Imagine paying top dollar for a brand-new high-end refrigerator only to be greeted with ads on the door display. Sounds like a nightmare? Unfortunately, this nightmare is coming true for Samsung refrigerator owners with the latest update rolling out to their fridges.
I used to be pretty neutral about unnecessary screens and internet connections on things. When they started putting connected screens in refrigerators, I was like, “I don’t get it, but it doesn’t really harm me.”
Then the proliferation of screens in cars made me a little grumpy. I want knobs and buttons for safety reasons (and to some extent because they’re just nicer to use).
Then the requirement for so many things to be controlled via app made me upset. I don’t want your stupid dishwasher with a stupid app. I’ve had too many live services shut down and kill a feature to be willing to rely on your app to wash my dishes.
Then screens being badly designed made me livid. Our oven has a capacitive touch screen for control, placed directly above the door. Fingers are capacitive, but do you know what else is? STEAM. Which is what comes out of an OVEN any time you open it.
But ads in my kitchen would make me practically murderous. I’ve done a lot of work to keep ads out of my life overall. I know what I’ve signed up for with some free stuff, but if I pay for it, it better not be trying to rent-seek me without my consent (and some kind of remuneration). The fact that there isn’t even an ad-free option in a lot of cases makes it even worse.
The forced intrusion of ads into every facet of life makes me ever more anti-ad in reaction. I’m getting to the point of sitting on the front porch with a shotgun in my lap, warning ads to get off my lawn if they know what’s good for them. They’d beam ads onto the moon if it wouldn’t be too small to read, but the idea of ads on my fridge makes me want to burn down billboards.
I should’ve been less ok with it at the start.
I feel the same way. I do everything I can to make my life an ad-free experience, even if that means I miss out on certain things.
And the unnecessary apps can take a hike, too.
When I buy a product these days, one of the key requirements I look for is the ability to use all the features without needing an app.
I don’t want a neck fan with bluetooth, or an oven with monthly firmware updates or a dishwasher where certain functions only work when you have a cloud account
I don’t want to see your ads, and you aren’t having any telemetry from me. Get
off my lawnout of my life.Have to say though, my almost-ad-free existence has made me realise how pervasive advertisements are, and how accepting of them we have become as a society. My dad still watches broadcast TV packed with ads, and while that was normal to me as a child I now find it almost unbearable any time I visit.
Why should corporations get to shove 5 minutes of their garbage into my brain for every 15 minutes of content? My answer is they don’t, and I’m not going to subject myself to it ever again.
Jeff Geerling’s video about that experience crystalized my feelings about it, and is probably why I used “dishwasher” in my original comment. I didn’t know he also had a blog version, thanks.
Yeah, my mom will occasionally send screenshots of her phone or hand it to me for tech support, and I’m horrified at how many ads she has. Home screen widgets with ads. Apps with full screen ads before every page. APP NOTIFICATIONS WITH ADS.
Burn it all down.
“I should’ve been less ok with it at the start” to your credit you recognize that now. Many people are still oblivious and if you point it out they just double down.