"We value your privacy," fully stated becomes "We value your privacy and, under the terms of the 137 page document that you did not read but signed, are seizing it, shaking it, and monetizing to our exclusive benefit."
I enjoy it when I select no for ‘curated adverts’ and see the strenuous warning that I might see advertisements that are not to my liking. I assume this is a threat? Given I prefer zero adverts and I am pretty sure curated does not include a zero option. Life with an adblocker is all we can do.
"Curated" - stand-alone and not modifying anything - has become the LVW (Least Valuable Word) in the entire lexicon. "Hand-curated" has emerged as perhaps the scariest phrase, suggesting that appendages have become sufficiently autonomous as to perform decision-making on their own. Go figure (you, not your digits!)
I think the weak point for the social media companies and the internet folks in general is one Ted's pointed out - people don't need these things. I mean NEED like you need a food, a fridge, transportation, a house, clothes, healthcare. Sure FB is a near-monopoly, but I left FB and my life is better. I just left LinkedIn because it was nearly pointless and hugely annoying. I like but don't need Disney Plus, so I left. (My kids don't know that yet, yikes!). I don't need these things. Most of them I no longer even want.
Best advice I got in a long-time was from my chill and wise brother-in-law: don't buy a smart appliance, ever. Endless software upgrades and compatibility issues. On top of it, this crap.
Was coming here to say a very similar thing. Once a service exceeds the threshold of 'annoyance' with intrusive adverts - and the service that they are intruding on is not essential to me - then I will drop that service. I won't subscribe just because of the address 'blackmail tariff'.
And I will substitute that service with other perhaps surprising things - not a direct competitor (ie another digital service)
But an analogue activity that makes far better use of my time. Annoying interruptions to podcasts and online articles have driven me back to printed books as a way to digest complex issues. It is soooo incredibly distracting to have ads force their way in to the middle of an absorbing educational piece. I want my brain focused and my thoughts to have time to develop. Ads have no place there.
Which is interesting, because I used to quite enjoy TV adverts, when they were entertaining and well crafted. Now the adverts themselves have become nasty, brutish and short (yet very very frequent). So they are like irritating flies that you repeatedly swat away ... but they just keep on a-coming.
The other thing about TV advertisements is that shows were intentionally written in a way to accommodate them. They happened at sensible act breaks in the story. A lot of the ads you get on streaming platforms just... happen. They take you out of what you're watching without choosing a gentle point at which to do so.
I kind of worry/ wonder if we are reaching some sort of everyone versus the masses situation where some folks just drop off the web and phones for most things and activities. This would not at all be any sort of economic or social elite, more so a group of people reclaiming their time and values. It could be janitors to top-level execs - everyone has the ability. (I point out janitors not to slag them, but they are broadly seen as low in social status, despite having such a critical, under-appreciated job.)
Anyways, you get 75% of people still moderate to heavy screen addicts and that is still a giant mess. Do those addicts function politically sort of like the proles in 1984? Just beyond the interest of the actual governing and business elite, as long as the proles keep consuming? What kind of tension do you get between the screen-wary/ screen-light group and the tech-dominant elite?
I had a refrigerator from the 90’s. Only replaced it when it seemed to run constantly. In retrospect, I should have called a repair service to check it out. I sure miss that appliance. In the 15 years since, I had to replace 2 refrigerators. Yeah, I still miss that 90’s model. The only smart thing I have is a thermostat and that is on the short list right now. Give me back the dial.
We just bought a new dishwasher, and it's pretty nice. But--there are features specifically designed so that you're forced to use the app. It's absurd. The interface of our dishwasher was straightforward and needed nothing but the simplest programming and no internet.
I’d go a step further and say we never needed these things or asked for them, and everyday more of us are actively rejecting these so called ‘upgrades’ for less is more alternatives.
