How do you know what you want to buy?
/In this modern world, where we have tiny flying cameras, computers in our cigarettes and electric cars (that drive themselves)that can go 200 mph it’s hard to believe we are in the future. How did we miss it? I still can’t believe the menus in Mcdonalds aren’t static!
I remember watching back to the future and wishing I had those awesome Nike mags that self tie, and now they are a real thing in this world! The closest I got growing up were puma discs, and I loved them. Unfortunately there still no sign of the hover board and before you say anything those weird Segway things from 2015 don’t count.
Growing up in the 90’s I saw my first computer around 1996, back then there wasn’t a whole lot you could do except play GTA London, and many PC’s weren’t even connected to the internet. I remember the first website I saw was Google, and when searching for things, not a lot of results showed up.
One thing that I’m sure we all remember was those pop-ups, usually advertising porn or ‘your computer may be at risk’, we learned to just click the X’s in the corner and continue doing whatever we were doing in time, these later evolved into click here to win a free iPad, and the thing with these kinds of ads are: They’re just not relevant.
That’s why I do like how Google operates. Personally I have opted in for Google to do whatever they want with my data, I currently have a Google Home and x2 Chromecasts (both highly recommended!), I also use Google maps on my android phone.
Photo by Charles 🇵🇭 on Unsplash
I like that when I see an advertisement I’m more inclined to click it because it doesn’t feel like a big corporation putting irrelevant adds between things posted by my friends and family. Instead it’s usually small businesses getting their fair share of the pie buy advertising using keywords or interests that apply to me.
““Niche is the new big.”
That was over 10 years ago and man was he right! Due to social media (in part) people have built and have been building small pockets of communities for years, these aren’t limited to much, I’m sure you can find groups for Pogs, Bayblades or cup collectors, and many small businesses looking to create custom merchandise for these people and use Facebook/Google ads to target them.
It seems strange when you are interested in such an obscure thing and it gets advertised to you, but imagine the time all of this can save you?
Many people will be quick to say how they feel violated and it intrudes on them, if this is the case then either use a VPN, or don’t sign in/up for anything if that still bothers you then don’t use the service. I allow Google to collect data from my Maps app because it helps me. It’s a fair trade off, they get me to work on time, or divert me when it detects a traffic jam, if they can tell advertisers where I usually go.
Growing up we have been conditioned to ignore adds and pop-ups, but I feel that everyone want’s to be sold something. You ever have that thing, where a week before payday you go window shopping and there are things you want but can’t afford at the time. Then when you have a good payday you can’t seem to find anything?
We need to start accepting the changes of the future, I remember when self scan came out and everyone was saying about the til workers, as an ex employee of a large supermarket in the UK I have to say they don’t care. They hate serving you as much as you hate scanning your items yourself.
Also while we’re on the subject, Facebook doesn’t listen to you. I have seen hundreds of posts about how Facebook is listening to you and using your data to advertise and I can tell you 100% confidence that I have no idea how they do it. You can literally have a dream and Facebook will try and sell it to you.
Err on the side of caution, I once heard the saying that “whoever put’s the most in, has the most to loose”. This has stuck with me though the years, and can apply to almost anything, including this. If you don’t like companies using your data then don’t put it out, it’s like leaving your possessions in your front garden, if it goes missing who’s fault is that?
-Josh Maddocks 2019