Friday, December 27, 2019
Bread Tube
We are what Google advertises to us.
Or maybe I have no business lumping you in on this. After all it's my unseemly browsing habits that have lead to this sorry state of affairs.
Since my computer was up, forlornly longing for me to write a blog post on it even though the next order of business was making pizza, my wife and I decided to put some music on. While our selection of songs from that lovely Alison Krauss, Robert Plant album Raising Sand was perfectly sound, the delivery system of YouTube was slightly more problematic.
There were ads. Lots of ads. All of them perfectly tailored to me, theoretically, based on the algorithms of my extensive YouTube viewing.
Here's what YouTube thinks I'm interested in, or should be interested in buying:
1. Medications for complex medical conditions. There are tons of ads for horrible, complicated ailments I don't even understand, but could probably be convinced that I have. The ads mostly list wildly dangerous side effects from these very drugs they so desperately want me to ask my doctor to prescribe for me.
2. The Nintendo Switch.
Yep. That's it.
I do actually have a Nintendo Switch, but almost never use it as it's too complicated to set up for a big screen and playing it handheld is hard on my body, especially my neck and back.
Presumably some of those drugs would help with those problems.
Although since what I most watch on YouTube is far leftist political theory and analysis that's not particularly friendly to Google, YouTube may just be trying to kill me.
Oh well, fair enough. I like the videos.
2 comments:
If you were wondering, yes, you should comment. Not only does it remind me that I must write in intelligible English because someone is actually reading what I write, but it is also a pleasure for me since I am interested in anything you have to say.
I respond to pretty much every comment. It's like a free personalized blog post!
One last detail: If you are commenting on a post more than two weeks old I have to go in and approve it. It's sort of a spam protection device. Also, rarely, a comment will go to spam on its own. Give either of those a day or two and your comment will show up on the blog.
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I know! It's amazing. There is a theory out there that our phones and computers can actually hear us (in addition to the AI predictability with searches) and will have ads accordingly. Long it's been advised to cover up the camera on the screen. I'm not sure I believe either of these, but I am pretty certain my computer is bossing me around. Most mornings, for example, there's this clerkmanifesto blog I visit, which has led to all sorts of shenanigans: I now know a great deal about pesto and communist authors, which I never knew (thank you AI) I had so much interest in!
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of that Nintendo thing. Today is my son's birthday. He has collected money from various people to buy one today. He is very excited. I wonder if somehow the computer Google YouTube things has something to do with it.
It...did.
DeleteI hope he enjoys it, um, that Zelda game is pretty great...
you know, I just can't concentrate. I feel now like I'm being watched. Although on the other hand there have been times of writing on the Internet where I feel no one is watching at all! So maybe I should appreciate the giant monolithic Corporate Monster Eye for just, you know, being there.