What can you do with an English major? Become a teacher. I started out in public schools way back in 1980 and taught in three other types of school (performing arts, catholic, and for the final 29 years of a 43-year career, an independent day school) before retiring a year ago this past July. It was an incredibly rewarding and important job, and I don’t ever regret doing it. In fact, I was both lucky and grateful that I was able to do it for as long as I did. Instead of writing copy for an advertising company (a soulless job?), make a difference in the lives of today’s young people.
My father is a forensic accountant. He always told us that the three majors that score highest on the CPA exam are (in order): math, English... and accounting. Don't know if that is still the case--but I dare not ask ChatGPT.
And I'll bet that your English comp instructors were full of fantasies about how evil corporations were trying to manipulate you with subtle messages delivered subliminally. People who've never worked in advertising have very peculiar ideas about what goes on at ad agencies.
They were probably asking the kids to analyze the persuasion strategies used by these companies. It's called rhetoric. And yours is what we call a straw man.
No, what I wrote isn't a straw man, because I was describing how teachers and later college professors had us dealing with advertising when I was in school.
Yeah, well, James, you and I are hasbeens, buddy. lol Maybe back in the 60s and 70s, when Vance Packard’s The Hidden Persuaders was in vogue that was the case.
Remember that book? It was written by a journalist reporting on the use of such tactics, and it led to legal bans. The science behind it was discredited at first, but more recent studies have shown that it does indeed influence us.
Nowadays, English teachers know their business is not visual psychology but rhetoric, and they know advertising is a romper room of rhetoric, and teaching young people how see through the bullshit of the appeals is a high calling, in my view.
I dunno, the idea of hardcore porn playing uncontrollably on your fridge sounds perversely funny. Maybe because cats don't typically have fridges or get much out of porn. If we can't smell it, then what's the point?
If I'm going to be forced to have a screen on my refrigerator I want it to play porn. Or maybe continuous streams of comedy specials. Maybe I can get a mix of Bill Burr, Kathleen Madigan, Patton Oswalt, Taylor Tomlinson and Nate Bargatze going.....
I think it was Francis Bacon who remarked that there were far too many students of the humanities and far too few jobs available for them. This was all the way back in the 16th century. Maybe that’s just the natural order of things.
Patrick: You may be confusing Francis with Roger Bacon who lived 350 years earlier. For decades Roger Bacon tried unsuccessfully - even appealing to the Pope - to have "natural sciences" have a much larger role in then-nascent universities. In that context, Roger Bacon decried the emphasis on what we might call the humanities.
Ads have always been manipulation, regardless of whether they were creative or not. And actually, you could say this new age of ads is a creative way to squeeze more out of us.
These companies assume(apparently rightly so) that we cant live without their screens. We are their bitches, so long as we keep staring and scrolling. Boycott? Lol, right. These sheeple cant tear themselves away from these damn things, they arent boycotting anything for long. Eventually a fridge with a screen will be the *only* ones you can buy, and then what?
Ik what. We'll take it on the chin, bow our heads and go on "living", as they see fit.
wow.. that frig - that is amazing! can they bring it back?
I heard SmartBeds got affected by the AWS outage - got stuck in upright positions or got really warm or sounded the wake up alarm when it wasn't time to wake up. But anyone who connects their bed to the internet probably deserves that.
As a former English major who works in advertising, the crap you're describing doesn't come from us. All I want to do is write the kinds of commercials and web videos that people are surprised to actually enjoy. You're talking about the equivalent of web banners (which everyone always hated) that are now appearing all over the place. Blame tech people, media departments and the brands themselves. But no one I know would ever choose to put ads in places like these.
O Jesus Christ. The left hand doesn't approve of what the right hand is doing? Are you serious? I think the guys at Grumman make a similar case: "I just make the bomb; I don't have any control over where they drop it."
Took the words right out of my mouth! Look past the slop to find the longer-length pieces of marketing and process documentation, and English majoring is still going strong--especially if the English majors have enough clout and care to elbow the ChatGPTer non-writers out of the way. I may be speaking from experience.
I grew up with a 1956 Kelvinator refrigerator. It finally bit the dust 2 years ago, which was a good long 67 years - with no servicing. And it was pink porcelain with glass shelves. I probably should have kept it as an antique out in the garden but how much stuff can we really hang on to?
