Dialing Down Technology

Why You Should Care

Is it just me or do others feel that their ability to interact swiftly with their phone is being impeded by skillfully designed ads intended to manipulate your spending? Am I the only one who resent the fact that every company wants to be its own app and is encouraging you to download their app for one reason or another? Can you imagine what your phone would look like if your only means of interaction was via an app. Have you noticed that your shopping experience is now via an app such as Amazon; a eBay; Yahoo, etc. Have you noticed that your entertainment experience is being tailored through app such as Hulu; ABC; NBC; CBS; iTunes, Spotify; Google Play; Amazon; Deezer and others. The fact is that we are being overwhelmed by apps.

I open up my browser one morning, and ventured into cyberspace. I see a news article I want to read more about it. I click on it returns a black space and the caption download the ‘CBS app appears. I click off. I am completely annoyed. I guess I don’t have to see that article because I refuse to download "the CBS app." The main reason is because I know that I am going to resent the barrage of ads for elements of which I have no interest in or the subscriptions that they are going to start asking me for. or the other things that they are going to try to introduce me to. There is only so much that the brain can process. As you can see I have a real problem with the invasion of my personal space.
Allow me to deviate a little. Remember pop ups of the late 1990's, early-2000's and how they used to drive you crazy, before browsers began allowing you to block them. It is as a result of the inability to block them that some tech nerd came up with this app thing. As you can see apps give them free reign to annoy you with ads.

Indeed, when you download an 'app.' metaphorically speaking, you own the annoyance that it comes with, unless you know how to uninstall it. However, most app won't allow you to completely uninstall it. What it does is return it to its so-called original state. So my suspicion is that it could still be performing some of its same functions while in its original state, if not why not allow it to be completely uninstalled. I simply see apps as containing a lot of aggressive annoying ads. An important point to note is that on the Android's platform, neither Facebook nor any of Google's apps can be uninstalled, and apps like the Google microphone can neither be disabled nor uninstalled. The same goes for iPhone's Health app. I thought that it would have been a great way to keep track of things relative to my health until saw how invasive it was. Then i decided that since I can't use why have it taking up space on my phone, and that is how I came to realize I couln't get rid of it.

I have long recognized that apps are designed for monetizing the pusher. The pusher will place a variety of adds into your, the unsuspecting consumer's pathway. His hope is to snooker you with at least one. Thus they will use buzzwords to brainwash you into thinking that this ‘thing’ which you could probably otherwise do without, is advantageous for you to have, as a result, you purchase it.
One of the things that annoy me about the use of apps is how they think they can use them to ask for permission to spy on you. Smart TV'S are known for trying to collect data on how you. They do this by asking you to accept an agreement wherein they would be allowed to collect data on how you use the device. Their reasoning is usually that they want to tailor the software to give you a better experience. This is usually not entirely true. Many times they simply want the data (regarding how you use the apps on the device) to use for developing other software to sell to you and the public.

Unfortunately, Smart TVS are not the only culprit. The fact is that any browser that you use to engage the web, collect and store data on your browsing habits. I'll give you an example I often use a certain pop culture/news website (which supply some of my emails) sometimes to browse data on the web. As a result, this website think it has earned the right to drop news links in my mail box from time to time. They call it "what you may have missed." How would they know that I read data on their sight if not by spying? The truth is that "what I may have missed" I wanted to stay missed. Therefore, I resent my space being invaded like that. Indeed there are ads embedded in this news that they are trying to get me to read. Needless to say trash is a good place for that link to reside.

So the public should be aware that asking for permission to spy is not as innocent as it seems, and importantly that data collection is not generic. Indeed, the apps that reside on your phone or those you download have larger underlying purposes than just being a useful software "toy" for you to open and close at your whim. Besides, I analyze the idea of a software company telling me that they collect data to improve my experience along the theory and the writings of “George Orwell’s 1984;” in which he states that there will come a time when big brother will be watching over you and telling you what to do. Unfortunately, I feel that no nobody should be tailoring my experience for me, unless I ask them to. I also feel my space is being infringed upon when app pushers manipulate me by placing ads about shopping and entertainment in my pathway to prevent me from arriving at my destination on a timely basis.Besides, I see this pushing of various advertisement through apps such as various games, the weather, Amazon and others a new neoliberalism frontier for making the rich richer. It is a shame that in doing so by way of mentally abusing the consumer.

Moreover, tech nerds fast and ever changing technology have in many ways contributed to elements of consumers addiction. Many consumers have become so avaricious for technology that they fail to see how much they are being manipulated. This can be seen in the context of them lining up around the block to get the newest iPhone or other gadget that is being passed off as "having new features" comes on the market. Likewise, as soon as some ridiculous app/hardware like Siri and Alexa come on the market they hastily buy it and begin to plug away at it, be in awe of it, and never once thinking of how freaking invasive it is. Many of these apps want access to your contacts, your camera your location for what?

Finally, you spend several hours of your weekend pushing the Netflix button, which now occupy space on your TV remote control, surfing Hulu, or other apps that have also been co-opted on your Smart TV. You are looking for something, anything that’s worth the subscription you paid for them. On the other end of the spectrum, the wealthy sit in their exclusive community somewhere in the exurb reveling in their profit margins, and their success in manipulating you into helping them achieve it.

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