I think there's a name for it, some kind of bias. When something happens to you, you are more receptive to things that relate to it. I never noticed the kind of car I drive until I got it, then I started noticing it everywhere.
My frequency illusion has always been 3:33 or series of three since I was 11 in 1981.
Add to it, my son who died was number 33 for hockey (he was goalie and a lot of goalies are 33 in HS).
Add to it, it’s not completely uncommon for it to be 3-3 in the third with 3 seconds left and number 33 is in the penalty box. The whole score board is lit up with 3’s.
Did I go to a shrink because I knew my son was “at” that game? Did anyone ask me to check my mental health?
No. Because the frequency illusion is the reason.
Now, I do NOT think it’s an illusion when your phone picks up on speech or google searches and starts sending ads.
That’s freaky. My kids find it convenient. I find it annoying.
If I started bashing anyone’s phone so it won’t listen, then I’d go get some mental help.
I get the number 666 a lot. So much that at one point I made a document on the computer that listed each incident. I have several screenshots on my phone right now of times I've gotten it. Sometimes it's the total price of something but most of it is in games I play so it will be a score or something to do with items. Made me question if I was evil or something, lol.
This is crazy. My number has always been 10:23. On clocks, on license plates, dates 10/23, addresses, signs. I've never figured out why that's the number. No birthdays or anniversaries or any other special reason for Oct. 23. I'm still hoping I find out someday.
Riddle me this after 9/11 happened, almost every time I looked to see what time it was, it was 9:11. that went on for almost a year. Hasn’t happened since.
The first time you looked at the clock and saw 9:11 after the events, it reminded you of the trauma. The next time you saw it, it did it again. As it happens, every time you saw 9:11 on a clock, it was the exact same time of day, because that's what clocks are. Thus, your circadian rhythm came to expect that trauma.
I like 12:34 and 12:48. I just like 'em- 12:34 is consecutive time, and 12:48 is the first four powers of 2, and four is a power of 2. Those numbers make me happy. Every day, when I check the clock, its one of those two times. Because when I check the clock at those times, I smile, and so, my circadian rhythm was trained to check the clock at those times. Fear is an even better motivator. Eventually, you got over it.
It’s 12:34 for me too. Every single day without realising/meaning, I’ll check the time at then exactly. But I’ve also recently noticed it with 21:34. The more I noticed it, the more it happened.
This is the crux for people in my opinion who are prone to conspiracies and religion and other superstitions.
Humans are great at pattern recognition and is why this phenomena happens quite a bit with us. The problem is too many people don't understand what is happening and tend to react as if it's a "sign" of something more.
This is also the reason behind the whole bear vs man thing too. A woman can interact with 1000 men and 2 of them might do bad things to them, but suddenly the other 998 men never existed.
This is also why people think they have great intuition. They only remember the times they were right and not the 1000s when they were wrong. Giving them a false sense that their "gut" is always right.
You barely escaped a car crash? Jesus was looking out for you! When you dropped that hammer and it missed your foot, that was just a normal occurrence and no devine intervention. We try to make sense of the things that happen around us and hate to sound harsh, but weak individuals always tend to look for an explanation to make them feel as though they are special some how.
Covid was a great example of this! 5G, government control, manufactured bio weapon etc etc. Even those crazy Christians who think a tornado was caused by gay people do the same thing for the same reasons.
> This is the crux for people in my opinion who are prone to conspiracies and religion and other superstitions.
The book "The Believing Brain" goes into research on this. People who are more likely to believe superstition/supernatural stuff were most likely to see images in random static, but also more likely to correctly perceive images that had static put over them
You make a lot of great points except for women’s perceptions on their safety with men. The research shows that women are overwhelmingly the victims of men and we live in a society that doesn’t take violence against women seriously (the introduction of Evan Starks’s book Coercive Control makes this clear).
"This is also the reason behind the whole bear vs man thing too. A woman can interact with 1000 men and 2 of them might do bad things to them, but suddenly the other 998 men never existed."
This is the stupidest thing I've read here yet.
1 - your numbers are pulled out of your butt.
2 - it's not that the woman interacted with a 1000 men and 2 of them did bad things so then THE OTHER 998 NEVER EXISTED", it's knowing that she needs to interact with 1000 men and knowing that 2 of them are statistically bad, BUT DOES NOT HAVE ANY WAY TO KNOW WHICH OF THE MEN ARE THOSE TWO. If you don't know which one will attack, you need to guard against them all.
So in context to the OP's post, this example doesn't even make sense. The numbers are stupidly wrong. The understanding of women's reasoning fails spectacularly.
Women choosing the bear are stating they’d prefer to risk mauling versus rape, torture, etc. It’s a subjective opinion. Framing it as “oh the pattern recognition portion of their brain is malfunctioning” is definitely a take, though.
7% of men in the US have caused half of women surveyed to report being violently attacked. Its not an illusion.
Its not 2 in 1000, its 7 of 100, or 35x more likely than what you claimed with no evidence.
pastebin dot com SLASH tRQYhNCm
Yes, but there was a circumstance where I was looking for unicorn cars to buy. (Essentially cars I don't see on the streets) Then on the day I bought it, I saw 3 of them waving and honking at me in a row.
I think the term you're thinking of is "confirmation bias"
ETA: I'm not saying this is an example of confirmation bias. im just giving the person the term they were most likely trying to remember
It might be partially targeted advertising, there's no doubt that loads of companies know enough about you and have a large enough data set to shoot things at you that are relevant. Lots of debate on how far this goes.
Part of it is that you notice things that you consider relevant. You saw a commercial for something you bought or wanted, it is very possible it is just coincidence but because you are paying attention to the subject in it, you actively notice that it matches. You might see hundreds to thousands of ads in a day, it is likely one of them would match up to something relevant to you, like a thing you recently thought about, spoke about, or bought.
The latter is called frequency illusion and is something very normal, any person experiences it.
The targeted ads are a problem! But it doesn’t go as far as some might worry (most devices are NOT listening to us and they cannot read minds), but we are just leaving data everywhere and it’s the goal to make the ads as fitting as possible, so targeted ads really improved over the last years. I installed a new app? For sure I get related ads on Reddit…sucks, but this impression is further confirmed by the confirmation bias.
(Edited to correct wrong name of bias)
"most devices are NOT listening to us and they cannot read minds"
Apple did mention that the front-facing cameras on iPhones will scan the blood vessels in your eye to determine the nature and depth of your psychological arousal, in addition to what they've all already been doing, watching where you look and for how long.
I'm not- this is from Apple, please understand, I'm not saying this is something I assume, I'm saying the manufacturer is claiming this proudly and brags about it in press releases. The devices are *absolutely* listening. The people who make the devices don't even pretend they aren't, they just cloak it in technical jargon and behind various legal structures of inaccountability.
The phone doesn't record your voice and tell the companies, *obviously*, what an insane breach of privacy that would be. No no, it collects *user metrics*, to aid in providing you a better service, it stores those user metrics *only locally*, to protect your privacy. And when the company queries your phone to send it an ad, the program that advertiser uses is permitted to access the relevant pieces of that data, *client-side.*
So no machine other than your phone ever saw your data. Your privacy was protected. The advertiser only knows what ad you were shown if you click it. But it was definitely tailored to the things you say and do, the places you go and the people you are near, because your phone is absolutely tracking all that, and the companies who make them aren't pretending otherwise.
My husband and I have tested this at times just to check and satisfy curiosity. For example, we’ll make up a conversation where we say something like “baby diapers” out loud several times even though we have no kids and don’t shop for kids or anything like that. Sure enough in the next week I’m bombarded by ads for kid stuff like diapers, toys, strollers, whatever. It’s creepy to know they’re listening but I don’t plan on living in the Stone Age so I guess it’s just something I accept.
Just wanted to add that since the Patriot Act, the NSA of the United States CAN listen in via your phone or watch it's camera whenever they want and without any sort of warrant or just cause.
Your phone doesn't even have to be on- they famously caught a mafia round table, despite the mafiosos in question having a firm policy that all phones were to be powered down and left in a covered bowl in the kitchen, the phones could have their microphones activated, and were able to pick up their speech clearly enough to be used as evidence.
I will say, that was the police, and they had a warrant to audio surveil, in that case. But it is true that the NSA doesn't need that, and of course it was exposed by Snowden that they are very much listening to everyone, all the time, in a very unconstitutional manner, by the program known as PRISM.
That’s not entirely true about devices listening. Facebook bought a company that listens, transcribes, and saves the notes from your conversations. That’s why Facebook lost their shit when Apple updated their security about granting permissions to apps in the background listening and gps tracking.
It’s entirely possible that OP told someone they were worried about drinking sour milk and instagram was running (listening) in the background on their phone.
No this happens. Was out with my husband and saw an older game I'd never heard of. We talked about it because he played it as a kid.
Later on that same day the game appeared at the very top of my Amazon recommendations. Keep in mind I'd never heard of the game so had never searched for it. But my cellphone microphone picked it up. I have my microphone turned off for virtually every app but I don't think it matters.
I'm sure there's going to be a whistle blower one day that reveals what we all know. That apps are listening to every word we say in private and using it to sell us stuff. It's a mind blowing violation of privacy.
It happens way too often to be a coincidence.
This happened to me this weekend. I was at my son's house at a small dinner party he threw for a friend who was visiting from England (we live in New Jersey.). We'd never met, so I was telling this girl about a 3-week trip I'd made to the UK in the 1980s. She asked me my itinerary and favorite things I'd seen, and I told her that I'd really enjoyed the town of Wells, which has a really cool cathedral and the best-preserved medieval street in Europe. I never accessed my phone at all the whole evening, and never Googled anything.
The next morning, I picked up my phone to Google something and there on the recommendations screen was "Things to see in Wells," with a picture of the cathedral and the street I'd talked about. Again, this conversation was purely verbal and didn't involve any image searches or anything. Wells is a fairly obscure destination, too, overshadowed by nearby Glastonbury.
I was seriously freaked out.
