but that interaction also read as a toxic relationship. Which I suppose makes sense, given Ebay asks for your banking details, which can then lead to spending sprees which is it's own addiction. Then you have gambling sites which leads to gambling addictions if not careful, which also includes money.
I suppose the moral of the story here is: don't give your banking details to websites, or put card details on things like Google Play, I did that one - luckily I own no credit cards so no debts and/or interest to pay back for me.
But it was not fun to realise that I'd spent so much money on an app, it made me feel the deepest anxiety because I'd always thought I was careful with money.
It really bothers me how much of society relies on abusive practices, and how much people get cut out of if they choose to be safe and responsible. Then they wonder why problems pile up.
It's like how society tells women to keep their legs together, while enabling rape and blaming victims.
Yeah, it makes me very growly that rape culture exists. Women (and men in unsafe or dangerous situations) should be able to feel safe and not be told that what they wear is basically a come-on.
Yeah, some presumed spammer hit me with a ring-no-message call this morning barely after 8 AM. Because potential "customers" shouldn't sleep late lest it cost the assholes money.
It's not just about sex, though. The whole culture is increasingly hostile to privacy, prudence, or boundaries in any form. It's downright predatory. It sets people up and then blames them for bad things happening.
Take personal data. It's all but impossible to get anything anymore without giving up information that people then use against you. Worst of all is health care, where they make you lie on "consent" forms that you want things you don't want, but you're required to let people hurt you before they even might agree to help. They store vast amounts of extremely sensitive data in archives that are compelling targets for hackers, and quite frequently we hear about some big health database or bank that got hacked and millions of records stolen -- because nothing electronic is ever really secure, and the bigger the pile the more hackers it attracts until one of them gets the loot. But if you don't want to participate in that shitshow, you don't get any health care. You have no right to refuse or to demand that your info be kept Secure On Paper Only. You can't even take the electronic file home for safekeeping. It's in the hands of people who have nothing to lose if it gets out. Sure the company would take a PR hit, but that won't impact the office workers.
Humans are currently relearning the lesson that privacy is crucial to civilization, because humans are irritating fuckers and if they know too much about each other, they refuse to associate.
I'm only easy to spend time, not money. Like, Netflix's 'next episode of Mad Men in 45 seconds, continue??' I say hell yes. eBay holds no allure; I do like it to browse and see stuff that makes me wonder 'why did I ever give my old comic books away each Halloween?' :D
Same here. But it's probably for the best that I don't use ebooks much. If I were using an ereader and Amazon a lot, it would be harder to resist the temptation to buy books all the time.
I think by now it's enough if a problem that people expect thus stuff, and might not know how to react to good behavior anymore.
Also, I recall that same scenario of unsolicited merchandising played out on a Law&Order franchise episode...they ended up trying the company for inciting a crime, bc they wouldn't stop sending ads on request.
There's a book (Digital Minimalism) that talks about how technology is /designed/ to be addictive. (Bright logos, those little red alert symbols that pop up for texts, random rewards...)
I wish someone would do that to "wish", which I purchased from, once, about a year ago. I've opted out of their spammage twice, which continued to increase thereafter. All I can do is tell everyone I kniow not to ever buy from them, and teach my spam filters that everything from wish is junk. (The latter would, of course, make it massively inconvenient to ever buy from them again, but I don't plan on doing that anyway.)
Edited (fixed multiple typos, one of which made the sentence incoherent) Date: 2021-02-05 04:24 pm (UTC)
>> I think by now it's enough if a problem that people expect thus stuff, and might not know how to react to good behavior anymore. <<
I agree, and that problem is increasing.
It's not just computers, but computers are part of the vicious cycle. We've gone from large extended families to nuclear families to people living in ones or twos. That means children growing up today have much less opportunity to learn life skills from many different relatives. So they're less prepared to solve problems, make and maintain long-term relationships, etc. And when those folks make computer routines, the level of respect and social awareness approaches nil. Think about how computer adds behave and compare that to a toddler yanking on your clothes and demanding attention. 0_o
Now consider how much time people spend on computers for work, study, socializing, and play. If the computer constantly demonstrates horrid manners, people will tend to copy that. I'm really aggravated by how almost all websites, as the first thing you see, put up a gaslighting and violating notice about cookies. It's going to increase the already bad American tendency to think that "consent" means "to get what you want by any means necessary."
>> Also, I recall that same scenario of unsolicited merchandising played out on a Law&Order franchise episode...they ended up trying the company for inciting a crime, bc they wouldn't stop sending ads on request.<<
If only.
>> There's a book (Digital Minimalism) that talks about how technology is /designed/ to be addictive. (Bright logos, those little red alert symbols that pop up for texts, random rewards...)<<
Yeah, I think that ought to be illegal. To me, it isn't attractive, it's abrasive and extremely offputting. Hence why I won't link to sites with the worst ad problems. But that means it takes longer to find references that aren't abusive.
We have the same problem in food. Instead of designing it to be as nutritious and naturally delicious as possible, people design it to be addictive -- to hijack evolutionary cues like cravings for salt, fat, and sugar. The result is literally lethal, it just takes a while to kill people. Modern produce is often tasteless, low in nutrients, with tough textures -- because it's not designed for flavor or nutrition, it's designed to fruit all at once and withstand the hardships of mechanical picking and shipping. :P
Then doctors blame people for getting fat and sick from eating this crap. Have you tried to find real, safe, nourishing food? It's not easy, and it's damn expensive. So when people whine about Americans eating an unhealthy diet, it's a lot of effort for me to say something more detailed than, "Fuck off, you ignorant quack." The deck is so stacked against people, it's obscene.
