r/mildlyinfuriating • u/TheAeroplaneBear2906 • Jul 16 '26

Unskippable ad Clear Backpacks + Pay to Keep Your Phone

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My freinds school is now requiring these items, and is also using AI to promote this šŸ« 

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u/Hefty-Relative9449 Jul 16 '26

Yep always parasites who want your time or money. Itā€™s never enough

24

u/RainyDayisGreat Jul 16 '26

I think the demand on attention is the most offending part. All day everyday it feels like walking through a crowded marketplace where vendors are screaming at you to get you to transact.

Everything is monetized or marketed. Turning on the local news Iā€™m presented an influencer chucking ā€œhot dealsā€ under the guise of newsworthy happenings. YouTube creators were always playing the game of hitting the algorithm to get ad revenue, now everyone has a ton of affiliate linked items totally unrelated to the video content. I google about ankle pain and immediately Iā€™m served up a seemingly endless stream of magical products or solutions on Facebook. Itā€™s exhausting and it draws a stark contrast to real world interactions with people that just care about you without some additional agenda. Technology was supposed to bring us closer together, itā€™s done the exact opposite.

Generating revenue is necessary, I get it. But if Iā€™m buying a car and the Car Salesman pops the truck of one of the models and tries to sell me bath soap, theyā€™re no longer supporting a process that helps me, they just want every dollar they can possibly extract from me. If I see a friend and theyā€™re always trying to sell me life insurance or a pyramid scheme, theyā€™re not genuinely engaging with me.

This has been part of the mix the whole time I think, it just feels turned up to 11 in recent years.

6

u/DrLazarusConvoy Jul 16 '26

Scary how sci-fi movies from 30-60 years ago predicted most if not all of this.

1

u/dragon-dance Jul 16 '26

Late stage capitalism

6

u/Joloxsa_Xenax Jul 16 '26

yep bc once youre a sucker who falls for it, once they take the inch, next theyre coming for a mile. youre not allowed to be comfortable with the price of the service, they want you to spend more each time you come back

1

u/BitcoinsOnDVD Jul 16 '26

When I was studying at the university there was a time where I showed up without a bag. When needed, I borrowed a pen at a student's office and some paper from a public printer.

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u/Double_Cow_8238 Jul 16 '26

If parents would teach their kids to use their phones properly it wouldn't be an issue, but the parents aren't capable of it either.