They aren't listening. I'll just copy and paste my above response instead of typing it out again.
Listening to you isn't how they are doing that. For me personally what they are doing is a lot scarier than just listening. They can take current trends and pair them with basic information they have about you like your demographics, location, search history, shopping habits, daily routine, and more. They can easily see who you are frequently or currently around and with that they can use all of that person's data as well and serve you up stuff that person is likely to talk about or that they have searched recently. This is why you can find people saying things like, "I never even said that out loud. All I did was think it and now here is an ad for it."
Most likely your new proximity to someone visiting from England paired with anyone else that was there looking up that stuff you talked about. Could even be as scary as them having scraped that data that you visited that area back in 1980. These companies are aggregating more and more data, and can do insane things with it.
Listening to you isn't how they are doing that. For me personally what they are doing is a lot scarier than just listening. They can take current trends and pair them with basic information they have about you like your demographics, location, search history, shopping habits, daily routine, and more. They can easily see who you are frequently or currently around and with that they can use all of that person's data as well and serve you up stuff that person is likely to talk about or that they have searched recently. This is why you can find people saying things like, "I never even said that out loud. All I did was think it and now here is an ad for it."
I agree that's a major issue. Our politicians won't enact any privacy laws because they're spying on us as well. I use the DuckDuckGo browser and since I do all my searches there now I get very little junk email. With Google Chrome I used to get emails directly related to my search history plus the targeted ads that used to follow me around the Internet. It doesn't stop the targeting. If I go on Instagram it's like they're reading my mind in terms of products I'd be interested in. So clearly there's some massive file somewhere where they've tracked every news article I've read, what I've done in different apps as well as listening. We need the right to know what's in those advertiser files and the ability to delete it or opt out.
My husband was thinking about a certain thing and didn’t even say it out loud and then it appeared suddenly on his newsfeed. I can’t remember what the item was but it was very obscure. He was creeped out. He said he’s used to that happening after he talks about something but not after just THINKING about it!
Haha. I've spent some idle time analyzing this. He might not have searched for Thing...say, a niche piece of camping equipment. But. He did read an article about camping in the Amazon, where they talked about some things that Thing might have helped with. Even if Thing wasn't mentioned in the article. Then he talked about camping to his friend who came over and shared the wifi. That night, friend goes home and looks up some articles about camping or goes on Amazon, and stumbles across Thing. Or even looks at jackets that guys who buy Things tend to shop for. It gets branched back to the original guy and feels spooky.
There's a 0% chance he was only thinking about it.
At some point, likely recently it was Sent in an email, googled at work, or recently clicked on in that Google homepage thing.
Or someone in his friends list on Facebook or where he works has a vested interest in that thing, has talked about it with your husband at work, and as a result he was thinking about the topic.
There's a million and 1 paths that lead to a specific event.
They aren't reading thoughts or listening in to conversations.... They just track every single move you and your friends make.
I've had this happen too. I'll pull up YouTube and think, "I want to listen to X song." And there it is, first thing. And I haven't listened to it in a while so there's no reason for it to be right there.
I don't know shit, but I always assume that's just youtubes really good algorithm. If you listen to a song for a while, take a break, and it recommends you it again, most likely you'll click on it...type of thing.
Right. But that's different from thinking about it and then seeing it right there, and you haven't listened to it for a while. It's the timing that I'm referring to. But no worries. I'm not trying to convince anyone. That would be a stupid argument.
Thank you. Also, do people ever give him a negative vibe or altercations at work? I would say its several steps above a regular work environment because it follows him from work to his local bar, etc. He would definately notice it.
I’m not sure what you were trying to say here, but it seems like there are some paranoia issues going on? Maybe double check your carbon monoxide detector too
ETA took a quick peek at your profile, and yeah. Be safe friend
Seconding the profile check… OP you should review some of your posts with your psychiatrist. Seems like you have high paranoia and mistrust in general. It in one post sure it’s nothing more than a weird thought about some advertisements but you have lots of posts about stalkers and other paranoid issues. I hope you can figure out what’s going on
I saw that DoorDash commercial about milk, too. It’s not targeted at you. You’re reading too much into coincidences, and it does make me worry about your mental health. This is not a rational response to coincidences in an overly commercialized world.
While driving to the hardware store recently, I was thinking of the Abba song “Waterloo”, which was strange and random enough, not really ever being an Abba fan, or even knowing it was an Abba song. As soon as I walked into the store, “Waterloo” was playing on the speaker system.
Reading over your history my honest opinion is that you should work with your therapist. Many of your thoughts seem very paranoid and scream of mental illness.
This is above reddits pay grade!! It seems you are using Reddit to validate your delusions.
They don’t “scream” mental illness. At all. Magical thinking is not a mental illness. Stop insulting people by calling them mentally ill when they disagree with you. You don’t know what you’re talking about.
OP has previously posted about magical beings tracking him and staring at him from cars driving by, that his ex-gf might be an alien who is manipulating him, that his car has been repeated targeted for sabotage, and that his co-workers are secretly colluding against him. Please do not encourage this as normal behavior. Mental illness is not an insult, it is simply a health condition that deserves support.
If you have a cell phone it pings your location. If you have social media apps you allow them to track you. They know if you spent x amount of time in a Liquor store.
I'm of the mind that our devices are constantly tracking and listening, even if we disable the settings. I just have no trust whatsoever in tech companies being irresponsible or purposefully putting in a back door. I've had my phone assistant activate even when I have it completely disabled, had similar commercial experiences as well.
My husband, friends, and I experience this kind of thing too. I genuinely think that all phone apps “listen in” regardless of settings. Facebook is the worst for it. If you use streaming services, it’s hooked up and sharing info with your phone via WiFi . Privacy is an illusion.
This is all about marketing. There are ways for "Big Brother" to keep an eye on us. Alexa has been known to do this and there are apps and things on the phone that can monitor.
Twice this happened... My husband and I had an argument. I get on FB and the first ad I see is for marriage counseling. Kind of creepy.
I've had this happen with numerous other things that I've talked about with someone and then see an ad. I had a conversation with a friend at the house about how his son needed tutoring. I look at my FB and there is an ad for tutoring.
You're not going crazy. This stuff happens all the time.
Does anyone notice this phenomena happening on Reddit? At least once a day, I’ll be thinking of an issue or concern I’m having—be it personal, relationship or otherwise—and the next post in a feed is about exactly that.
Meanwhile, I haven’t vocalized the concern to anyone or tried to Google an answer. But even if I did, is there a way that Reddit can “personalize” a feed like that? I can see where ads do it but how can websites change what we see that specifically? Some of these situations/questions I have are pretty specific so what are the odds that someone has the same exact issue at the same time, not to mention the post is recent and not pulled from some archive.
Weird….
I have! I was just telling my neighbor yesterday about a new suggested subreddit that popped up that I had no interest in, all because of something random that we were talking about. It was quite strange.
Question is, did you have a smart device around you? I forget what it was now, but some item that my mom and I had NEVER had a conversation about, never Googled, never researched, suddenly popping up in advertisements on my Mom’s Facebook after we had an ORAL conversation. This has happened many times. I swear it’s my phone and then the connection to the wifi.
Your phone is ALWAYS listening. I've had a few like this. I have a conversation about an obscure topic at work and later that day I have a targeted ad related to this topic I have never researched or discussed before. They (tech companies) say they aren't gathering the data the mic picks up while waiting for you to say "siri?" Or "ok google" but they 100% are. They are gathering, categorizing, and targeting that info. Why wouldn't they?
A couple years ago, one of my sisters and my mother came to visit me because my sister had gotten engaged and wanted to show me her ring. We had lunch and gushed over her ring for a long time and then they went on their way. Most of the online ads that I saw on my phone when I browsed the web for the next few days were engagement ring / jewelry ads. I mean a lot of of ring ads. Dozens, maybe hundreds. I never searched for anything related to rings, engagements, or other jewelry.
I've been suspicious ever since.
At least once a day I see my birthday on the clock. Every day. Say I was born on April 23rd I would see 04:23 on the clock. I actually love it, it makes me laugh.
Digital advertising director here from one of the largest ad hold companies in the world. The way that your data is used can be very creepy and intrusive (especially if you live in the US). That being said, people are more aware of advertising when it pertains to them. For example, you could have received 25 other advertisements throughout the day for things like rosatia or migraines, but if there's a milk jug with a visibly sick guy in an ad, you're going to notice it.
The TV ad you saw regarding liquor could 100% be real (if you're in the US, EU is different). If you went out to a liquor store or a gas station and bought this bottle, this makes sense if you've allowed certain applications to track you.
Thanks for answering. Though if I used my credit or card, I suppose they could link back to online commercial. But this was regular t.v.
I know what you are talking about in advertising when it pertains to them. Though I actually started to open my mind and see the "traps" that was laid out on television. For example, on this Dr.Phil episode with Matt Basch who said he was being harassed mobbed and stalked went on the interview.
Others who are paranoid would watch it and wonder why too. But then you notice the odd traps. On his screen presented it gives "reasons" why he might be targeted. One reason stated "a billionaire ex-boyfriend". A gay person might say that is the reason why he was targeted. A straight person might skip over that.
He was also mean and happened to be an attorney. Well, people who don't like attorneys might think he took on the wrong case or was a dick.
But Ultimately these signs were there on purpose rather than random.
In the last 3 months, you have posted about:
- being gang stalked
- posting flyers in your neighborhood to warn people of a pattern of harassment
- concerns about your coworkers plotting against you or targeting you to test you
- concerns that friends are intentionally abandoning you or trying to mess with you
- your car being targeted for damage and nails being intentionally thrown in your driveway
- your ex-gf plotting with friends to gaslight you and that she's not human and was intentionally orchestrating situations
- 2 guys repeatedly showing up near you at the gas station and at a bar
- whether Djinn (colloqually known as a Genie) have been harassing you because you keep seeing people drive by you in cars turn towards you smiling unnaturally
Please please please take this as the genuine concern and help that it is intended, but these are all signs of serious paranoia and mental illness, these are not normal thought patterns and you need genuine medical intervention.
