needing a Dummy -- er, Smart -- phone for various reasons. I am puzzled when YouTube asks me to rate my ad experience. I can honestly say I don't remember a single one of them. My form of protest has been to train my brain to completely check out during them.
All of those things are being increasingly eroded.
"The supermarkets are still selling beans, rice and veggies" - where I am at, and increasingly exorbitant prices, 10x what they used to be 20 years ago, with 2x at best wage increases.
"So far, it's still legal to take a walk or hike" - but increasingly unsafe in many cities, or unpleasant and unworkable due to how others are made with cars as a priority.
"I have a library card and still get books and magazines." many once great magazines have shut down in the past 20 years, or became a shell of themselves, and libraries are increasinglly underfunded and many are closing.
"I have a cheap flip phone in my purse just for emergencies, or if I want to call home to see if anybody wants anything while I am out. It's always off otherwise." and then all kinds of businesses, from banks to the government increasingly ask for a smartphone app to access them (and if they offer an alternative, it's through taking hours off of work to go there in person)
I can only speak for myself and my own life. I can afford food. I can safely take walks and hikes in the beautiful area where I live. My town of @65 K residents has 3 branches of its library, and last year did away with library fines. I only read gardening magazines. The one area I am being forced to change is my phone situation. Once I get a Smart phone, it will be treated precisely like my current flip phone: off and away unless I need to use it. My heart goes out to those who are not similarly situated in life in terms of finances, location, etc. I still think we all can find areas where we can make the most of our lot in life.
Amen. YOU are in charge... act that way. Right on Susan.
Aww, thank you for that vote of support.
How/why are you being forced to use a smartphone?
The reason i ask is bc im leaning heavily towards getting rid of mine. Im assuming i can do all the things i "need" to on a laptop(like credit cards, bank, shopping), but is that not the case?
One of the main reasons is wanting to have GPS. I get nervous driving places I haven't been to before and that are far away unless somebody is in the car with their phone and can help guide me if we get lost. (I still look up directions and write them down on paper.) Another annoyance: having to log in to FB or other places and sometimes they want to send a code to your phone, and I have to use one of my daughter's numbers or my husband's. They're getting mighty sick of it. There are other things that have cropped up that I can't call to mind at the moment.
Yeah gps is handy, and frustrating. But it does save alot of time in my work, trying to get good directions has always been dubious. Thats one thing i didnt consider:/ But perhaps they still make gps units.
My dad taught me how to read a map and write down directions when i was 16, long ago lol. I imagine we're a dying breed
"All of those things are being increasingly eroded."
It's a war, and isn't ending anytime soon. We must stay steps ahead in the battle to wear each other out, and that means increasingly, resiliently -- and stealthily (i.e. make sure you have private tactics/strategies you won't discuss here) -- up our games.
There's a hell of a lot more of us than them, and even though they have AI, their AI *doesn't* have adequate novelty.
Even low/retro tech denies them: DVDs/CDs, use old computers w/ports until the drive dies, flip phones; available at garage sales, flea markets, etc. ...
The corporations need to learn that to *survive*, they need again to *create*.
Flip phones are still available. I had to replace my last one a couple of years ago when 3g was phased out. It's 5g compatible, but I don't worry about that too much, I only use it when we lose power or I'm out of the house and my wife prefers she can reach me. On our VOIP Ooma land line....
I like your style, ‘71 911E!
Just checking my e-mail before I start work, and I receive a nice comment. It's a good way to start the day, thanks.
Do you track that 911?
No, it's a family memento, now a garage queen. When Dad was a USAF liaison to the Army VIIth Corps headquarters, Kelly Barracks, Stuttgart (70-73), being the fighter pilot he was, he decided to get the Porsche instead of a Corvette (same price, good choice). He went to Ramstein AFB, checked out a jet, and flew to the AF base at Torrejon, Spain to order one because Porsches were much less expensive there. He ordered lots of special options that were/are rare, like factory A/C, driving lights and fog lights, etc. We drove it all around Europe: Throughout Germany, to Paris and Laon France, Britain, and Holland. He passed in 2004 and I've been the caretaker ever since. It's been surprisingly inexpensive to maintain, probably because the MFI E's engines were the same basic architecture as the 917s that ruled Le Mans for several years. It has about 110K miles on it, but I'm not sure because the odo died at 75,300 miles, which is typical of the VDO gauges in those cars. It'll stay with me until I kick the bucket, then one of the twins will get it. Probably the one who doesn't already have a beautifully restored 71 T.