I purchased a new (piece of junk) expensive refrigerator that weighed about 12 pounds. The installer guy almost got a hernia trying to get the old Kelvinator out of the house but he also said "you'll be lucky if this new thing lasts 6 years." 21st century minds focus on landfills, high wages and planned obsolescence. The 1950s and 60s were about utility, pleasing the consumer and solid workmanship.
We still have the 1962 Custom Deluxe Frigidaire range in the basement and it is the only oven I will ever use to bake biscotti. No other oven (name your fancy brands - I've tried them all) comes close. If I ever move, the first item on the moving truck will be that trusty old range.
My mom had an old Frigidaire in her basement; must have dated from the 1940s judging from the curvy shape. It sucked an enormous amount of electricity compared to newer refrigerators, but it was still running when she sold the house in 2015, at (my guess) 70 years of continuous use.
“Curated advertisements” gets my vote for dystopian phrase of the day.
"Annoyance economy" is very good too. But I still think "We value your privacy" is the best yet. Other classics these days are:
"We take your privacy seriously."
"We're working hard towards blah blah blah..."
"Customer welfare is our number one priority."
"The environment is our number one priority."
"We value your privacy," fully stated becomes "We value your privacy and, under the terms of the 137 page document that you did not read but signed, are seizing it, shaking it, and monetizing to our exclusive benefit."
Had to laugh over these. So on point, Jim!
I enjoy it when I select no for ‘curated adverts’ and see the strenuous warning that I might see advertisements that are not to my liking. I assume this is a threat? Given I prefer zero adverts and I am pretty sure curated does not include a zero option. Life with an adblocker is all we can do.
"Curated" - stand-alone and not modifying anything - has become the LVW (Least Valuable Word) in the entire lexicon. "Hand-curated" has emerged as perhaps the scariest phrase, suggesting that appendages have become sufficiently autonomous as to perform decision-making on their own. Go figure (you, not your digits!)
Yeah, that takes some supreme gall to use that phrase.
hah...🤣
I think the weak point for the social media companies and the internet folks in general is one Ted's pointed out - people don't need these things. I mean NEED like you need a food, a fridge, transportation, a house, clothes, healthcare. Sure FB is a near-monopoly, but I left FB and my life is better. I just left LinkedIn because it was nearly pointless and hugely annoying. I like but don't need Disney Plus, so I left. (My kids don't know that yet, yikes!). I don't need these things. Most of them I no longer even want.
Best advice I got in a long-time was from my chill and wise brother-in-law: don't buy a smart appliance, ever. Endless software upgrades and compatibility issues. On top of it, this crap.
Was coming here to say a very similar thing. Once a service exceeds the threshold of 'annoyance' with intrusive adverts - and the service that they are intruding on is not essential to me - then I will drop that service. I won't subscribe just because of the address 'blackmail tariff'.
And I will substitute that service with other perhaps surprising things - not a direct competitor (ie another digital service)
But an analogue activity that makes far better use of my time. Annoying interruptions to podcasts and online articles have driven me back to printed books as a way to digest complex issues. It is soooo incredibly distracting to have ads force their way in to the middle of an absorbing educational piece. I want my brain focused and my thoughts to have time to develop. Ads have no place there.
Which is interesting, because I used to quite enjoy TV adverts, when they were entertaining and well crafted. Now the adverts themselves have become nasty, brutish and short (yet very very frequent). So they are like irritating flies that you repeatedly swat away ... but they just keep on a-coming.
The other thing about TV advertisements is that shows were intentionally written in a way to accommodate them. They happened at sensible act breaks in the story. A lot of the ads you get on streaming platforms just... happen. They take you out of what you're watching without choosing a gentle point at which to do so.
they do it on puprpose so that you have to absorb at least the intro.
