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In the US, house phones and cable are for being advertised to, cell phones and streaming are for contact and content respectively. That has been the case for at

In the US, house phones and cable are for being advertised to, cell phones and streaming are for contact and content respectively. That has been the case for at least a decade. I can receive calls from numbers that are not in my contacts but the notification is silent. Now if only I were allowed to dispose of my mailbox I could have a home free of advertising. Yesterday I received an infuriating catalog from Restoration Hardware that weighed a pound and a half, all because I bought one awful product that fell apart in a few months and had to be recycled. It amazes me that we subsidize such obnoxious ads being delivered to every resident.

JohnFen 8y ago
> cell phones and streaming are for contact and content respectively. That has been the case for at least a decade. That decade-long social norm is dead. Now all phones are for being advertised to.
- porphyrogene 8y ago
  That is true, at least in my experience. At least modern phones are smart enough to know how to shut up.
lh7777 8y ago
I've had reasonable success cutting back on useless catalogs with catalogchoice.org. There are a few very persistent clothing companies that I'll have to call to see if I can get them to finally stop sending catalogs every few weeks, but for the most part, Catalog Choice is pretty quick and effective. Too bad there's no way to opt out of all bulk mail, though.
baroffoos 8y ago
Cant you stick the wording "no junk mail" on your mailbox and be free of spam? In Australia basically every mailbox has that on it and it is enforced by law.
- LadyCailin 8y ago
  It’s the same in Norway, but some fucker peeled my sticker off, and I keep forgetting to get a new one >:(
- jtokoph 8y ago
  I think the law is the opposite in the US. You legally can’t refuse the things. Or at least the mail carriers are absolutely required to deliver it to you.
  - AnssiH 8y ago
    You can refuse most items: https://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/508.htm https://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/508.htm Sections "1.1.2 Refusal at Delivery" and "1.1.3 Refusal After Delivery". Here in Finland I think 97%+ of physical advertisement "mail" is non-addressed and the carriers of those respect "no ads" signs (no address => ad). I think this might be different in US in that advertisement mail is usually addressed?
niij 8y ago
> It amazes me that we subsidize such obnoxious ads being delivered to every resident. It's actually the other way around. The amount of bulk mail helps to keep costs low for the USPS. I have receiving it, but it does make things cheaper, because it is only delivered when there's capacity (less busy days).
lambda_lover 8y ago
If Spectrum spent half the money they spend on leaflets and promotional offers (that aren't really promotions and invariably force one to purchase Spectrum TV) on actually growing and upgrading their fiber network, my internet at home wouldn't be so absolutely awful. Naturally you just can't expect a comprehensive fiber network in the largest metropolitan area in the Western world, though.
- DuskStar 8y ago
  Yeah, it's really insane. I think I might get more spam "upgrade" offers from Spectrum than I do all other mail combined...

JohnFen 8y ago

> cell phones and streaming are for contact and content respectively. That has been the case for at least a decade. That decade-long social norm is dead. Now all phones are for being advertised to.

porphyrogene 8y ago
That is true, at least in my experience. At least modern phones are smart enough to know how to shut up.

lh7777 8y ago

I've had reasonable success cutting back on useless catalogs with catalogchoice.org. There are a few very persistent clothing companies that I'll have to call to see if I can get them to finally stop sending catalogs every few weeks, but for the most part, Catalog Choice is pretty quick and effective. Too bad there's no way to opt out of all bulk mail, though.

baroffoos 8y ago

Cant you stick the wording "no junk mail" on your mailbox and be free of spam? In Australia basically every mailbox has that on it and it is enforced by law.

LadyCailin 8y ago
It’s the same in Norway, but some fucker peeled my sticker off, and I keep forgetting to get a new one >:(
jtokoph 8y ago
I think the law is the opposite in the US. You legally can’t refuse the things. Or at least the mail carriers are absolutely required to deliver it to you.
- AnssiH 8y ago
  You can refuse most items: https://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/508.htm https://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/508.htm Sections "1.1.2 Refusal at Delivery" and "1.1.3 Refusal After Delivery". Here in Finland I think 97%+ of physical advertisement "mail" is non-addressed and the carriers of those respect "no ads" signs (no address => ad). I think this might be different in US in that advertisement mail is usually addressed?

niij 8y ago

> It amazes me that we subsidize such obnoxious ads being delivered to every resident. It's actually the other way around. The amount of bulk mail helps to keep costs low for the USPS. I have receiving it, but it does make things cheaper, because it is only delivered when there's capacity (less busy days).

lambda_lover 8y ago

If Spectrum spent half the money they spend on leaflets and promotional offers (that aren't really promotions and invariably force one to purchase Spectrum TV) on actually growing and upgrading their fiber network, my internet at home wouldn't be so absolutely awful. Naturally you just can't expect a comprehensive fiber network in the largest metropolitan area in the Western world, though.

DuskStar 8y ago
Yeah, it's really insane. I think I might get more spam "upgrade" offers from Spectrum than I do all other mail combined...