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/swimming_singularity Jul 16 '26

I've really started to notice it more after COVID. Everyone wants in my wallet. If there is some new concern, there's some way to monetize it. Plus all the advertising constantly bombarding me. Businesses charging me little extra fees.

I'm really not surprised they are finding new ways to monetize something people have been doing for decades. Everyone wants in my wallet and I'm sick of it.

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u/Hefty-Relative9449 Jul 16 '26

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

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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.

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u/DrLazarusConvoy Jul 16 '26

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