I kind of worry/ wonder if we are reaching some sort of everyone versus the masses situation where some folks just drop off the web and phones for most things and activities. This would not at all be any sort of economic or social elite, more so a group of people reclaiming their time and values. It could be janitors to top-level execs - everyone has the ability. (I point out janitors not to slag them, but they are broadly seen as low in social status, despite having such a critical, under-appreciated job.)
Anyways, you get 75% of people still moderate to heavy screen addicts and that is still a giant mess. Do those addicts function politically sort of like the proles in 1984? Just beyond the interest of the actual governing and business elite, as long as the proles keep consuming? What kind of tension do you get between the screen-wary/ screen-light group and the tech-dominant elite?
Weird times.
Perfect analogy, Hilary.
Although, as I commented many years ago when first studying Hobbes, better that than nasty, brutish and *long*….
I had a refrigerator from the 90’s. Only replaced it when it seemed to run constantly. In retrospect, I should have called a repair service to check it out. I sure miss that appliance. In the 15 years since, I had to replace 2 refrigerators. Yeah, I still miss that 90’s model. The only smart thing I have is a thermostat and that is on the short list right now. Give me back the dial.
Was made is America?
Not likely, but certainly made with American Finance-type thinking. You can bet your bottom dollar on that.
We just bought a new dishwasher, and it's pretty nice. But--there are features specifically designed so that you're forced to use the app. It's absurd. The interface of our dishwasher was straightforward and needed nothing but the simplest programming and no internet.
I’d go a step further and say we never needed these things or asked for them, and everyday more of us are actively rejecting these so called ‘upgrades’ for less is more alternatives.
What can you do with an English major? Become a teacher. I started out in public schools way back in 1980 and taught in three other types of school (performing arts, catholic, and for the final 29 years of a 43-year career, an independent day school) before retiring a year ago this past July. It was an incredibly rewarding and important job, and I don’t ever regret doing it. In fact, I was both lucky and grateful that I was able to do it for as long as I did. Instead of writing copy for an advertising company (a soulless job?), make a difference in the lives of today’s young people.
My father is a forensic accountant. He always told us that the three majors that score highest on the CPA exam are (in order): math, English... and accounting. Don't know if that is still the case--but I dare not ask ChatGPT.
Pressing Like isn't enough on this post. I REALLY REALLY like it! Good work, Jordan!
In college right now, we had at least one assignment in English Comp I and II *per week* where we analyzed an advertisement. No exaggeration
And I'll bet that your English comp instructors were full of fantasies about how evil corporations were trying to manipulate you with subtle messages delivered subliminally. People who've never worked in advertising have very peculiar ideas about what goes on at ad agencies.
They were probably asking the kids to analyze the persuasion strategies used by these companies. It's called rhetoric. And yours is what we call a straw man.
No, what I wrote isn't a straw man, because I was describing how teachers and later college professors had us dealing with advertising when I was in school.
Yeah, well, James, you and I are hasbeens, buddy. lol Maybe back in the 60s and 70s, when Vance Packard’s The Hidden Persuaders was in vogue that was the case.
Remember that book? It was written by a journalist reporting on the use of such tactics, and it led to legal bans. The science behind it was discredited at first, but more recent studies have shown that it does indeed influence us.
Nowadays, English teachers know their business is not visual psychology but rhetoric, and they know advertising is a romper room of rhetoric, and teaching young people how see through the bullshit of the appeals is a high calling, in my view.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-short-history-of-the-rise-fall-and-rise-of-subliminal-messaging/
Eh, no, they’re trying to get us to realize what rhetorical concepts are used in advertising to open up career path ideas… 🤔
Same. And our classes ended more than once with the 'sex sells' mantra.
The only smart thing I need is my smart husband. That 1956 refridgerator is perfect. Wish I could get one today.
My early 1950’s O’Keefe & Merritt stoves are wonderful. Sure not all that efficient but if something breaks we can still fix it.
Manufacturers used to build for quality. Now they build for fast consumption.
I dunno, the idea of hardcore porn playing uncontrollably on your fridge sounds perversely funny. Maybe because cats don't typically have fridges or get much out of porn. If we can't smell it, then what's the point?