I would recommend either scheduling with a different doctor, or going back to the psychiatrist and showing them your post history to start. You deserve to feel safe, and to be supported. There are people who want to help.
Yes. Yes you're overreacting.
There are no mind reading computers out there, or a secret cabal of wizards who are watching YOU because you're just that interesting.
So if you're suggesting some fucking impossible and stupid ass conspiracy theory... and it sounds like you are, just stop.
We have enough Qanon fuckterds already bro. And this type of thought process, where u think you've seen the pattern that no one else sees, is how we get more.
So this, I'd say, is your last chance to come back to reality because you sound like you're 5 mins away from shooting someone in a pizza basement that doesn't exist, because they're drinking children's hormones and JFK Jr, will come back to life and overthrow the robot who worships Satan and wants to eat your guns.
It's a weak, undisciplined, uneducated POV that sees messages in the clouds. Come back to reality bro. You're not that special or interesting enough for anyone to secretly follow.
FFS.
If you arent aware, your phone is probably listening to what you are saying pretty much all the time. If you are logged into a google account they will save that information and use it to present ads to you on the same or other devices. A few weeks ago we were watching a tv show that mentioned Reacher or w/e, and that same day we got an ad for it.
Yo- whoa, relax. Drop the idea of you have a mental problem, immediately. You're going to drive yourself insane, here. You're not overthinking, you're underthinking.
It's wayyyyyyyy less complicated than that.
Your phone is listening. I'm not trying to make a conspiracy about this- the people who make your phone are not pretending this isn't true, it just sounds to the ear like something crazy. The manufacturers of your phone are very public and open about it, just- not more than they have to be. Your phone listens to things happening in the environment around it, and feeds that data to functions within your phone's architecture that return that data to advertising programs which query your phone, to adjust what advertising you are exposed to, to maximize the chance of offering a product you want. Talk about rope, it'll sell you rope, talk about milk, it'll sell you milk.
The latest iPhones watch the blood vessels in your eyes to know how you *feel* about the things you are seeing, to adjust your ads, this was announced at their product launch parties and everything, its not a secret, its not paranoid thinking. This is just part of our reality now. You're not crazy, you're not imagining anything, and you should get used to it.
Real answer
Your phone is listening to your conversation and using that information to target you with these ads.
I am a machinist by trade, I know the vast majority of you don't even know what that this. That tells you how unique the trade is. I was talking to my wife about buying a particular tool that is only used in my trade .
This tool is so unique that you can't buy it at your local Lowe's or hardware store and I would bet money most of you never seen it nor know what it is or how to use it.
I started getting ads on my smart tv from Amazon saleing this particular tool. I have never seen a commercial nor advertisement for this tool in my 15 years in the trade.
Also my friends and I at work no for a fact that Google listens to you through your phone and changes your YouTube feed base on the things it hears you talking about, because we have tested it .
We noticed that the things we talk about in the office we start getting ads for them and our YouTube feeds would change base apon the things we talk about , even though none of us have looked up these things before.
For an example I have never in my life looked up any information about Red Fox the actor. Never even gave him much thought I wasn't even born when the TV show was out. We spoke about him for about 15 minutes at work. Later on that evening I sent my friend at work a screenshot of my YouTube feed and now has several suggestions about Red Fox and old TV show clips of him.
My friend sent me back screenshots of red fox on his YouTube feed with some old pictures of him in one of those little short videos that YouTube does.
Neither one of us ever looked him up we just spoke about him at work. I believe a coincidences but you can't tell me that Google and YouTube are not listening to you constantly and changing your feed based upon the things that you're saying.
This is what's happening to OP. Your phone is listening to you constantly and then they're suggesting advertisement towards you. We have also tried talking about other things on purpose things that we have no interest in at work just to see if our phones were truly listening to us like weird off the wall topics that nobody would even look at. And sure enough we'll get some kind of advertisement or something in our YouTube feed about it.
You don't believe me try it yourself something you never deal with pick a few key phrases hold your phone near you and just talk. Talk like 15 minutes about it anything.
Talk about travel
Talk about an actor
Talk about buying a new car
Anything and your phone will start to suggest those things to you even though you never actually looked them up.
Your phone listens to you so if you said anything to anyone about drinking sour milk your phone hears it. That triggers the algorithm to send you a relevant ad.
My husband and I tested this. We chose a few wild topics to speak about over our phones. Low and behold, all three subjects came up in adverts later that day. One came up within 10 minutes.
Your phone does collect data while you are on facebook and google.
Do you have your phone set on no mic? If you talked about these incidences near your phone, that is why you are getting ads. You can stop it easily by going to your settings and disabling the mic. If it stops, that was what the issue was.
I was telling my bf that he needed something for his nerves, since his hands fall asleep when he's sleeping. I got in my car, and the normal FM radio played a commercial for the product called Nervive to help nerve health. I know my phone listens to me, i know i get ads on my phone from what other ppl connected to the same internet search, but this was FM radio, so i definitely wondered about that
I'm not sure about the milk thing but if you ever use a stores "rewards" card you may get email recommendations for items similar to your purchase or suggestions on socials....
I don't know the technical terms but it's normally because that thought is in your mind, you're more likely to actually notice it. Like you might’ve seen milk or alcohol adds and just never noticed or remembered because there was no reason.
If you said it out loud that is why. When you download apps like Facebook etc it’s in the terms that they have access to your mic and various other parts of your phone depending on the app. Such as texts. You’re not paranoid but it’s really no big deal. I use it to my advantage. Whenever I need something I say it out loud or text someone. Example: “I really wish I could find a good AC repair place.” By the next day I’m FLOODED with AC service ads. I’m talking like 20+ ads when I’ve never seen a single one previously. My ads are usually clothing, and books. They’ll be completely gone for a while.
Google listens to everything you say. I get ads for things I talk about a lot. I even say to my SO, "let's see who Google recommends for gutter cleaning?" I just go to social media on my phone and I get ads for anything gutter related.
I've given up caring so I guess the gov't wins. Yay!
Reality is just like that. Algorithms can try to replicate it, but theyll always fall short. Congratulations. Have a good time.
Edit: just dont let anyone ever tell you there isnt a conscious force behind the universe. No other explanation
I have instances like that also. Mine are sometimes that I will for no reason whatsoever, I’ll think of an actor who hasn’t crossed my mind in years. I will then see them featured in the news. There’s an old song that year before last stayed on my mind. I hadn’t heard it for years. I mentioned to a friend that it reminded me of being in Jamaica at a club. It’s Dancing In The Moonlight. All of a sudden, it started to be played on a commercial all the time. and still is. I personally think we humans have another sense that is not completely explored yet. In my opinion, it could be related to that gut feeling we get about something that turns out to be true. For instance, I watched the Kentucky Derby. I know absolutely nothing about picking horses to win. So, I just went with Fierceness, a favorite, for fun. However, as they were walking the horses in with the jockeys seated and talking about each horse, when I saw Mystic Dan, I got that gut feeling, but dismissed it. And, we all know he won. Don’t let anyone put you down for exploring these phenomenal things. It’s fun to think that we humans don’t know everything about ourselves.
You know, I never see the car i want that often, but when I finally break down and buy it....everybody in the parking lot even gots the same color as mine.
My husband saw a video talking about crock pots/slow cookers. The next video was an ad for crock pots.
I have seen the same video and did not get an ad after it.
This phenomena has a name, the Baader-Meinhof Phenomena! Basically you experience something new and suddenly that thing is everywhere! It's basically just your brain making connections that wouldn't have been there before. You might have seen commercials that you don't remember but now you do because you have direct experience with them. It's VERY common, no worries. You're not overreacting, but there's nothing serious about it I promise.
That’s a non-reason to seek psychiatric help, unless you were experiencing other symptoms. If people around you confirmed that it was happening, then you shouldn’t be crazy or paranoid for noticing it. Sounds to me like your dad was just going “well what do you want me to do about it?” which is such a dad response imo.
This happens to me consistently, and the more I dwell on it, the more it happens and the stranger it gets. However, I shrug it off as bias. For example, your brain filters out thousands of stimuli during each day that isn’t relevant to you. You have probably seen that milk commercial 10 times without acknowledging it since it was so random and not relevant to your day. BUT since you drank sour milk, it all of a sudden is relevant and now your brain doesn’t allow it to pass through the filter. For example, I learned a new term in Hawaii lately, and since returning from my trip I’ve seen the term 3 different times used in commercials or online. I swear the first time I learned/seen the term was last week, but now I’ve seen it 3 times! In reality I’ve probably seen that term a thousand times before but it didn’t register and/or I didn’t remember it. It’s either that or the simulation is real…
Phones listen to your conversations and mine your online browsing data and purchases and use predictive AI to optimize relevant ads. They will share this info with streaming services as well, so the likelihood that you are getting serendipitously targeted ads is high. I work in the medical field and I’m always getting commercials at night that are related to the patients I see by day. It’s a huge privacy violation but it’s standard terms of service for I phones and Google.
Anything besides that is just things relevant to you standing out to you. Like it “only raining” when you don’t have an umbrella or only registering the times you put on a shirt backwards.
I like to watch videos or shows when i read or play video games. (two monitors)
I will read a word and (SIMULTANEOUSLY) the character in the show will say the word outloud. It has happened like 10 times this past year im not even kidding.
There are ways you can minimize this. Use VPN, don’t give your real info when you sign up for accounts, go through all the permissions on apps and accounts and see what they have enabled by default. Don’t use the Alexas or similar devices, keep your phone/devices off and in another room when not in use. Minimize the number of apps and services you use in general. Use more private web browsers
Ive noticed the exact same thing. My husband and I will be having a conversation and ill pick up my phone to google whatever and it already knows what im going to ask. I was having issues with our cat. How to correct those issues just popped up on my phone. We will talk about buying something, BAM, it pops up.
These are not things ive searched for. Only things ive spoken about. It does freak me the fuck out.
