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It's torturous to claim that phones have a "primary commercial purpose of forcing people to look at advertising". Most people would say phones are for talking t
by pradn 6y ago
It's torturous to claim that phones have a "primary commercial purpose of forcing people to look at advertising". Most people would say phones are for talking to loved ones, having fun, getting the news, and playing games. Just today, I skimmed the NYT and FT, read about the Polish author Jan Potocki (and tweeted out quotes from the article), emailed my landlord, and reminisced with friends about our favorite biscuit shop. Perhaps I saw some ads, incidentally.
I realize not everyone is doing what I'm doing. But, seeing my friends' baby's pictures and all on Facebook isn't altogether worthless.
There's a limit to useful cynicism.
- M277 6y agoValid points, although I disagree on the 'playing games' part. I haven't played mobile games in a long while, however the last time I checked them, they were all poorly designed, predatory schemes designed to be intentionally frustrating to get you to spend money in them.
- pradn 6y agoI agree with you. The vast majority of mobile games are trashy slot machines. There are a good number of excellent mobile games though: Monument Valley comes to mind.
- evgen 6y agoYou need to search for better games. There are some great ports of very good board games out there right now and almost all of the good board games are apps of the 'pay us $5-10 now and we will continue to update this already quite good app for years and you will never see an ad or IAP' variety. Very refreshing.
- egsmi 6y ago> It's torturous to claim that phones have a "primary commercial purpose of forcing people to look at advertising". That's true. I also read a lot comments on hacker news.