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[1]datagubbe.se » a life less ads
A Life Less Ads
Angry man yells at late stage capitalism
Spring 2023
The bad consumer
My TV is eleven years old. The model itself is older, but I bought mine
eleven years ago. It's not smart, and that's how I like it. An even
older Playstation 3 is connected to it (but not to the net), still good
for watching blu-ray and DVD movies. I own two laptops, the oldest of
which is ten years. After doubling its RAM to 8 gigabytes and replacing
the hard drive with an SSD, it still does everything I need an everyday
PC to do. Apart from my Amiga computers and associated peripherals, I
don't own many gadgets: My vacuum cleaner is of the old, manual
variety. My lightbulbs are stupid. I don't have Sonos speakers (or even
a traditional stereo system). The company I work for provides me with a
smartphone upgrade every two years, but I most likely wouldn't own one
if this wasn't the case.
I've spent considerable amounts of time and money on my six Amiga
computers, the screens I connect them to and the hardware upgrades
needed to keep them functioning. I am, however, not a collector. I have
no plastic figurines, no shrink wrapped computer game boxes, no display
cabinets. I spend money on my Amigas because I want them [2]to last for
as long as possible. They are all tools to be used, and used they are.
I just don't buy a lot of stuff. I'm not interested in lifestyle
products and tastemaker brands. When I do buy something, it's usually
something I need - as in, not frivolous luxury spending (though I'm
certainly not immune to this behavior). I typically won't replace
something unless it's broken beyond repair.
I'm not saying this to score points for frugality, a minimalist
aesthetic or because I believe my particular consumer habits will in
some way save the world. It's just that by and large, I despise the
experience of buying things.
The market won't provide
I fear the day my TV gives up, because you can't seem to buy one
without the smart anymore. I've [3]previously written about how "voting
with your wallet" is, in most cases, impossible. It may be applicable
to kitchen knives, scissors, hammers and other items that have looked
the same for at least the last century or so, but not for electrical
gadgets and certainly not for digital ones. And that's not even
mentioning all the gadgets that have suddenly turned digital in some
way, in order to simplify planned obsolescence and/or data harvesting.
There are so many touchscreens in my life now that I'm starting to get
dull aches in my fingertips. Gone is the satisfying tactile response of
mechanical buttons and knobs. My induction stovetop requires incessant
thumb mashing just to raise the temperature a few notches. If a small
amount of water falls on it, it starts beeping. This is in absolutely
no way an improvement over my old mechanical one with ceramic
hotplates.
Newer is worse
In fact, for every improvement in speed, energy consumption, image
resolution or audio fidelity, there seems to be a tradeoff in increased
frustration: input lag, incessant bickering about connecting to WiFi,
and ever more contrived software mechanisms designed to make me watch
ads. I'm old enough to remember both software without built-in
marketing schemes and TV:s that turned on instantly and switched
channels in the blink of an eye. Streaming services may give better
image quality than an old VHS player, but the VHS had zero boot time
and never required you to enter a password using a flimsy remote.
Recently, my five year old kitchen lights broke. Not the light fixtures
themselves, mind you, or even the LED:s inside them. What broke was the
little wireless remote control which was the only way of switching them
on and off. I couldn't buy a new one: the manufacturer had of course
stopped making them in order to force a replacement of the entire
system, fixtures and all. Buying new "wireless" fixtures was also what
every electrician I spoke to recommended, and why not? More business
for them, too. I eventually replaced the lights myself, with carefully
sourced fixtures, each sporting the unlikely feature of an
old-fashioned rocker switch.
In other news, my razor handle of 20 years recently needed replacement.
The new one - of the same brand - now has a groove close to the blade
holder, no doubt saving the manufacturer money on material but also
weakening a spot sensitive to mechanical stress, making it less
durable.
Nobody wants that
Some of these forced changes in consumption patterns are often
explained away by manufacturers and retailers alike with the phrase
"Nobody wants that anymore." Laptops with 4:3 or 5:4 screens, for
example. Or slightly bulkier laptops but with decent thermal design. Or
a laptop with a DVD player that will let me watch one of the many
movies I own that's not available on a streaming service. Or, indeed,
ceramic stovetops with mechanical knobs. Nobody wants any of that
anymore.
This isn't just applicable to electronic gadgets. In Sweden, it's
nowadays impossible to buy a decent bar of soap or ethanol-based after
shave in supermarkets and pharmacies. Apparently, nobody wants that
anymore. Least of all the manufacturers, who are of course happy to
sell liquid soap and after shave "lotions" that require refills much
more often than the products they've replaced. Nobody wants it, because
nobody buys it, because one day, all of a sudden, it just wasn't for
sale anymore.
Curiously, there's still a booming market for these products, because
several specialty online stores do sell them. The difference is that
instead of just grabbing these items when also getting a carton of
milk, I now have to keep track of my consumption rate, plan and place
online orders on sites of dubious usability, and deal with the erratic
behavior of delivery companies. Small inconveniences, sure, but ones
that add up to quite a long list of similar small inconveniences.
In short, part of why I dislike buying new stuff is because every time
I do, either the product itself or the process of acquiring it seems to
have gotten slightly worse than last time.
Ad attack
Another part of why I dislike buying things is all the advertising
trying to make me buy a thing of a particular brand. This advertising
is everywhere: In mailboxes and inboxes. In software, including
operating systems. On the net. On television and radio. At the cinema.