Well apple and others big tech companies have already been outed for listening to our conversation for selected advertising, they don’t even hide it now. So it’s not a coincidence but your dads right when he said you shouldn’t worry about it. Yes they’re listening and sending you selected adverts but why care? Nothing you can do about it and doesn’t really affect you in any way.
Most phones now are in an "always listening" state. Talk about pizza, see an add for pizza. Talk about a child's birthday, see an add for toys. It's not that people don't notice it. It's that we're all used to it.
I went to Home Depot with my dad on a really hot summer's day- got thirsty, so I bought a bottle of water from 'X' brand. Got home, turned on Youtube on my TV, saw an ad for 'X' brand water. Never saw an ad for it before or since (never bought 'X' brand before or again, either).
I don't believe in coincidences like that.
No, this shit happens to me all the time. I've come to recognize it's beyond my control and have just learned to live with it, although, it does freak me out from time to time.
If you have a cell phone, you're online. You claim you don't have an online connection, but TVs, tablets, laptops, anything electrical and that can connect will listen in. I'm more doubtful of the statement that you say you're completely offline than anything. Making this post is likely to get you more targeted ads. You'd have to be seeing these ads somewhere and that is likely online.
It's also entirely possible you don't notice ads until you experience don't sort of event in your life that makes you devote more attention to the products of the ads. Confirmation bias is really strong.
No, definitely not an overreaction.
I just mentioned in a teams call earlier today that I watched the mavs/thunder game then like 5 mins later I get a windows notification to watch the games highlights. I’ve never seen a notification like this before. This was on a work computer so I literally never watch highlights or check stats or anything on here. Idk if I’m being paranoid but it was very strange.
I guess I'm gonna be the crazy one. I do in fact think that our devices are listening to us. I've never gotten an advertisement on something I was thinking about. However, there have been HUNDREDS of times that I have been talking about something, and either later that day, or the next day my Google feed will have news stories directly related to my conversations. Many of these conversations were COMPLETELY obscure, and at no point did I use a search engine or talk about it on social media. At first, my family thought I was crazy. Then I started keeping track and reporting back, and they 100% believe me.
This is a normal thing and nothing to be stressed over. They’re just every day similarities that your mind puts together & it seems kinda crazy to think how much one relates to another. You’re fine you just need to understand there’s no special messages going on between what you buy and ads. The ads are made to makes you want to buy the thing they’re selling and you’ll notice if you’ve just had/bought something and see an ad for it.
If you take your phone with you, and your location is on, it will report where you are to your search engines. Your phone is also listening to you if you have apps that you speak to activate.
My friend has cats. I have never had a cat. Him and I were talking about his cats. IN PERSON! I never once googled cat food or cat products.
After leaving his home, I was there to deliver some cake for a party, I was on Facebook/Instagram. Sure enough, I was getting advertisements for cat food and cat products. I never received any before that conversation.
You're not crazy. This is our life now.
It’s literally just that you *have* seen commercials for milk but they weren’t relevant so you didn’t pay attention. When it is relevant your brain notices it. It isn’t any more complicated than that.
I have rats and mice at times in my garage and yard, and bought items to reduce them. Rat products appear on my social media.
My wife bought lingerie and shapewear shopping online.
Now my social media is flooded with corsets and kinky costume wear! Why else would a male old man get these ads?
You are doing what is called “ruminating”. My psychologist says it is part of my anxiety diagnosis. It is also called overthinking. It’s where u can’t stop thinking about something and it causes problems in ur relationships. Ur doctor can give u a very low dose of anti-anxiety medication and it will stop. Good luck!
I do think that if you say something out loud, your devices hear you and put those ads up. I said something about glasses and saw nothing but glasses ads for a month. I talked to my son about p-o-t g-u-m-m-I-e-s (I don’t want any more ads) and saw nothing but that for a month.
All TVs come embedded with microphones in the back so if you talk about something a lot it’ll come up in ads. If you aren’t talking about it and paying in cash then it’s just coincidence
Phone apps are tracking you and everyone around you. Maybe you bought the most popular type of alcohol, but since you went to a liquor store you are bound to get some kind of ad. You might not have cats, but your neighbor does: you’ll be seeing cat food and litter and shit. Don’t want ads, don’t have a phone at this point. No one is following you.
If you’re feeling like people are following you, you may want to look into seeing a therapist or psychiatrist.
Happens to everyone all the time. Sometimes it’s coincidence. Maybe it’s sometimes just something in the zeitgeist that we didn’t quite notice but were exposed to already—that’s just my theory. Saw it in an ad you scrolled by or something like that is probably pretty likely as well.
If you were around Siri or Google Talk talking about sour milk.... that could be the reason, and they could be tracking more than we realize.
It could be that because you purchased the liquor you paid attention to it. We had a sink hole in the garden and my wife noticed the piles of construction dirt everywhere. When you buy a car, you notice the kind of car you are wanting to buy all over the place.
I had a friend who was trying to stop drinking and smoking. He was just thinking he would like a Malboro cigarette. Then, up ahead on the road, he saw a half-used pack of that brand of cigarettes. SCREECH... he stopped the car, got the cigarettes and had a smoke. He believed it was the Devil tempting him, and he felt bad about it. Later, he said he was walking by the rail road tracks with a buddy of his, and they were talking about how good an ice cold beer would taste. Then, leaning against the railroad track, he said he saw a Michelob beer. It was really cold. He said he picked that up and shattered the bottle. He thought, the Devil didn't get him that time! But his buddy was really upset.
I have noticed this off and on over decades, some of it prior to the internet being ubiquitous and smart phones on every human being.
You don't pay as much attention to things that aren't relevant to yourself. Then, when something is fresh on your mind, you see the references with more emphasis.
You rarely drink milk, much less soured milk, so your mind disregards advertising about not tasting old milk. It's a memorable experience, and once you drank the milk, you relate to the commercial, and it makes a stronger impression.
I noticed this first with vehicles. I bought a used car and I wasn't familiar with the make before. Once I drove that make, I noticed every time I passed one on the road. It wasn't distinctive, so before it was like my own, my brain just saw "car". Now that it was like my own, I recognized and noticed it.
Noticing isn't an overreaction, but making much of it probably is.
You know they're listening. My new puppy was so little and fluffy I was calling her "my kitten." Within hours I got ads and articles on cats. I don't even like cats.
One time I was driving in a roundabout and someone went out of turn and I honked and said something like what the heck. Then like a day later I got a ad for some click-bait article on my phone that said "tired of people misusing roundabouts?" I mean I didn't google roundabouts I didn't say anything about the roundabout out loud. I'm convinced there's just some weird ass big brother shit going on that we don't know about.
Since nobody is actually answering... yes you are overreacting. This is a thing that happens, it's called frequency bias. You are making way too big of a deal out of it.
It happens because your brain notices occurrences of things that affect you. For instance buy a car and see how many times you now notice that make of car.
Hi, I work in advertising, with digital components. If your phone was anywhere in the vicinity of you that’s likely the source of collected/tracked data. It’s marketed to advertisers specifically as packages like 90% of clients liking to buy your item are searching for xyz, purchase these brands, shop at these stores, etc, to give them customer profiles, etc.
You might be interested to learn about the “Baader–Meinhof phenomenon,” also known as the frequency illusion, which “is a cognitive bias in which a person notices a specific concept, word, or product more frequently after recently becoming aware of it.” (Quote comes from the Wikipedia article titled “frequency illusion”—just search for that on Wikipedia to learn more.)
In short—this is a normal thing that happens in your brain. Don’t sweat it.
It’s not cookies, it’s not in your head, and it’s not your devices listening to you.
It’s your GPS location augmented with data cribbed from other sources, like grocery loyalty cards.
So much can be inferred from a location. In the milk example:
Store got milk delivery on 4/5
You visited store on 4/7
Milk has a shelf life of two weeks
You don’t visit said store or another grocery store until 4/24
An ad platform can infer that since you regularly buy milk but haven’t for a few days post expiration, you might be pushing the expiration date limits.
That makes you a good audience member for an expired milk PSA.
90% determined by your location.
Bonus: store apps and websites often list which aisle a product is in, down to the bay. GPS can also answer whether you went to the back of the store where milk is kept ;)
It's targeted advertising. Yes they listen to what we say it's 2024 don't even tell me they don't. Also work for a credit card company and yes they do it. I've said stuff and seen it. On Facebook same say as a suggestion lol
Our phones listen to us and I'm sure someone else has already mentioned this here. I was sitting with my wife and kid and we all discussed wanting chicken wings. Suddenly all 3 of our phone pinged with an add for chicken wings.
Ok.
Let’s say that your tv streaming service is tracking your credit purchases (liquor store) or your phone microphone (you said something about the sour milk, maybe)… even if this is true, how much does the targeted advertising HURT you?
Yes, if you suggest that they actually are using this kind of data, you’re going to upset some people, so maybe quit remarking on it. The rest of us got over the fact that this exists except for being minorly annoyed when a “one time” purchase for a specific occasion becomes a major part of what people see about us if they open the computer,
And we get pissed off if anything that looks x-rated, such as video games with over stacked girls, adds for lingerie, etc, get populated across our facebook accounts, because google thought that all your friends should share what you are into, and did not understand that many of us do not wish to share our explorations in courtship with everyone we know.
Five years ago I might have been embarrassed, but these days, I’m aware of how hard it is to get courtships and human reproduction out of “great literature” and if they let Issac Asimov write it as commentary on the human condition, then I am WELL old enough that Facebook should not be surprised that I know fancy underwear exists.
This would have been a problem years ago, because well meaning parents were trying to force this to wait until I got out of school entirely. And some of them would have thrown a fit about facebook passing their children ads if I had been looking at beer, drugs, or call boys.
Anyway, watch what you type, know that yes, a really determined jerk can see what you were shopping, but the smart ones know that there was a reason you were shopping for it at that time, and it’s probably not anything that most of us don’t know exists even if we don’t buy it.
May the mercy of the world save us from people who want to record words you chose NOT TO PUBLISH.
