this post was submitted on 13 Nov 2025
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A Boring Dystopia
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I have seen a video about this shit also being implemented in cars. You can drive down the highway, with your GPS on and a pop up ad appears out of the blue, blocking the screen, not really allowing you to get rid of it before you remove your attention from the road to the screen, trying to figure out what button to push to get rid of the ad.
And the fact that people pay extra for cars and fridges to show them ads is just so friggin stupid. If people buy these products after knowing that they pay extra to be bombarded with ads, its 100% on them.
But in the case of the car, I do feel that shit should be illegal. It's so fucking dangerous and irresponsible from the manufacturer to implement a "feature" that can cost lives.
Don't worry, the fridge ones'll have ads for kids soon, with a candy-coated Buy Now button. Go-o-o *society!*π₯³
Atwood's a gawdamn fortune teller
Only if people buy those things. I doubt the majority of people wants to pay extra for fridges with screens in them.
I think this shit is a fad that will go away in the same way 3D and VR did despite everyone promising this was the future. It's too expensive, too impractical and won't hold up once the novelty wears off.
You realize that's exactly what they said about video games in the early days, right? And the Internet. And gay sex.
I'm comparing smart fridges to 3D and VR because that is the proper comparison. All three are tech gimmicks that are too expensive and annoying to implement into daily life and that is why I believe smart fridges are a fad that won't last/spread. Especially not in these times where people don't have any money.
Using video games, the internet and gay sex as example of why smart fridges will become popular is both baffling and goofy to me, but maybe that was the point? If not, I'm not following your logic at all. Can you elaborate on where you see a link?
I was being somewhat cheeky with the third, yes, but the era of the other two doesn't discount the historical fact that people of that time said similar: they were a fad, gimmicky, of little interest to gen pop, etc., so the cautionary analogy is still valid. π
In the same vein, there are many things that were in fact fads that have since faded into obscurity because they didn't make people's lives easier and/or weren't affordable for most os us. The smart home was one thing that was all the rage at some point back in the 2010s and they are probably still something that more affluent people invest in, but the rest of us, who can't really afford it, don't have smart homes.
I can totally see a revised version of the smart fridge becoming popular longterm if they are designed to be useful and making people's lives easier. However, the current designs of smart fridges are not helpful nor useful. They are a shallow gimmick and that is why they will not last unless manufacturers stop designing them for advertisement and start designing them to make people's lives easier.
While I can appreciate your optimism for the modern consumer, I feel that this stance ignores the underlying current of forced adoption via prolific visibility (ie. "everyone has one, might as well") and/or market sublimation by said "features" no longer being offered as optional... π
At the end og the day, it's all about money and most people can't afford fridges like this. Screenless fridges won't disappear over night either. In the same way that most people who own fridges don't have those fancy ones that vomits ice cubes at the press of a button. It's kinda cool, but too expensive and impractical for most people. People who can afford smart fridges and think it's a worth while expense will buy them, but I don't believe for a second that that is the majority of people. Not by a long shot.
That's my point. Right now, it's an option βonly to seed its installation as a future luxury in the collective subconscious. π€πΌ Then, when they're on every gawdamned appliance, those that publicly decry the fuckery will get downvoted by the mouthbreathin' masses and largely ignored. Mark my words. It's a tale as old as time.
We can agree to disagree on this one. I simply do not believe all fridges will be fixed with screens that shows ads nonstop. That is very unrealistic. It will be an option that people can choose, but oldfashioned fridges will always be available for people who prefer or can't afford the ones with screens. There are no words to be marked here. This is how the real world works. What you're describing is a dystopian fiction where every country is the same and no regulations exist and everyone was access to the same luxuries. That isn't the real world.