I forgot to mention the flip phone cost $15 at Target. Brand-new at a garage sale price!
Exactly. I don’t use even half of all that stuff. I do not like watching videos on my phone. I listen to streaming radio while I read my email or Substack or play wordle. It doesn’t have to be like this.
Try writing a book‼️ No time for looking at or scrolling through anything except SUBSTACK, of course and email, inevitably.
BUT, agreed, ads are the pits when they insinuate themselves into everything.
☯️ Yes I totally agree ☯️
Yes, super annoying way to go about clicks and scroll’s. But the great thing is we can decide not to adhere to their madness. I cancelled Netflix a long time ago. Every now and then, if they have something i want to see I resubscribe for a month and then leave. If you love movies Mubi is great, and yes they have an app too, but they curate the movies which only stay streaming for 30 days.
Another to add to the list: incessant requests for feedback and reviews. My inbox inundated with requests of "only 10-15m of my time" to rate my service. You charge me for your service, why not pay me for my time to rate it?
I never bother with those any more - especially if they require you to log into Google.
Refuse to give them your time- I even get those requests from my Dr.’s office. The first- and only- response I gave them was “I I didnt like my doctor or the treatment I received, I wouldnt continue to be a patient” there….
It does begin to make sense that some of the information driving these companies' decisions are being skewed by the weirdos who login and give that feedback.
The 'feedback' and 'reviews' is essentially outsourcing what would have been done by a supervisor or manager. So no, I won't.
However, feedback response rates and rating levels are likely affecting the livelihoods of hapless minimum wage workers. It is truly sad to walk into a bank branch, for example, and have a teller try to encourage me to fill in the email rating request, or worse, hawk me some bank product, when it is clear most of them must be just doing their best to survive.
In burner emails separate from then account-linked ones, I've written scathing anonymous but on-point criticisms of this neo-feudal practice, and have dropped bank accounts (re teller and CSR ratings) on two occasions. "If you representative were *actually* doing something unacceptable, trust me, you'd hear about it, at least from me. Try brainstorming how to shave your CxO pay, I know that will go a long way to making this practice unnecessary."
The message about annoying pleas for subscription fees is a little ironic on SubStack which auto-inserts a $6 per month subscription button on every article. I pay for several authors here, but it is starting to add up. I wish they would rediscover the magazine model and offer a bundle deal.
Re the cost of a substack, one substack subscription is cheap, but 10 of them is expensive. My Atlantic subscription is a bargain by comparison.
The Atlantic is trash. You get what you pay for.
Worse, it's execrable propaganda.
Atlantic monthly magazine became so monotonously woke, it is boring reading.
A minor but important clarification: substack authors choose to add the subscriptions buttons within their posts where they like, it’s not an automated choice made by the platform.
The journalist Cory Doctorow coined a colourful but accurate term for this phenomenon: Enshittification. His podcast, Who Broke the Internet, is well worth a listen.
Enshitification of the universe.
I agree. Cory Doctorow is incredibly knowledgeable in this space
Every company you have ever interacted with sends you coupons for your birthday. YouTube pushes ads about getting rid of ads. Online retailers will keep sending you email reminders if you abandon a cart. Now Google says I need to pay for more storage space because my inbox is full from spam. Make it stop!
YouTube (i.e. Google) is THE WORST. I am trying not to swear but their ads make me insane!
Our ten year old daughter was curious about The Simpsons so we decided to let her watch a couple of episodes last night. The only place we could find them without needing to subscribe to something was YouTube (and they generously put three episodes per season on there - wow!!!). So we started watching one and there were at least four ads prior to the actual episode starting and then many sprinkled throughout. Our daughter used that time to go to the bathroom or draw on a notepad. :)
That's so wonderfully old fashioned. Old timers remember television ads that would give one just enough time for a snack or a quick bathroom break. I assume Youtube has channels full of out of copyright videos loaded with ads like old fashioned UHF movie channels.
