Admit it. We all do it. How many times have you wasted far too much time just surfing the web and watching video after video about stuff you never knew was interesting?
There's MenTour Pilot, where this guy anylises airplane crashes. Just amazing how they figure out what went wrong and how to keep it from happening again. I kind of like Jacques Pepan, who has endless ways to cook things that look absolutely delicious. The Dude's been doing it for like ninety years so he's darn good at it.
So I have spent many idle hours just following the suggestions the computer has for what I might want to see next.
Unfortunately, the computer interrupts those idle hours far too frequently to play ads for stuff I couldn't care less about, sometimes every thirty seconds – or so it seems. Combine that with the AI thing that predicts what you would want to buy and you can get into a world of trouble.
It all started one day when I spent some time searching for wireless equipment for a friend. Now the simple word 'wireless' has a specific meaning for us computer nerds, right? Little did I know that there is an alternative meaning for 'wireless' in the world of commercial pandering. After a while I just sort of got into a clicking trance, trying to find the exact thing I wanted by clicking offering after offering in the list. That's how I found out that there is a great demand for wireless bras.
So OK, I wasn't all that averse to watching shapely young women displaying their bras in various creative ways, so I followed a few links to see just what I could see. Sadly, since bras are designed to cover up the female breast, so I didn't see all that much.
I do admit I spent far more time than was justified coming to that conclusion. Little did I know that was only the beginning. My Facebook videos started flogging various kinds of bras. Google decided that search results for seemingly unrelated terms came close enough to tell me about a wonderful deal on wireless bras. Just about anything on my computer that used advertising to keep going decided I couldn't live without a brand new wireless bra.
The commercial purveyors didn't give a damn that I'm male and don't have any boobs, some mindless AI deep within the electronic bowls of the Internet had decided and it was now true for all time.
So had Amazon. When I finally decided on the proper wireless technology for my friend, I clicked Add To Cart and thought I was done.
In your dreams!
Of course, Amazon had to offer me a page of colorful wireless bras to choose from before the transaction could be completed. By this time I had about run out of energy and missed with the mouse, calling up a rather pretty red lace number that Amazon informed me was just my size based on my purchases and thousands and thousands of reviews.
I guess that the fact I had never purchased a bra in my life was irrelevant. Amazon knows best. Sure enough, the bra was in my cart and I yielded to their continued blandishments and just clicked complete purchase.
Actually, the 38AA bra fits me rather well, since I have a bit of extra weight around my middle and rather fleshy pecs. I guess it just goes to show that AI knows best.
Comments
AI knows best.
giggles.
All's Well That...
... ends well.
-- Daphne Xu (a page of contents)
exactly why I don't
A short list of what I no longer do:
Use google as a search engine
Click on interesting Facebook product posts
Sign up for mailing lists
Buy directly from Amazon (Harder than you may think)
It's not so bad while you are looking for something. I don't really search for a product until I've decided I need/want it. That leads to me searching until I find it and then purchase it. That is when the premise of this story really become annoying. Using any of the above will result in seeing these inane ads for the next six months. You'd think that these data miners would record that you've purchased the item you've searched for and therefore are no longer in the market for it. But alas no.
They are in it for the profit. The get a few cents for every ad they manage to pop up on your screen, so it's in their (not your) best interest to show as many of them as possible to you.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin eine Mann
Right on the money
I used to research very strange things for my job, and as a result of my odd browsing history I was the target of some peculiar ads anytime I went on social media, or went to Amazon, or anything like that. Brave new world, I guess!
Now that your character has actually bought a bra, of course, the ads will get even more interesting!
Emma
A commercial bra
Google and it's AI only want to support both it's customers and wireless technology in the most attractive way possible.
Time is the longest distance to your destination.
Time
"Time is the longest distance..." Oh so true. In certain fields of physics, one routinely takes the speed of light (in vacuum) equal to one. That means that 3⅓ seconds is one million kilometers.
-- Daphne Xu (a page of contents)
Unrealistic
I had just bought a car (lucky me) and straight away started getting invites to showroom events to look at more of them. Just how many do they think I want/can afford?Or am I supposed to trade them in every 2 weeks?
Some of the suggestions in the internet adverts have gone very weird since I ordered something on Temu.
Teri Ann
"Reach for the sun."