4 ms·
Manufacturers for 100 years didn’t try to wrap their fridges in ads, or tune the compressor sound to a commercial jingle. They sold mostly honest products to co
by unyttigfjelltol 11mo ago
Manufacturers for 100 years didn’t try to wrap their fridges in ads, or tune the compressor sound to a commercial jingle. They sold mostly honest products to cool your food efficiently.
But when they add an LED display and Internet connection, suddenly they forget about cooling your food and impulsively add a bunch of adversarial functionality, meaning functions that monetize the consumer rather than keeping the food cool.
It’s like the Internet advertising ecosystem is a virus intent on infecting anything and anyone with an Internet connection, making them do bizarre customer-hostile things they never would have done otherwise.
- gregoriol 11mo agoYou are way off: it's just about money. For a long time, making appliances was an ok business, making good stuff, selling them, factories running, employment, margins ok, ... and there was progress/innovation to do. Now that there is not much to update or innovate with, and companies have already squeezed workers in Bengladesh to the max, the only current innovation and additional money source are "connected" and "ads".
- MangoToupe 11mo agoI don't see any contradiction between the two takes; I suspect capital pressure will force us into an inhumane dystopia where baseline existence is miserable, and quiet rational thought is a luxury.
- account42 11mo ago> and there was progress/innovation to do Also cost-cutting to increase those margins. The ads are a natural extension of that.
- RataNova 11mo agoExactly. Nobody ever asked for a fridge that doubles as a billboard
- SoftTalker 11mo agoNot really true. I've found coupons in new appliances. I've found detergent samples in a new dishwasher. That's advertising.