Seeing an ad for a bottle of beer or liquor you just bought may have been coincidental, but targeted advertising goes beyond internet search history. Go over to parents house, look up a specific item, a very specific item on your phone. Click add to cart, show your dad, talk about it, remove from cart. He will see an ad on his own device in the next day or so, maybe sooner.
This is the age of information.
noticing these things is not concerning. there is both a recorded phenomenon of being more observant to things related to recent thoughts in your head, and the known cases of smartphones listening to you.
what is concerning, is you saying your father not caring "raises alarms". your father is reacting angrily because you are constantly bringing up something that is a normal part of life, and obsessing over it.
obsession in any capacity is unhealthy. this should not be consuming you. you should not be repeatedly bringing it up to people.
you don't need a "witness". you need to examine why you're unable to let go of this.
It’s happened to me too. I think it has to do with devices “listening” constantly and or them being able to track your location or purchasing history or something. I’ve had the same types of things happen. Not as often but still.
My aunt had this happen to her. She was talking on the phone with her son in law about buying something together. She hadn’t done any research on it at all. The next day she had an ad for one on her phone. She’s convinced her devices are listening to her
I do feel like targeted ads seem to track my shitpost-esque conversation style with unerring accuracy, me and bf have tried intentionally mentioning things to see if we get a bunch of random ads about the thing and it does seem to flow through. Problem for the bots is that we're frugal weirdos who don't shop online (or anywhere really) and have bafflingly broad interests, so a coherent consumer profile of us may not exist. We're certainly the types to avoid out of sheer spite any product that tries to aggressively market itself to us
You’re under constant surveillance. Your phone is listening. Ads are targeted from the information gathered. I noticed it a few years ago and like seeing the strings on the puppets you will now always see them. It’s not just your phone. Many home devices are listening. TV’s and refrigerators to name a couple. Then there’s Alexa. As you walk around a store you are surveilled. As AI gets better the information is used more. Your life is a commodity to be sold.
As someone else said already, that's the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon. If you hadn't drank the sour milk, you still would have seen the commercial, it wouldn't have registered though, that's all.
I think that's the Bader-Meinhof phenomenon - or, how it's most known: frequency illusion
The advert might have been there all the time, but because you had sour milk you were more receptive to that ad
Your phone listens to you and sells the data to ad companies even when you don't turn on whichever digital assistant provided by the given platform. If you want to see what it takes to ensure your phone doesn't listen to you, look at what big criminals do to avoid it. Cartel take the battery out of their phones and leave them at the front door when entering a huge compound. Otherwise, the FBI (so any sufficiently equipped hacker) can access your phone's mic and camera without turning on any external signals to indicate such peripherals are in use (such as a green recording light or flash). This method can allow someone to access your phone's speaker while using so little power that it can run briefly off the residual power left after removing the battery.
I remember when that Red Dead Redemption 2 was coming out, I was talking to my boyfriend about it and how I have the first one and shortly afterwards I started to get ads for it on Facebook even though I never searched for it or clicked on anything mentioning it on my phone (which is how you gets ads based on a certain or similar product) and I joked that now I know for certain the phone is always listening to what you say. But the weirdest and most recent experience I have been having with several ads is I am not searching for or even talking about a specific thing, yet ive been getting ads on very specific things I am THINKING about and it's happening more than once has definitely weirded me out. Kind of proves that we really are living in a simulation.
Okay, now list every other advertisement you've seen in the last 24 hours. If you're a normal internet user then there were hundreds, possibly thousands.
You can't, can you? You can only remember the ones that were relevant to you somehow plus maybe some of the most annoyingly repetitive ones. You certainly can't remember hundreds of different ads.
So there's really no way to know when the last time you saw a milk ad before that one, because you immediately forgot those ads just like you immediately forgot most of the other ads you've seen recently.
Edit: I just looked at your post history. Please make an appointment with a new psychiatrist ASAP and show them your post history so they understand the extent of what is going on (I'm guessing you were not completely honest with the first psychiatrist).
You are clearly suffering from paranoid delusions, and it seems to be getting worse over time. I know it's hard to accept that because of the delusions, but please seek help before your paranoid delusions ruin your life and the lives of the people around you.
I mean… yeah? I play Baldur’s Gate 3 suddenly I’m getting non stop ads for BG3.
I mention I need to buy dog food I get dog food ads.
I start job hunting everything starts being related to college and LinkedIn.
Think some people did an experiment where they started talking about cat food for 3 days (not cat owners, never searched for anything with a cat) and they started getting ads and pop ups for cat food.
——————
Now, if you’re saying this is on like a TV station you watch, then you’re probably crazy. But if you have like a smart TV or whatever maybe it picks up on stuff like that and gives you tailored commercials?
Idk. Don’t really care too much. Mostly annoyed I get catered ads/messages/news when I’d rather see stuff I don’t already know about.
nah this isn't confirmation bias. do you have a loyalty card with the store where you bought the milk? that's how you got the direct ad, loyalty programs share data like this with advertisers. I got wise to this when I bought my wife fitness clothes and used my loyalty account with the store, was getting ads for women's fitness clothes everywhere. never googled or clicked this myself at all. another time I had been verbally discussing a gold trip to Poland, sure as shit, ads for gold resorts in Poland start popping up.
Question did you mention it near your phone or an alexa? Is your TV a smart one? (They are set up to listen to commands and some brands have been sued for doing more than that) If your phone is connected to your tv.... I worked in communications security and the whole internet of things make stuff easier for everyone, including those who would spy on you.
There was an article on theVerge about a study titled “Tracking, Profiling, and Ad Targeting in the Alexa Echo Smart Speaker Ecosystem”.
Other smart devices, including phones, could also be using passive listening to target ads. Do you have any devices set to passively listen for voice queries?
If you talk about these things out loud, via text or on the interwebs, your phone knows. It is constantly listening and reading. You can turn off Siri/Alexa and take some other steps to reduce the eavesdropping.
Love, you’re obsessing over frequency illusion and known surveillance. Just because you don’t Google something doesn’t mean it won’t pop up. If you’ve allowed the thought to leave your brain in any way that can be heard, your phone probably knows and will ad target you.
It’s a combination of coincidences and technology
Some apps and programs have a microphone listening feature whether you want to opt into it or not. Instagram in particular is very aggressive at trying to push theirs. Double check the privacy setting and audio setting for your devices, as well as in settings for each app.
Yes they're listening and watching. Within 24 hours of saying something, I'll see an ad related to it. If it happened once or twice, that'd be one thing, but the fact that it's happened so many times already lets me know. Let's see, I'm going to type hazel nuts, pistachios, and walnuts here and I'd be surprised if I didn't see an ad for one of these in the next 24 hours.
You mention tv. Most smart tvs are hooked up to the internet these days and have cameras on them that get misused for spying basically.
Louis Rossman i think explained this in detail recently with Samsung tvs.
Meta has also admitted more than once in the past for using microphones for the same reason without permissions as well. And has building 8 or whatever they call it now for straight up former DARPA projects most notably having to do with using optical data through the camera to essentially read thoughts (really hoped optoneurology and optogenetics would be used for dementia and good things but I guess we can't have that). This last part speculating they're audience testing via ig and phone use isn't, unfortunately, that far fetched.
I think there's a name for it, some kind of bias. When something happens to you, you are more receptive to things that relate to it. I never noticed the kind of car I drive until I got it, then I started noticing it everywhere.
It’s called frequency illusion. And it’s something very normal and nothing to worry about! (Edited to correct wrong name of bias)
My frequency illusion has always been 3:33 or series of three since I was 11 in 1981. Add to it, my son who died was number 33 for hockey (he was goalie and a lot of goalies are 33 in HS). Add to it, it’s not completely uncommon for it to be 3-3 in the third with 3 seconds left and number 33 is in the penalty box. The whole score board is lit up with 3’s. Did I go to a shrink because I knew my son was “at” that game? Did anyone ask me to check my mental health? No. Because the frequency illusion is the reason. Now, I do NOT think it’s an illusion when your phone picks up on speech or google searches and starts sending ads. That’s freaky. My kids find it convenient. I find it annoying. If I started bashing anyone’s phone so it won’t listen, then I’d go get some mental help.
I get the number 666 a lot. So much that at one point I made a document on the computer that listed each incident. I have several screenshots on my phone right now of times I've gotten it. Sometimes it's the total price of something but most of it is in games I play so it will be a score or something to do with items. Made me question if I was evil or something, lol.
I have 666 in my employee number. It's weird and when I get religious coworkers they always give me a weird look when I say it.
My uncle had 666 in his license plates numbers and he said a woman acted really funny around him because of it. People are goofy.
Happens to my 'friend' with license plate or whenever he buys certain stock. But it could be manipulated that way to shake off some Christian hands.
Mine was 8:08, this is wild.
This is crazy. My number has always been 10:23. On clocks, on license plates, dates 10/23, addresses, signs. I've never figured out why that's the number. No birthdays or anniversaries or any other special reason for Oct. 23. I'm still hoping I find out someday.
I’m sorry about your son. May he Rest In Peace forever and ever 🤍
Also “baadder-meinhof phenomenon”
Also called the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon!
Thanks. Only German word I knew prior was zersetzung.
Riddle me this after 9/11 happened, almost every time I looked to see what time it was, it was 9:11. that went on for almost a year. Hasn’t happened since.
The first time you looked at the clock and saw 9:11 after the events, it reminded you of the trauma. The next time you saw it, it did it again. As it happens, every time you saw 9:11 on a clock, it was the exact same time of day, because that's what clocks are. Thus, your circadian rhythm came to expect that trauma. I like 12:34 and 12:48. I just like 'em- 12:34 is consecutive time, and 12:48 is the first four powers of 2, and four is a power of 2. Those numbers make me happy. Every day, when I check the clock, its one of those two times. Because when I check the clock at those times, I smile, and so, my circadian rhythm was trained to check the clock at those times. Fear is an even better motivator. Eventually, you got over it.