Plastered across billboards. As someone calling during dinner. As
someone on the street, with a clipboard, hassling hurried commuters.
During the commute, on a small TV set mounted in every train car,
fighting for attention. As flyers appearing on bicycle luggage
carriers, inconveniencing unsuspecting cyclists to deal with the
resulting waste. As loudspeakers outside stores, blaring loud music at
innocent passers-by in what's supposedly a public space. And sometimes
- though, thankfully, rarely - as someone ringing the doorbell,
intending to perform the marketing equivalent of a home invasion.
From overly enthusiastic store clerks to contrived online tracking,
marketing blatantly disrespects my privacy and pollutes my brain. It's
not just that it tries to make me buy things I don't need, it's that it
makes my quality of life noticeably worse in the process. I like peace
and quiet. I like thinking, eating, relaxing, reading, socializing -
existing - without constant interruption. Advertising breaks my train
of thought, it dilutes my attention span, it's noisy, it's ugly, it
creates trash that I'm forced to dispose of, and most importantly, it's
almost always lying to me. As explained above: No, I probably won't
think the new product is an improvement. And yes, buying it will likely
be both annoying and inconvenient.
I'm willing to go as far as to say that the accumulated societal cost
of advertising and its externalities vastly exceed whatever profits
from increased sales it supposedly creates. It lowers productivity. It
takes time out of work and leisure. It increases resource expenditure,
from individual utility bills to massive server farms to truckloads of
dead trees. It doesn't just gobble up material resources: producing it
preoccupies talent that could have been better utilized elsewhere, from
artists, engineers and transportation workers to programmers and
skilled craftsmen.
Attacking back
Despite my distaste for advertising, I have no delusions about being
impervious to its efficacy. Considering this and all of the grievances
listed above, avoiding advertising is imperative to my general sense of
happiness. There seems to be little political interest in banning or
limiting advertising, so I'm forced to take matters into my own hands.
It's impossible to avoid all types of marketing, but even drastically
reducing my exposure to specific types has measurably improved my
quality of life. It does take a little bit of effort, but I've found
that to be vastly preferable over letting the ads reach me.
Print ads
A "No advertising, please" sign on my letterbox is thankfully mostly
respected. If something slips through, it goes straight in the dustbin.
Telemarketing
Listing my phone number in the Swedish [4]NIX registry works
surprisingly well. I'm now at very low levels of telemarketing calls.
The remaining ones are easily identified and swiftly ended, followed by
blocking the offending number in my phone. Interrupting their pitch
with a simple "Not interested" will suffice before immediately hanging
up. I'm not the rude one here; they are.
Street marketing/sales
Few things in marketing are as annoying to me as being ambushed on the
street. The best solution is of course to just keep walking. Sometimes
a brusque "No thanks" is needed to interrupt their pitch, but not
replying at all is also a good option. Once again, I'm not the rude one
here - they are.
Television
I haven't watched broadcast TV for more than ten years.
Online
Avoiding online advertising is a constant arms race, but there are
thankfully still good options. I often use [5]Links2 for examining
sites I'm dubious about, and otherwise stick to uBlock origin in
Firefox. I use yt-dlp for [6]watching Youtube and services like Nitter
if I need to read a tweet.
Moral rationale
It's true that a lot of the content I consume online is financed by
advertising - money which I'm depriving the authors of through my
avoidance tactics. The simple truth here is that I just don't care. I
don't care if a company or individual loses out on ad revenue. I don't
care if someone thinks it makes me a freeloader or otherwise morally
questionable.
Why, or perhaps how, don't I care? Easy: almost all of this content is
temporary distractions. My life would maybe be a bit less interesting
without them, but I would be OK with that. In fact, I think most of us
would be better off without the constant stream of distraction offered
to us in the gluttonous abundance it is today.
Don't get me wrong. These distractions aren't inherently bad. We need a
bit of entertainment from time to time. I am however convinced there
will always be plenty of distractions to go around, advertising or not.
The ones I produce myself, for [7]example, are, will always be and have
always been completely free from ads. I'm of the [8]firm conviction
that the net was actually both funnier and more interesting before it
turned into the incessant stream of sponsored content it consists of
today.
Efficiency
I haven't heard a tele- or street marketing pitch in years. The amount
of print ads I'm exposed to are kept at a practical minimum. I'm so
disconnected from the current goings on in advertising that I've mostly
forgotten how bad it actually is.
On the rare occasions I do catch a glimpse of a TV commercial, it's by
mistake. Usually it's when someone not running an adblocker wants to
show me something on their computer, or when I visit someone who
watches broadcast TV. Every time it happens, I'm surprised by how many
ads there are and how brazen, repetitive and disgusting they come off.
These few exposures merely serve as sobering reminders that my decision
is correct and well worth my efforts. I wish you the best of luck in
your own!
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© carl svensson
References
1.
https://www.datagubbe.se/
2.
https://www.datagubbe.se/30yearcomp
3.
https://www.datagubbe.se/endofownership
4.
https://nixtelefon.org/
5.
http://links.twibright.com/
6.
https://www.datagubbe.se/yt
7.
https://www.datagubbe.se/mkdem
8.
https://www.datagubbe.se/peakweb/
9.
https://www.datagubbe.se/atom.xml