America's problems are fractal. The same base problem spreads and iterates through many different variation, but they're all the same underneath, all connected.
I don't have a Facebook account because I didn't want to give them much of my information. Now that they've bought WhatsApp, they have a lot of it anyway.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dancing_serpent
The Internet doesn't just act like a creepy guy
Date: 2021-02-04 08:51 pm (UTC)I suppose the moral of the story here is: don't give your banking details to websites, or put card details on things like Google Play, I did that one - luckily I own no credit cards so no debts and/or interest to pay back for me.
But it was not fun to realise that I'd spent so much money on an app, it made me feel the deepest anxiety because I'd always thought I was careful with money.
~Angel
Re: The Internet doesn't just act like a creepy guy
Date: 2021-02-04 08:54 pm (UTC)It's like how society tells women to keep their legs together, while enabling rape and blaming victims.
Re: The Internet doesn't just act like a creepy guy
Date: 2021-02-04 11:28 pm (UTC)~Angel
Re: The Internet doesn't just act like a creepy guy
Date: 2021-02-04 11:57 pm (UTC)>:(
Re: The Internet doesn't just act like a creepy guy
Date: 2021-02-05 01:17 am (UTC)Re: The Internet doesn't just act like a creepy guy
Date: 2021-02-05 04:22 pm (UTC)Re: The Internet doesn't just act like a creepy guy
Date: 2021-02-05 01:16 am (UTC)Take personal data. It's all but impossible to get anything anymore without giving up information that people then use against you. Worst of all is health care, where they make you lie on "consent" forms that you want things you don't want, but you're required to let people hurt you before they even might agree to help. They store vast amounts of extremely sensitive data in archives that are compelling targets for hackers, and quite frequently we hear about some big health database or bank that got hacked and millions of records stolen -- because nothing electronic is ever really secure, and the bigger the pile the more hackers it attracts until one of them gets the loot. But if you don't want to participate in that shitshow, you don't get any health care. You have no right to refuse or to demand that your info be kept Secure On Paper Only. You can't even take the electronic file home for safekeeping. It's in the hands of people who have nothing to lose if it gets out. Sure the company would take a PR hit, but that won't impact the office workers.
Humans are currently relearning the lesson that privacy is crucial to civilization, because humans are irritating fuckers and if they know too much about each other, they refuse to associate.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-02-04 09:30 pm (UTC)Yes ...
Date: 2021-02-04 10:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-02-04 11:13 pm (UTC)Also, I recall that same scenario of unsolicited merchandising played out on a Law&Order franchise episode...they ended up trying the company for inciting a crime, bc they wouldn't stop sending ads on request.
There's a book (Digital Minimalism) that talks about how technology is /designed/ to be addictive. (Bright logos, those little red alert symbols that pop up for texts, random rewards...)
(no subject)
Date: 2021-02-05 04:20 pm (UTC)Thoughts
Date: 2021-02-05 11:04 pm (UTC)I agree, and that problem is increasing.
It's not just computers, but computers are part of the vicious cycle. We've gone from large extended families to nuclear families to people living in ones or twos. That means children growing up today have much less opportunity to learn life skills from many different relatives. So they're less prepared to solve problems, make and maintain long-term relationships, etc. And when those folks make computer routines, the level of respect and social awareness approaches nil. Think about how computer adds behave and compare that to a toddler yanking on your clothes and demanding attention. 0_o
Now consider how much time people spend on computers for work, study, socializing, and play. If the computer constantly demonstrates horrid manners, people will tend to copy that. I'm really aggravated by how almost all websites, as the first thing you see, put up a gaslighting and violating notice about cookies. It's going to increase the already bad American tendency to think that "consent" means "to get what you want by any means necessary."
>> Also, I recall that same scenario of unsolicited merchandising played out on a Law&Order franchise episode...they ended up trying the company for inciting a crime, bc they wouldn't stop sending ads on request.<<
If only.
>> There's a book (Digital Minimalism) that talks about how technology is /designed/ to be addictive. (Bright logos, those little red alert symbols that pop up for texts, random rewards...)<<
Yeah, I think that ought to be illegal. To me, it isn't attractive, it's abrasive and extremely offputting. Hence why I won't link to sites with the worst ad problems. But that means it takes longer to find references that aren't abusive.
We have the same problem in food. Instead of designing it to be as nutritious and naturally delicious as possible, people design it to be addictive -- to hijack evolutionary cues like cravings for salt, fat, and sugar. The result is literally lethal, it just takes a while to kill people. Modern produce is often tasteless, low in nutrients, with tough textures -- because it's not designed for flavor or nutrition, it's designed to fruit all at once and withstand the hardships of mechanical picking and shipping. :P
Then doctors blame people for getting fat and sick from eating this crap. Have you tried to find real, safe, nourishing food? It's not easy, and it's damn expensive. So when people whine about Americans eating an unhealthy diet, it's a lot of effort for me to say something more detailed than, "Fuck off, you ignorant quack." The deck is so stacked against people, it's obscene.
America's problems are fractal. The same base problem spreads and iterates through many different variation, but they're all the same underneath, all connected.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-02-05 03:19 am (UTC)