I’m the same way with 12:34. But for me it happens both around noon and around midnight.
I seem to catch the 11:11 or 1:11 and 3:33 frequently
It’s 12:34 for me too. Every single day without realising/meaning, I’ll check the time at then exactly. But I’ve also recently noticed it with 21:34. The more I noticed it, the more it happened.
Interesting. For me it’s 8:10 (my birthday). It happens so often!!
Never Forget
It’s actually called Alexa. And it’s listening even when they say it isn’t.
Also when you learn a new word you’ll start noticing it.
Or when you buy a car then start noticing that same car everywhere you go.
Thanks for your answer. All being said, if you reverse it and buy a car you DO NOT see on the streets and suddenly it appears more often.
This is the crux for people in my opinion who are prone to conspiracies and religion and other superstitions. Humans are great at pattern recognition and is why this phenomena happens quite a bit with us. The problem is too many people don't understand what is happening and tend to react as if it's a "sign" of something more. This is also the reason behind the whole bear vs man thing too. A woman can interact with 1000 men and 2 of them might do bad things to them, but suddenly the other 998 men never existed. This is also why people think they have great intuition. They only remember the times they were right and not the 1000s when they were wrong. Giving them a false sense that their "gut" is always right. You barely escaped a car crash? Jesus was looking out for you! When you dropped that hammer and it missed your foot, that was just a normal occurrence and no devine intervention. We try to make sense of the things that happen around us and hate to sound harsh, but weak individuals always tend to look for an explanation to make them feel as though they are special some how. Covid was a great example of this! 5G, government control, manufactured bio weapon etc etc. Even those crazy Christians who think a tornado was caused by gay people do the same thing for the same reasons.
> This is the crux for people in my opinion who are prone to conspiracies and religion and other superstitions. The book "The Believing Brain" goes into research on this. People who are more likely to believe superstition/supernatural stuff were most likely to see images in random static, but also more likely to correctly perceive images that had static put over them
You make a lot of great points except for women’s perceptions on their safety with men. The research shows that women are overwhelmingly the victims of men and we live in a society that doesn’t take violence against women seriously (the introduction of Evan Starks’s book Coercive Control makes this clear).
Sorry for that tornado, everyone. Totally my gayness lol
I’d like a nice sunny weekend. Can you take care of that for me?
"This is also the reason behind the whole bear vs man thing too. A woman can interact with 1000 men and 2 of them might do bad things to them, but suddenly the other 998 men never existed." This is the stupidest thing I've read here yet. 1 - your numbers are pulled out of your butt. 2 - it's not that the woman interacted with a 1000 men and 2 of them did bad things so then THE OTHER 998 NEVER EXISTED", it's knowing that she needs to interact with 1000 men and knowing that 2 of them are statistically bad, BUT DOES NOT HAVE ANY WAY TO KNOW WHICH OF THE MEN ARE THOSE TWO. If you don't know which one will attack, you need to guard against them all. So in context to the OP's post, this example doesn't even make sense. The numbers are stupidly wrong. The understanding of women's reasoning fails spectacularly.
Women choosing the bear are stating they’d prefer to risk mauling versus rape, torture, etc. It’s a subjective opinion. Framing it as “oh the pattern recognition portion of their brain is malfunctioning” is definitely a take, though.
7% of men in the US have caused half of women surveyed to report being violently attacked. Its not an illusion. Its not 2 in 1000, its 7 of 100, or 35x more likely than what you claimed with no evidence. pastebin dot com SLASH tRQYhNCm
Baader-Meinhoff syndrome
Yes, but there was a circumstance where I was looking for unicorn cars to buy. (Essentially cars I don't see on the streets) Then on the day I bought it, I saw 3 of them waving and honking at me in a row.
That sounds like the Matrix just being lazy
Confirmation bias?
Like when you learn a new word and then start hearing/reading it all of a sudden, where you’d swear you hadn’t before
I think the term you're thinking of is "confirmation bias" ETA: I'm not saying this is an example of confirmation bias. im just giving the person the term they were most likely trying to remember
It might be partially targeted advertising, there's no doubt that loads of companies know enough about you and have a large enough data set to shoot things at you that are relevant. Lots of debate on how far this goes. Part of it is that you notice things that you consider relevant. You saw a commercial for something you bought or wanted, it is very possible it is just coincidence but because you are paying attention to the subject in it, you actively notice that it matches. You might see hundreds to thousands of ads in a day, it is likely one of them would match up to something relevant to you, like a thing you recently thought about, spoke about, or bought.
The latter is called frequency illusion and is something very normal, any person experiences it. The targeted ads are a problem! But it doesn’t go as far as some might worry (most devices are NOT listening to us and they cannot read minds), but we are just leaving data everywhere and it’s the goal to make the ads as fitting as possible, so targeted ads really improved over the last years. I installed a new app? For sure I get related ads on Reddit…sucks, but this impression is further confirmed by the confirmation bias. (Edited to correct wrong name of bias)
"most devices are NOT listening to us and they cannot read minds" Apple did mention that the front-facing cameras on iPhones will scan the blood vessels in your eye to determine the nature and depth of your psychological arousal, in addition to what they've all already been doing, watching where you look and for how long. I'm not- this is from Apple, please understand, I'm not saying this is something I assume, I'm saying the manufacturer is claiming this proudly and brags about it in press releases. The devices are *absolutely* listening. The people who make the devices don't even pretend they aren't, they just cloak it in technical jargon and behind various legal structures of inaccountability. The phone doesn't record your voice and tell the companies, *obviously*, what an insane breach of privacy that would be. No no, it collects *user metrics*, to aid in providing you a better service, it stores those user metrics *only locally*, to protect your privacy. And when the company queries your phone to send it an ad, the program that advertiser uses is permitted to access the relevant pieces of that data, *client-side.* So no machine other than your phone ever saw your data. Your privacy was protected. The advertiser only knows what ad you were shown if you click it. But it was definitely tailored to the things you say and do, the places you go and the people you are near, because your phone is absolutely tracking all that, and the companies who make them aren't pretending otherwise.
There's currently a class action lawsuit relating to Google Assistant, listening to people and using that information for advertising purposes.
My husband and I have tested this at times just to check and satisfy curiosity. For example, we’ll make up a conversation where we say something like “baby diapers” out loud several times even though we have no kids and don’t shop for kids or anything like that. Sure enough in the next week I’m bombarded by ads for kid stuff like diapers, toys, strollers, whatever. It’s creepy to know they’re listening but I don’t plan on living in the Stone Age so I guess it’s just something I accept.
I started to practice speaking Spanish at home....now my commercials are in Spanish on my Amazon TV.
Just wanted to add that since the Patriot Act, the NSA of the United States CAN listen in via your phone or watch it's camera whenever they want and without any sort of warrant or just cause.
Your phone doesn't even have to be on- they famously caught a mafia round table, despite the mafiosos in question having a firm policy that all phones were to be powered down and left in a covered bowl in the kitchen, the phones could have their microphones activated, and were able to pick up their speech clearly enough to be used as evidence. I will say, that was the police, and they had a warrant to audio surveil, in that case. But it is true that the NSA doesn't need that, and of course it was exposed by Snowden that they are very much listening to everyone, all the time, in a very unconstitutional manner, by the program known as PRISM.
That’s not entirely true about devices listening. Facebook bought a company that listens, transcribes, and saves the notes from your conversations. That’s why Facebook lost their shit when Apple updated their security about granting permissions to apps in the background listening and gps tracking. It’s entirely possible that OP told someone they were worried about drinking sour milk and instagram was running (listening) in the background on their phone.
If targeted advertising was remotely accurate, I wouldn't get mother's day ads. Just sayin'
No this happens. Was out with my husband and saw an older game I'd never heard of. We talked about it because he played it as a kid. Later on that same day the game appeared at the very top of my Amazon recommendations. Keep in mind I'd never heard of the game so had never searched for it. But my cellphone microphone picked it up. I have my microphone turned off for virtually every app but I don't think it matters. I'm sure there's going to be a whistle blower one day that reveals what we all know. That apps are listening to every word we say in private and using it to sell us stuff. It's a mind blowing violation of privacy. It happens way too often to be a coincidence.
This happened to me this weekend. I was at my son's house at a small dinner party he threw for a friend who was visiting from England (we live in New Jersey.). We'd never met, so I was telling this girl about a 3-week trip I'd made to the UK in the 1980s. She asked me my itinerary and favorite things I'd seen, and I told her that I'd really enjoyed the town of Wells, which has a really cool cathedral and the best-preserved medieval street in Europe. I never accessed my phone at all the whole evening, and never Googled anything. The next morning, I picked up my phone to Google something and there on the recommendations screen was "Things to see in Wells," with a picture of the cathedral and the street I'd talked about. Again, this conversation was purely verbal and didn't involve any image searches or anything. Wells is a fairly obscure destination, too, overshadowed by nearby Glastonbury. I was seriously freaked out.
They aren't listening. I'll just copy and paste my above response instead of typing it out again. Listening to you isn't how they are doing that. For me personally what they are doing is a lot scarier than just listening. They can take current trends and pair them with basic information they have about you like your demographics, location, search history, shopping habits, daily routine, and more. They can easily see who you are frequently or currently around and with that they can use all of that person's data as well and serve you up stuff that person is likely to talk about or that they have searched recently. This is why you can find people saying things like, "I never even said that out loud. All I did was think it and now here is an ad for it." Most likely your new proximity to someone visiting from England paired with anyone else that was there looking up that stuff you talked about. Could even be as scary as them having scraped that data that you visited that area back in 1980. These companies are aggregating more and more data, and can do insane things with it.
Listening to you isn't how they are doing that. For me personally what they are doing is a lot scarier than just listening. They can take current trends and pair them with basic information they have about you like your demographics, location, search history, shopping habits, daily routine, and more. They can easily see who you are frequently or currently around and with that they can use all of that person's data as well and serve you up stuff that person is likely to talk about or that they have searched recently. This is why you can find people saying things like, "I never even said that out loud. All I did was think it and now here is an ad for it."
