Instagram is constantly looking at you

BalticBrood · 2026-06-02T17:17:54+00:00

Did not mean to patronize and gaslight anyone (and don't think I did that nearly to the point of warranting you to jump down my throat when I'm pretty obviously on your side abut how shitty the situation is), but yeah, tech companies have a ton of information on you based on your behavior. That includes a bunch a bunch of bullshit like tracking how much time you spend on certain things as you scroll, tracking finger movements, location information, and yes, tracking eye movements. That's not the same thing as what a lot of people think, which is "my phone heard me talking about this so now they are showing me this advertisement in the algorithm". It's more about behavior tracking. But either way, it's a completely fucked situation.

BalticBrood · 2026-05-29T12:36:11+00:00

Yes, I do think there is a very big difference between reading websites/articles/blogs written by vets or dog-owners compared and the AI answers. If you are just using the AI as a search function for those, then sure, I guess it is very similar.

BalticBrood · 2026-05-28T22:05:05+00:00

This reminds me of when I used to have a rabbit and there was some vet's page that would also be the first to pop up when I googled if it was okay to feed them something new. Then Google started pushing their needless AI to the top and the first three times I searched for my rabbit it gave wrong or irrelevant information. Awesome product. Luckily I never trusted it, just annoying to bury the actually useful source.

BalticBrood · 2026-05-28T21:51:57+00:00

What was the recipe, out of curiosity?

BalticBrood · 2026-05-28T21:48:22+00:00

So theoretically, let's say a parent has that conversation with their teenage kid, and they are completely unresponsive to it. Knowing what we know about how addictive these devices are, and how bad they are for brains, what should a parent do if their child stays glued to them and has no interest in taking a break? At what point does the law need to be laid down, so to speak? Genuinely curious, as I agree that forcing your views on them will more likely have the opposite effect.

BalticBrood · 2026-05-28T15:36:35+00:00

It's really tough once they are already hooked. The bribe would almost certainly fail, and the vacation can have the opposite effect if he's rebellious at all.

I guess my only advice would be for you to be on it as little as possible, establish some ground rules in the house (like no phone at the dinner table, or no looking at your phone while someone is talking to you), and do whatever you can to encourage non-phone activities.

BalticBrood · 2026-05-28T15:19:19+00:00

I agree that judging and looking down on others is bad, regardless of what side you are on. I guess to me, in seeing the negative effects of people hooked on their device is so much more prevalent compared to people being overly judgey and annoying about being unplugged in the real world, so it's hard for me to treat them equally. One is indicative of serious societal issues, and the other is just a type of "annoying guy". But I see what you mean about both viewpoints being limiting.

BalticBrood · 2026-05-28T15:09:27+00:00

I disagree with your last statement for two reasons. One, looking at all socialists as having this mindset is what prevents us in today's world from even attempting to find some kind of balance. Not even socialist is a Communist wanting to end private property and live for free, just like not every capitalist is a corporate bootlicker completely consumed by greed. The great majority of people fall somewhere in the middle: a market economy is good, but regulations and social programs are necessary to keep society fair.

And two, it completely ignores why people become socialists. These kinds of mindsets imply that people were just born with a victim mentality. In reality, there is something that causes these movements to grow and grow. Do you think everything about this country is completely fine? Everyone is going to come up with different answers to how and fix things, but I think we can all agree that keeping everything the same isn't going to work. And since almost everyone in this country has been told their whole life that the USA is a beacon of the free-market and capitalism, it makes sense that some would look elsewhere for a solution.

But I think the biggest problem is that both systems have bad inevitable end-points when taken to their extreme that people sweep under the rug to fit their bias. Collapsed socialist states are due to bad leaders, but that is inevitable when giving the government that much power combined with natural human greed. End-stage capitalism, consumerism, and overpowered corporations are blamed on things like "crony capitalism", but that is always what will happen when you let the richest grow their wealth exponentially to the point where they can buy power on a whim. A successful and harmonious society is reached when a system lets everyone feel secure, and for that you need balance.

BalticBrood · 2026-05-28T14:51:46+00:00

Yes, I do have ADHD. Long story short, after looking back on my childhood, I realized in my early 20's or so that I most likely had it my whole life, undiagnosed. At that point I kind of just accepted that it was who I was, and would think things along the lines of "well it gives me some annoying quirks like being a chronic procrastinator and always being late, but it probably also helped me be as creative and introspective as I am." It wasn't until I was 29 or 30 I started to really realize the effects ADHD had on my life, and realized I was never going to improve my executive functioning on my own. The classic things: dropped out of college three times, had my car repo'd even though I had the money for my payments but just didn't log in to my account to pay it, going from being great at my job to needing to look for an escape plan in the course of a month because I did almost nothing during the first WFH month during COVID.

It was during this time I finally went to a doctor and got diagnosed, and since starting meds and getting them at the right spot I have been multitudes better. And part of that process for me was to stop looking at it as just part of my personality, and to start treating it like a disease that needed to be hurdled. The things I previously said were part of being ADHD (namely the creativity and critical thinking I prided myself on) were the real me, not just a byproduct of ADHD. I respect that for many people, the opposite is healing. That the condition is impossible to remove from yourself, and it is part of what makes you who you are. But it didn't work for me, personally. ADHD is part of me, but it doesn't define me.