All things old are new again. I assume someone got a big promotion for reinventing the wheel.
I recommend using an email alias for every sign up you don’t want to keep hearing from. I get mine (a different one every time) from the privacy-first browser DuckDuckGo. They redirect emails to my real account until I decide I’ve had enough and terminate that particular alias
Apple provides that service too. I use it regularly.
You may laugh but I’m actually trying to find a new dentist based on the music, they play in their waiting rooms and offices. After my long time dentist retired, she had always played classical music softly in her office, I switched to a new practice. Between their loud, jarring music and of course TV screens emitting completely different sounds, never mind how this ambience distracted the practitioners working on me, which caused lengthy and multiple appointments, I have been searching for a new dentist. I have done this by entering the waiting rooms of a new office, on the pretext of asking whether or not they take my dental insurance. It took four of these escapades until I found a quiet waiting room and decided to schedule an appointment in a couple of weeks with a dentist who I I have no knowledge of except his address. The receptionist did say that it was quiet because of lunch hour so I still can’t be sure whether or not this new practice will be any different from the others. Can you imagine putting the atmosphere above the skill of the dentist? And why do most of these dentists have to title their practice with something inane like “Smile Society” or “Signature Smiles”!
My old school dentist only plays classical music. I will never change him for any new age or whatever other stuff. He has a lot of the qualities we are rapidly losing. Like - integrity and actual skill.
My dentist of thirty years retired last year. His office had classic jazz, he's of Chinese descent, short and round, has a deep voice with a Texas drawl, and loves college football, particularly his A&M Aggies. I miss him because of those features, and because he was a truly exceptional dentist. I've tried one since; I'm looking for another right now.
Enshittification even here, sigh.
I am so not laughing!
You'd think Spotify would have medical office playlists.
I know one medical company that, as part of its marketing, gave doctors music cassettes timed for surgery, basically music to perform operations with. He said it was classical music that he was fond of and perfectly timed.
There's an old pattern at work here. Cable television once promised content without ads. But after customers acclimated to the subscription model, the ads came back, allowing the companies to take in two distinct streams of revenue. Streaming services have followed the same playbook. First its free, ad supported content. Then its subscriber pay -- to escape the ads -- then despite paying your subscription fee, you begin to see ads again. I expect the same thing will happen to AI and every other digital service as each company succumbs to pressure to deliver more revenue to the bottom line.
They got us hooked on their drug, now they're cutting it. You've gotta pay extra to get the "pure" stuff from the old days, or you can get this new cheaper stuff.
Was my observation as well. The main reason we've not had a television in this house for over 30 years.
Same. For 20+ years in our case.
And may I humbly add: The music in the retail stores -- it's awful, you can't focus on what you're trying to shop for (sorting out the 87 kinds of ibuprofen, for example), and there's no one to complain to. As to the streaming ads -- not only are they mediocre video/audio productions, but on some of the services (YouTube, for example) they just randomly interrupt the content. Public standards are declining and advertisers are happy to help. Same strategy as the airlines -- "How much worse can we make the customer experience and still have people put up with it".
So true...I'm very conscious of the music played in public places and so much of it is UNBEARABLE. Today I was treated to an absolutely abominable autotuned, drum machined cover of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. What's wrong with the original? I don't get it.
The airlines also let you pay to get rid of annoyances like not being able to choose your seat, not being able to check a bag or not having anything to eat. I'm amazed they don't have pay toilets or riddle their in-flight media with ads.
Always Be Bloody Annoying (ABBA)
I know people who would take offense at that sly slur - be then I’m in a believer in Always Be Bloody Amusing (Even If It Kills You).
Take your pick, depending oh your mood.
Another big piece of this, I think, is that no one who signs off on these annoyances actually uses the products. There is no corporate exec at Netflix who has anything below the top premium tier. There is no exec at CVS who shops for things at a CVS. There is no Apple exec who doesn't have the highest level of icloud storage. They don't see the barrage of crap we see.
Imagine if every airline executive and board member had to travel economy every time.
This was a big problem for Detroit in the 1980s. All the US executives drove company cars and had company provided service, so they had no idea of what their competitors in Japan were doing and no idea of what their customers experienced.