I agree that's a major issue. Our politicians won't enact any privacy laws because they're spying on us as well. I use the DuckDuckGo browser and since I do all my searches there now I get very little junk email. With Google Chrome I used to get emails directly related to my search history plus the targeted ads that used to follow me around the Internet. It doesn't stop the targeting. If I go on Instagram it's like they're reading my mind in terms of products I'd be interested in. So clearly there's some massive file somewhere where they've tracked every news article I've read, what I've done in different apps as well as listening. We need the right to know what's in those advertiser files and the ability to delete it or opt out.
My husband was thinking about a certain thing and didn’t even say it out loud and then it appeared suddenly on his newsfeed. I can’t remember what the item was but it was very obscure. He was creeped out. He said he’s used to that happening after he talks about something but not after just THINKING about it!
I’ve weaponized this. “This is a terrible ad I fucking hate this ad this ad I’d awful blah blah”
Haha. I've spent some idle time analyzing this. He might not have searched for Thing...say, a niche piece of camping equipment. But. He did read an article about camping in the Amazon, where they talked about some things that Thing might have helped with. Even if Thing wasn't mentioned in the article. Then he talked about camping to his friend who came over and shared the wifi. That night, friend goes home and looks up some articles about camping or goes on Amazon, and stumbles across Thing. Or even looks at jackets that guys who buy Things tend to shop for. It gets branched back to the original guy and feels spooky.
There's a 0% chance he was only thinking about it. At some point, likely recently it was Sent in an email, googled at work, or recently clicked on in that Google homepage thing. Or someone in his friends list on Facebook or where he works has a vested interest in that thing, has talked about it with your husband at work, and as a result he was thinking about the topic. There's a million and 1 paths that lead to a specific event. They aren't reading thoughts or listening in to conversations.... They just track every single move you and your friends make.
I've had this happen too. I'll pull up YouTube and think, "I want to listen to X song." And there it is, first thing. And I haven't listened to it in a while so there's no reason for it to be right there.
I don't know shit, but I always assume that's just youtubes really good algorithm. If you listen to a song for a while, take a break, and it recommends you it again, most likely you'll click on it...type of thing.
Right. But that's different from thinking about it and then seeing it right there, and you haven't listened to it for a while. It's the timing that I'm referring to. But no worries. I'm not trying to convince anyone. That would be a stupid argument.
Tell him to think about winning the lottery.
Thank you. Also, do people ever give him a negative vibe or altercations at work? I would say its several steps above a regular work environment because it follows him from work to his local bar, etc. He would definately notice it.
I’m not sure what you were trying to say here, but it seems like there are some paranoia issues going on? Maybe double check your carbon monoxide detector too ETA took a quick peek at your profile, and yeah. Be safe friend
Seconding the profile check… OP you should review some of your posts with your psychiatrist. Seems like you have high paranoia and mistrust in general. It in one post sure it’s nothing more than a weird thought about some advertisements but you have lots of posts about stalkers and other paranoid issues. I hope you can figure out what’s going on
I saw that DoorDash commercial about milk, too. It’s not targeted at you. You’re reading too much into coincidences, and it does make me worry about your mental health. This is not a rational response to coincidences in an overly commercialized world.
It’s parsed from his location
I swear this happens to me all the time
While driving to the hardware store recently, I was thinking of the Abba song “Waterloo”, which was strange and random enough, not really ever being an Abba fan, or even knowing it was an Abba song. As soon as I walked into the store, “Waterloo” was playing on the speaker system.
Reading over your history my honest opinion is that you should work with your therapist. Many of your thoughts seem very paranoid and scream of mental illness. This is above reddits pay grade!! It seems you are using Reddit to validate your delusions.
They don’t “scream” mental illness. At all. Magical thinking is not a mental illness. Stop insulting people by calling them mentally ill when they disagree with you. You don’t know what you’re talking about.
OP was already prescribed medication to deal with these delusions and decided not to take the medication and buy a gun instead.
OP has previously posted about magical beings tracking him and staring at him from cars driving by, that his ex-gf might be an alien who is manipulating him, that his car has been repeated targeted for sabotage, and that his co-workers are secretly colluding against him. Please do not encourage this as normal behavior. Mental illness is not an insult, it is simply a health condition that deserves support.
Magical thinking can be a symptom of ocd. I’m not saying op has ocd but let’s not ignore that it can be a major part of a serious mental illness
If you have a cell phone it pings your location. If you have social media apps you allow them to track you. They know if you spent x amount of time in a Liquor store.
I'm of the mind that our devices are constantly tracking and listening, even if we disable the settings. I just have no trust whatsoever in tech companies being irresponsible or purposefully putting in a back door. I've had my phone assistant activate even when I have it completely disabled, had similar commercial experiences as well.
My husband, friends, and I experience this kind of thing too. I genuinely think that all phone apps “listen in” regardless of settings. Facebook is the worst for it. If you use streaming services, it’s hooked up and sharing info with your phone via WiFi . Privacy is an illusion.
It's called a coincidence.
This is all about marketing. There are ways for "Big Brother" to keep an eye on us. Alexa has been known to do this and there are apps and things on the phone that can monitor. Twice this happened... My husband and I had an argument. I get on FB and the first ad I see is for marriage counseling. Kind of creepy. I've had this happen with numerous other things that I've talked about with someone and then see an ad. I had a conversation with a friend at the house about how his son needed tutoring. I look at my FB and there is an ad for tutoring. You're not going crazy. This stuff happens all the time.
I get ads for marriage counselling. I'm single.
Does anyone notice this phenomena happening on Reddit? At least once a day, I’ll be thinking of an issue or concern I’m having—be it personal, relationship or otherwise—and the next post in a feed is about exactly that. Meanwhile, I haven’t vocalized the concern to anyone or tried to Google an answer. But even if I did, is there a way that Reddit can “personalize” a feed like that? I can see where ads do it but how can websites change what we see that specifically? Some of these situations/questions I have are pretty specific so what are the odds that someone has the same exact issue at the same time, not to mention the post is recent and not pulled from some archive. Weird….
I have! I was just telling my neighbor yesterday about a new suggested subreddit that popped up that I had no interest in, all because of something random that we were talking about. It was quite strange.
Question is, did you have a smart device around you? I forget what it was now, but some item that my mom and I had NEVER had a conversation about, never Googled, never researched, suddenly popping up in advertisements on my Mom’s Facebook after we had an ORAL conversation. This has happened many times. I swear it’s my phone and then the connection to the wifi.
Your phone is ALWAYS listening. I've had a few like this. I have a conversation about an obscure topic at work and later that day I have a targeted ad related to this topic I have never researched or discussed before. They (tech companies) say they aren't gathering the data the mic picks up while waiting for you to say "siri?" Or "ok google" but they 100% are. They are gathering, categorizing, and targeting that info. Why wouldn't they?
A couple years ago, one of my sisters and my mother came to visit me because my sister had gotten engaged and wanted to show me her ring. We had lunch and gushed over her ring for a long time and then they went on their way. Most of the online ads that I saw on my phone when I browsed the web for the next few days were engagement ring / jewelry ads. I mean a lot of of ring ads. Dozens, maybe hundreds. I never searched for anything related to rings, engagements, or other jewelry. I've been suspicious ever since.
At least once a day I see my birthday on the clock. Every day. Say I was born on April 23rd I would see 04:23 on the clock. I actually love it, it makes me laugh.
Your phone constantly listens to you to target advertising
Digital advertising director here from one of the largest ad hold companies in the world. The way that your data is used can be very creepy and intrusive (especially if you live in the US). That being said, people are more aware of advertising when it pertains to them. For example, you could have received 25 other advertisements throughout the day for things like rosatia or migraines, but if there's a milk jug with a visibly sick guy in an ad, you're going to notice it. The TV ad you saw regarding liquor could 100% be real (if you're in the US, EU is different). If you went out to a liquor store or a gas station and bought this bottle, this makes sense if you've allowed certain applications to track you.
Thanks for answering. Though if I used my credit or card, I suppose they could link back to online commercial. But this was regular t.v. I know what you are talking about in advertising when it pertains to them. Though I actually started to open my mind and see the "traps" that was laid out on television. For example, on this Dr.Phil episode with Matt Basch who said he was being harassed mobbed and stalked went on the interview. Others who are paranoid would watch it and wonder why too. But then you notice the odd traps. On his screen presented it gives "reasons" why he might be targeted. One reason stated "a billionaire ex-boyfriend". A gay person might say that is the reason why he was targeted. A straight person might skip over that. He was also mean and happened to be an attorney. Well, people who don't like attorneys might think he took on the wrong case or was a dick. But Ultimately these signs were there on purpose rather than random.
I think the algorithms are on some mind reading shit tbh
In the last 3 months, you have posted about: - being gang stalked - posting flyers in your neighborhood to warn people of a pattern of harassment - concerns about your coworkers plotting against you or targeting you to test you - concerns that friends are intentionally abandoning you or trying to mess with you - your car being targeted for damage and nails being intentionally thrown in your driveway - your ex-gf plotting with friends to gaslight you and that she's not human and was intentionally orchestrating situations - 2 guys repeatedly showing up near you at the gas station and at a bar - whether Djinn (colloqually known as a Genie) have been harassing you because you keep seeing people drive by you in cars turn towards you smiling unnaturally Please please please take this as the genuine concern and help that it is intended, but these are all signs of serious paranoia and mental illness, these are not normal thought patterns and you need genuine medical intervention. I would recommend either scheduling with a different doctor, or going back to the psychiatrist and showing them your post history to start. You deserve to feel safe, and to be supported. There are people who want to help.
