As we all know it is the shopping season. There are many more ways to shop now than before. There are many ways to try to get a bargain, or to just give away money on a little plastic card. We can shop on-line, we can shop through apps, we can go to the store and have it shipped home, we can shop at home and to and pick it up. They say we will have drones doing the delivery soon, but it hasn't happened yet.
The Cloud knows what you have bought, what you are thinking about buying where you looked for it, a pretty much what you are willing to pay to anything and everything. We all get ads for things we have bought or just looked at. "If you looked at this you'll probably like that. If you live in this zip code and you looked at that store, and you bought this, you listen to this music, you read these books and web sites, then you think like this, vote like that, and have these needs. They are correct a lot of the time.
A couple of weeks ago I was at a conference where people were taking about the mood apps, behavior apps and health apps they were designing and using for themselves and their patients. Stay fit, eat right, relieve stress, exercise, breathe, do it all with friends and family. Think happy thoughts, look at scenes of nature, call your mother, think out of the box, but stay in the box.
I'm old, and I get a bit antsy with all of this. It seems to be that the goal is to get everyone to be mildly happy, to get along, to pay our bills and buy stuff.
I asked if anyone was designing an app to be grumpy, sarcastic, and oppositional. Unless we have enough people like that, nothing will change. We will listen to the music we already like, talk to the people we know, read about things we agree with, and not get upset.
It all sounds very pleasant, like too much mac and cheese. You know what that can do to you.
2 comments:
Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? THe Cloud knows.
Wow, that is a very good point. I guess too much positivity can be a bad thing. Who knew?
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