If I'm going to be forced to have a screen on my refrigerator I want it to play porn. Or maybe continuous streams of comedy specials. Maybe I can get a mix of Bill Burr, Kathleen Madigan, Patton Oswalt, Taylor Tomlinson and Nate Bargatze going.....
Marx Brothers
Nature videos.
I think it was Francis Bacon who remarked that there were far too many students of the humanities and far too few jobs available for them. This was all the way back in the 16th century. Maybe that’s just the natural order of things.
Patrick: You may be confusing Francis with Roger Bacon who lived 350 years earlier. For decades Roger Bacon tried unsuccessfully - even appealing to the Pope - to have "natural sciences" have a much larger role in then-nascent universities. In that context, Roger Bacon decried the emphasis on what we might call the humanities.
Ads have always been manipulation, regardless of whether they were creative or not. And actually, you could say this new age of ads is a creative way to squeeze more out of us.
These companies assume(apparently rightly so) that we cant live without their screens. We are their bitches, so long as we keep staring and scrolling. Boycott? Lol, right. These sheeple cant tear themselves away from these damn things, they arent boycotting anything for long. Eventually a fridge with a screen will be the *only* ones you can buy, and then what?
Ik what. We'll take it on the chin, bow our heads and go on "living", as they see fit.
wow.. that frig - that is amazing! can they bring it back?
I heard SmartBeds got affected by the AWS outage - got stuck in upright positions or got really warm or sounded the wake up alarm when it wasn't time to wake up. But anyone who connects their bed to the internet probably deserves that.
As a former English major who works in advertising, the crap you're describing doesn't come from us. All I want to do is write the kinds of commercials and web videos that people are surprised to actually enjoy. You're talking about the equivalent of web banners (which everyone always hated) that are now appearing all over the place. Blame tech people, media departments and the brands themselves. But no one I know would ever choose to put ads in places like these.
O Jesus Christ. The left hand doesn't approve of what the right hand is doing? Are you serious? I think the guys at Grumman make a similar case: "I just make the bomb; I don't have any control over where they drop it."
Took the words right out of my mouth! Look past the slop to find the longer-length pieces of marketing and process documentation, and English majoring is still going strong--especially if the English majors have enough clout and care to elbow the ChatGPTer non-writers out of the way. I may be speaking from experience.
You forgot about Gas Station TV.
I remember the first time I saw a print ad on the back of a bathroom stall door at a bar.
Did it start with “for a good time call…”?
U mean gas station pumps? Lol. As if we don't already see ads EVERYWHERE WE LOOK 😭
a good rule of thumb is only buy something with a screen if the screen is the intended purpose.
Ahhh, the Internet of Enshittified Things. This is how the world ends; not with a bang but the creeping totalitarianism of curated slop.
I grew up with a 1956 Kelvinator refrigerator. It finally bit the dust 2 years ago, which was a good long 67 years - with no servicing. And it was pink porcelain with glass shelves. I probably should have kept it as an antique out in the garden but how much stuff can we really hang on to?
I purchased a new (piece of junk) expensive refrigerator that weighed about 12 pounds. The installer guy almost got a hernia trying to get the old Kelvinator out of the house but he also said "you'll be lucky if this new thing lasts 6 years." 21st century minds focus on landfills, high wages and planned obsolescence. The 1950s and 60s were about utility, pleasing the consumer and solid workmanship.
We still have the 1962 Custom Deluxe Frigidaire range in the basement and it is the only oven I will ever use to bake biscotti. No other oven (name your fancy brands - I've tried them all) comes close. If I ever move, the first item on the moving truck will be that trusty old range.
My mom had an old Frigidaire in her basement; must have dated from the 1940s judging from the curvy shape. It sucked an enormous amount of electricity compared to newer refrigerators, but it was still running when she sold the house in 2015, at (my guess) 70 years of continuous use.
Fucking ads
Fucking ads!
what about all of us who read "the honest broker" on their fridge...?! (sorry, maybe that's still not a thing...!)