Corporate America makes us work for everything. My wife and I skip ad-supported streaming because every commercial feels like labor. Some shows just aren’t worth it.
And it’s not just streaming. Need help from a business? Good luck. You're stuck navigating offshore call centers just to fix basic problems. It’s exhausting.
Everywhere we turn—restaurants, grocery stores, customer service—we're doing more and getting less. Our economy has become so greedy, there’s no end in sight. The balance is gone, and people are burning out.
I spent 4 hours on the phone with internet co setting up new router and modem, then getting the tvs acceptance. After that, I spent 3 hours on Monday with specialty pharmacy to straighten out my prescription medication. Ridiculous!
I've had so many experiences like this lately with: Verizon, T-mobile, Frontier, Cigna, Texas electric companies, etc. I'm convinced that leaders in these companies are not aware of the collective time and stress we're all experiencing doing business these days. This is fairly new and AI is taking it to a whole new level. It's not user friendly, difficult, and a cold way to be treated as a customer. I think you could position a campaign that says: "we're easy to work with and you can talk to a fellow human when you do business with us."
Oof...I sound like a cranky old man. Probably, and really disappointed with how commerce has evolved in the U.S.
I heard an ad by a cell phone service co that stated they had real people for customer service, located in the US!
Verizon? When I switched from a post-paid to pre-paid plan, I needed some serious hand holding. Even the bumped-up-to reps on each side of the transfer had to talk to someone who had handled something like this. It took a lot longer than it should have, but everyone spoke good idiomatic English and I got the impression that they were as distraught as I was about the complexity of a simple transfer.
Wow. That’s a compelling offer!
Here’s a way to turn lemons into lemonade: the length of ad breaks included in streaming content is usually 90/120/150 seconds long. Take time to record how long it takes to perform small tasks (make a cup of coffee; take a pee break; put laundry in washer/dryer; fold laundry, etc.). Whenever an ad break begins, go do one of these tasks while the ads run to finish. It’s surprising what you can accomplish in two minutes: get your chores done and escape advertising aggravation!
Or, like me, mute the sound and spend a couple of minutes doomscrolling on your phone.
Muting is the answer. I don't have anything to doomscroll with, so I just converse with my wife. I enjoy it, especially because it keeps her from swiping at her IPad.
This used to be a standard joke in the 1960s. Dig up an old Mad or Reader's Digest. Apparently, there's an entire generation that grew up with premium cable and then early ad-lite internet. Baby boomers probably have their bladders calibrated for those times already.
I can tell you the genesis story of the Annoyance Economy.
The year is 1989, and I am traveling uptown on the 1/9 subway in Manhattan. We pull into the 50th Street station, the doors open, and a disheveled mop of a man shuffles into the crowded car, carrying a beat-up saxophone. The doors close.
The man puts the horn's reed to his cracked lips and blows -- as hard as he can. A high-pitched screech pierces the entire car, and we all wince. He does it again, and again, filling the space with the ungodly squeal. I cover my ears.
Then he lowers the sax and shouts: "IF YOU PAY ME, I WILL STOP!"
Voila! The Annoyance Economy is born.
The Marx Brothers did a shtick like this. "How much if you don't practice?" "You can't afford it." It was probably a vaudeville staple by then.
I hate to admit but I look forward to and save the CVS receipt in the car for the next time I go because often I have a few cvs dollars to spend and I go about once a month to pick up the families prescriptions. Our cvs used to be a Longs Drug and they used to have the best plant selection and luckily cvs has continued to use the same nursery distributor and I pick up a pretty plant or fresh herbs for cooking for free when I pick up my rx. It’s fun for me.
Nothing annoys me more when I get sucked into paying for a "software upgrade" which actually turns out to be a "software DOWNGRADE" requiring a whole new, completely unnecessary, learning curve providing the same output as the "original" software. Has anyone else experienced this?
That's a real problem. I avoid updates as they usually break something or another, usually both. I was rather amazed at my latest Mac update. It barely broke anything. No wonder all the pundits are saying Apple has lost its mojo.
Also, workflow: https://xkcd.com/1172/