For me: Cancelling paid subscriptions should be as easy as subscribing. I hate the fact that they actively hide the unsubscribe option or that you sometimes should have to write an e-mail if you want to unsubscribe.

  • Libra00@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Advertising. At what point did we as a society decide that it was perfectly acceptable for companies to manipulate us - especially children - into buying shit we don’t need and didn’t even want until the ad sold us on it? It’s fucking wild.

    • DirigibleProtein@aussie.zone
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      1 month ago

      Adblocking feels to me like it should be illegal, but isn’t. I have adblockers on all my devices and haven’t seen an ad for years; it feels like a secret super power and stopped the web from looking like a trashy back alley.

      • harsh3466@lemmy.ml
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        1 month ago

        I am always shocked when I have to use a browser without an ad blocker. How do people tolerate it?

        I mean, I get it. I know many people have no idea about adblocking, etc. But goddam. It’s so awful without it.

        • Taleya@aussie.zone
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          29 days ago

          Every time i accidentally open chrome instead of waterfox on my tablet jeeesus christ

          • f4f4f4f4f4f4f4f4@sopuli.xyz
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            29 days ago

            Use DNS-based blocking. I put Tomato firmware on my router and block for all devices on my network. Rethink can selfhost DNS on Android too.

            • Taleya@aussie.zone
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              28 days ago

              yah I’m putting in a pihole,but I gotta get off my arse and finish configuring my bigtree for the 3d printer to free up the pi first. It’s a process.

    • Freshparsnip@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      And the fact that a lot of children’s TV shows are nothing but thinly veiled toy commercials. Hilariously parodied in Dinosaurs

    • mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      30 days ago

      Marketing wasn’t really a thing until sometime around the Industrial Revolution and post-WW1. Before then, we didn’t really have the capacity to produce more than what people needed. Marketing basically just consisted of “here’s my product, here’s why it’s superior to others.” But with the post-war boom and the rise in manufacturing, producers were suddenly able to out-produce the demand. So they invented marketing, to get people to buy things that they didn’t actually need. The idea of “create a problem so you can sell the solution” was born.

    • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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      1 month ago

      It happened gradually, like frogs in a kettle.

      When it was just a guy putting up a sign in front of his smithy it was kind of harmless. Ditto for having a single text-only paper ad for people who are new to town. But, it was a slippery slope.

      • Libra00@lemmy.world
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        28 days ago

        Yeah that’s kind of my point: society has not stopped to think about the fact that the water is at a full boil and has been for a while. If I had my way ads would just be a basic, boring, ‘This product/service exists, and this is what an independent panel of testers has determined about its functions and capabilities.’ There have definitely been products that were advertised to me that make my life easier and that I use every day, so I don’t want to lose the ability to discover them, I just also don’t want these companies putting their dick in my ass and whispering into my ear that I’m not good enough person as a person if I don’t like it.

        • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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          25 days ago

          Yes, it’s true. Let me know when a more scientifically accurate idiom comes along, though. I also still use “like a bull in a china shop”.

          • RisingSwell@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            25 days ago

            It was only like 6 months ago I learned that a bull will actually be extremely careful in a china shop (or equivalent) unless its concerned.

            Are most of our idioms just wrong?

            • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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              25 days ago

              Hmm. The warfare-related ones are pretty spot on. Wet powder sucks, if you’re not careful your musket can go off half-cocked and ironclads were well armoured. Ditto for taking no prisoners, although we tend to frown on that now.

              My guess would be the more practical it would have been at some point, the less likely it started as a misconception.

    • greenskye@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      Ordered food at Sonic on their app. After I ordered, it popped up with ads for travel, various credit cards, etc. Completely crazy to me that they’re triple dipping on monetization now (sell me food, sell my data and then sell me other shit while trying to sell me food.)