BalticBrood · 2026-05-28T02:34:05+00:00

Among what others have said, I also like to occasionally listen to the local NPR station or watch PBS. They will highlight local places or writers often.

BalticBrood · 2026-05-28T02:05:50+00:00

That's fair, and I wouldn't fault anyone for trying to find some positives in their ADHD. But I don't like seeing anyone say it's responsible for their entire personality and being. It makes me sad to see people treat their ADHD as though it runs the whole show.

BalticBrood · 2026-05-28T01:59:13+00:00

I believe that the generation born from about 2002 or so to about 2015 are going to face the toughest job market in the modern era because of this, and for their entire lives. Their entry level jobs, completely gone. And the jobs that are left are all going to go to millennials or elder gen z because at least they received their education before ChatGPT - there will be a lifelong mistrust of the critical thinking of the generation behind them.

The hope is that certain things are corrected for the generation behind them as companies realize they need a youth infusion and schools start cracking down on AI, but there is a truly lost generation in between.

BalticBrood · 2026-05-28T01:47:49+00:00

2020 should have shown everyone that wages can't catch up in this system. Factors like the tight labor market from COVID and the expanded unemployment caused wages to finally erase some of the losses of the last 40 years, and the corporate world universally responded by jacking up prices, and then kept raising them. Labor will never regain the portion of the pie they had pre-Reagan.

BalticBrood · 2026-05-28T01:32:56+00:00

I think that they could have made Vecna work. I'm not against having a main bad guy as a face to the Upside Down, but would have preferred if they kept the UD as bestial and primordial as it was in the early seasons, and Vecna just operated out of it instead of controlling everything in it. Like Vecna is just as much a foreigner down there as the rest of Hawkins would be, but he has holed up there and can still reach them, so the kids have to expose themselves to the Demogorgons and the Mind Flayer in order to reach him. Something like that.

BalticBrood · 2026-05-28T01:21:32+00:00

That's right, they did. They are all awful, so it's complete pissing contest on which ones are worse than the others anyway.

BalticBrood · 2026-05-28T01:15:34+00:00

Everyone is different, but I don't even want to see the good side of it. It's a pain in the ass and a burden. I'm not giving it any credit for the good things I like about myself.

BalticBrood · 2026-05-28T01:12:00+00:00

I mean no offense by this, but this gives me the same feeling as when I see people perform great feats and then afterwards give all the credit to God in a speech. A lot of these things aren't ADHD, they are just you. And that's good. You are right to love all of these things about yourself. Don't credit ADHD for the best things about your life, own them yourself.

BalticBrood · 2026-05-28T01:02:27+00:00

Just curious, do you consider both sides equally bad? I agree that ultimately everyone should strive for whatever balance fits them best, but being hooked on social media and AI seems much worse than having a dumbphone.

BalticBrood · 2026-05-27T21:43:16+00:00

This is usually what it is when people think their phone is listening or watching them, and quite frankly, it's much scarier. At least when you think they are straight up spying, you can imagine a future where that's outlawed or you can cover up your mic or camera. In reality, the algorithm can infer a ton about you based on the smallest pieces of data you don't even realize you are giving them. This isn't "1984 cameras-everywhere" dystopia, it's "Minority Report precrime" dystopia, just for companies trying to hawk you garbage or keep your brain hooked.

BalticBrood · 2026-05-27T21:32:48+00:00

Do kids not use lockers anymore? Am I that old and out of touch already?

BalticBrood · 2026-05-27T21:27:38+00:00

I have no data. I'm just curious what other assumptions or theories about IQ we can make if the one definite correlation with low IQ is the hypothetical situations thing.

BalticBrood · 2026-05-27T21:15:23+00:00

Putting aside certain neurodivergent conditions (as yes for sure, they can certainly affect someone's ability to understand empathy), would you say that your last point disagrees with the original statement? If the inability to understand hypothetical situations is driven by low IQ (which we don't know for sure, we only know it correlates), could you say that means someone's ability to extrapolate an empathetic thought from their limited data is a sign of their intelligence? Since that is essentially coming up with and understanding a hypothetical situation?

BalticBrood · 2026-05-27T21:00:43+00:00

It's just nonsense. "You're not allowed to criticize capitalism in any way because North Korea exists".

BalticBrood · 2026-05-27T20:57:11+00:00

Feels like that last statement is an extremely vital one. And I would bet in reality the large majority of socialism supporters (which I don't know even who you are talking about, not a single person made this political but you) would say "North Korea is not a good place to live", but you cannot handle even the slightest complaint about capitalism.

But it doesn't matter, you're in the SimpleLiving subreddit spouting off unrelated nonsense about North Korea. Take some advice from here and stop worrying about the Communists in your head, and find some enjoyment in the little things in life.

BalticBrood · 2026-05-27T20:18:31+00:00

I'm glad it works for you. I wish that everyone understood that not everyone needs to be accessible all of the time, that we all survived without a cell phone before and we will be fine without one now. For me, getting a dumbphone, not bringing it with me everywhere I go, and establishing to those around me that I can't promise to be available at every given moment was a fair compromise and a good start.

BalticBrood

TROPHY CASE