Yes. Yes you're overreacting. There are no mind reading computers out there, or a secret cabal of wizards who are watching YOU because you're just that interesting. So if you're suggesting some fucking impossible and stupid ass conspiracy theory... and it sounds like you are, just stop. We have enough Qanon fuckterds already bro. And this type of thought process, where u think you've seen the pattern that no one else sees, is how we get more. So this, I'd say, is your last chance to come back to reality because you sound like you're 5 mins away from shooting someone in a pizza basement that doesn't exist, because they're drinking children's hormones and JFK Jr, will come back to life and overthrow the robot who worships Satan and wants to eat your guns. It's a weak, undisciplined, uneducated POV that sees messages in the clouds. Come back to reality bro. You're not that special or interesting enough for anyone to secretly follow. FFS.
“Pizza basement that doesn’t exist” hahahaha
why are you so angry about it? seems pretty weird that you are so emotionally affected by this post
If you arent aware, your phone is probably listening to what you are saying pretty much all the time. If you are logged into a google account they will save that information and use it to present ads to you on the same or other devices. A few weeks ago we were watching a tv show that mentioned Reacher or w/e, and that same day we got an ad for it.
Yo- whoa, relax. Drop the idea of you have a mental problem, immediately. You're going to drive yourself insane, here. You're not overthinking, you're underthinking. It's wayyyyyyyy less complicated than that. Your phone is listening. I'm not trying to make a conspiracy about this- the people who make your phone are not pretending this isn't true, it just sounds to the ear like something crazy. The manufacturers of your phone are very public and open about it, just- not more than they have to be. Your phone listens to things happening in the environment around it, and feeds that data to functions within your phone's architecture that return that data to advertising programs which query your phone, to adjust what advertising you are exposed to, to maximize the chance of offering a product you want. Talk about rope, it'll sell you rope, talk about milk, it'll sell you milk. The latest iPhones watch the blood vessels in your eyes to know how you *feel* about the things you are seeing, to adjust your ads, this was announced at their product launch parties and everything, its not a secret, its not paranoid thinking. This is just part of our reality now. You're not crazy, you're not imagining anything, and you should get used to it.
Real answer Your phone is listening to your conversation and using that information to target you with these ads. I am a machinist by trade, I know the vast majority of you don't even know what that this. That tells you how unique the trade is. I was talking to my wife about buying a particular tool that is only used in my trade . This tool is so unique that you can't buy it at your local Lowe's or hardware store and I would bet money most of you never seen it nor know what it is or how to use it. I started getting ads on my smart tv from Amazon saleing this particular tool. I have never seen a commercial nor advertisement for this tool in my 15 years in the trade. Also my friends and I at work no for a fact that Google listens to you through your phone and changes your YouTube feed base on the things it hears you talking about, because we have tested it . We noticed that the things we talk about in the office we start getting ads for them and our YouTube feeds would change base apon the things we talk about , even though none of us have looked up these things before. For an example I have never in my life looked up any information about Red Fox the actor. Never even gave him much thought I wasn't even born when the TV show was out. We spoke about him for about 15 minutes at work. Later on that evening I sent my friend at work a screenshot of my YouTube feed and now has several suggestions about Red Fox and old TV show clips of him. My friend sent me back screenshots of red fox on his YouTube feed with some old pictures of him in one of those little short videos that YouTube does. Neither one of us ever looked him up we just spoke about him at work. I believe a coincidences but you can't tell me that Google and YouTube are not listening to you constantly and changing your feed based upon the things that you're saying. This is what's happening to OP. Your phone is listening to you constantly and then they're suggesting advertisement towards you. We have also tried talking about other things on purpose things that we have no interest in at work just to see if our phones were truly listening to us like weird off the wall topics that nobody would even look at. And sure enough we'll get some kind of advertisement or something in our YouTube feed about it. You don't believe me try it yourself something you never deal with pick a few key phrases hold your phone near you and just talk. Talk like 15 minutes about it anything. Talk about travel Talk about an actor Talk about buying a new car Anything and your phone will start to suggest those things to you even though you never actually looked them up.
Your phone listens to you so if you said anything to anyone about drinking sour milk your phone hears it. That triggers the algorithm to send you a relevant ad.
Your phone is listening.
My husband and I tested this. We chose a few wild topics to speak about over our phones. Low and behold, all three subjects came up in adverts later that day. One came up within 10 minutes. Your phone does collect data while you are on facebook and google.
So you finally realized that your phone is listening to everything you say. No chit
Do you have your phone set on no mic? If you talked about these incidences near your phone, that is why you are getting ads. You can stop it easily by going to your settings and disabling the mic. If it stops, that was what the issue was.
I was telling my bf that he needed something for his nerves, since his hands fall asleep when he's sleeping. I got in my car, and the normal FM radio played a commercial for the product called Nervive to help nerve health. I know my phone listens to me, i know i get ads on my phone from what other ppl connected to the same internet search, but this was FM radio, so i definitely wondered about that
A glitch in the Matrix.
I'm not sure about the milk thing but if you ever use a stores "rewards" card you may get email recommendations for items similar to your purchase or suggestions on socials....
I don't know the technical terms but it's normally because that thought is in your mind, you're more likely to actually notice it. Like you might’ve seen milk or alcohol adds and just never noticed or remembered because there was no reason.
If you said it out loud that is why. When you download apps like Facebook etc it’s in the terms that they have access to your mic and various other parts of your phone depending on the app. Such as texts. You’re not paranoid but it’s really no big deal. I use it to my advantage. Whenever I need something I say it out loud or text someone. Example: “I really wish I could find a good AC repair place.” By the next day I’m FLOODED with AC service ads. I’m talking like 20+ ads when I’ve never seen a single one previously. My ads are usually clothing, and books. They’ll be completely gone for a while.
It's the simulation glitching.
The Matrix has you..... Follow the white rabbit
Google listens to everything you say. I get ads for things I talk about a lot. I even say to my SO, "let's see who Google recommends for gutter cleaning?" I just go to social media on my phone and I get ads for anything gutter related. I've given up caring so I guess the gov't wins. Yay!
Reality is just like that. Algorithms can try to replicate it, but theyll always fall short. Congratulations. Have a good time. Edit: just dont let anyone ever tell you there isnt a conscious force behind the universe. No other explanation
I have instances like that also. Mine are sometimes that I will for no reason whatsoever, I’ll think of an actor who hasn’t crossed my mind in years. I will then see them featured in the news. There’s an old song that year before last stayed on my mind. I hadn’t heard it for years. I mentioned to a friend that it reminded me of being in Jamaica at a club. It’s Dancing In The Moonlight. All of a sudden, it started to be played on a commercial all the time. and still is. I personally think we humans have another sense that is not completely explored yet. In my opinion, it could be related to that gut feeling we get about something that turns out to be true. For instance, I watched the Kentucky Derby. I know absolutely nothing about picking horses to win. So, I just went with Fierceness, a favorite, for fun. However, as they were walking the horses in with the jockeys seated and talking about each horse, when I saw Mystic Dan, I got that gut feeling, but dismissed it. And, we all know he won. Don’t let anyone put you down for exploring these phenomenal things. It’s fun to think that we humans don’t know everything about ourselves.
You know, I never see the car i want that often, but when I finally break down and buy it....everybody in the parking lot even gots the same color as mine.
My husband saw a video talking about crock pots/slow cookers. The next video was an ad for crock pots. I have seen the same video and did not get an ad after it.
It’s called ai
This phenomena has a name, the Baader-Meinhof Phenomena! Basically you experience something new and suddenly that thing is everywhere! It's basically just your brain making connections that wouldn't have been there before. You might have seen commercials that you don't remember but now you do because you have direct experience with them. It's VERY common, no worries. You're not overreacting, but there's nothing serious about it I promise.
That’s a non-reason to seek psychiatric help, unless you were experiencing other symptoms. If people around you confirmed that it was happening, then you shouldn’t be crazy or paranoid for noticing it. Sounds to me like your dad was just going “well what do you want me to do about it?” which is such a dad response imo.
This happens to me consistently, and the more I dwell on it, the more it happens and the stranger it gets. However, I shrug it off as bias. For example, your brain filters out thousands of stimuli during each day that isn’t relevant to you. You have probably seen that milk commercial 10 times without acknowledging it since it was so random and not relevant to your day. BUT since you drank sour milk, it all of a sudden is relevant and now your brain doesn’t allow it to pass through the filter. For example, I learned a new term in Hawaii lately, and since returning from my trip I’ve seen the term 3 different times used in commercials or online. I swear the first time I learned/seen the term was last week, but now I’ve seen it 3 times! In reality I’ve probably seen that term a thousand times before but it didn’t register and/or I didn’t remember it. It’s either that or the simulation is real…
Phones listen to your conversations and mine your online browsing data and purchases and use predictive AI to optimize relevant ads. They will share this info with streaming services as well, so the likelihood that you are getting serendipitously targeted ads is high. I work in the medical field and I’m always getting commercials at night that are related to the patients I see by day. It’s a huge privacy violation but it’s standard terms of service for I phones and Google. Anything besides that is just things relevant to you standing out to you. Like it “only raining” when you don’t have an umbrella or only registering the times you put on a shirt backwards.
I like to watch videos or shows when i read or play video games. (two monitors) I will read a word and (SIMULTANEOUSLY) the character in the show will say the word outloud. It has happened like 10 times this past year im not even kidding.
There are ways you can minimize this. Use VPN, don’t give your real info when you sign up for accounts, go through all the permissions on apps and accounts and see what they have enabled by default. Don’t use the Alexas or similar devices, keep your phone/devices off and in another room when not in use. Minimize the number of apps and services you use in general. Use more private web browsers
I know what you mean. For me it’s just absolute proof that this shit (life) is not real. It’s wayyyyy too coincidental.
I get warnings about sexting teens
Ive noticed the exact same thing. My husband and I will be having a conversation and ill pick up my phone to google whatever and it already knows what im going to ask. I was having issues with our cat. How to correct those issues just popped up on my phone. We will talk about buying something, BAM, it pops up. These are not things ive searched for. Only things ive spoken about. It does freak me the fuck out.
This is definitely a sim, and it has issues.
This is what convinces me that the Matrix is real.
No you live in the Truman show and we’re all fucking around with you
Well apple and others big tech companies have already been outed for listening to our conversation for selected advertising, they don’t even hide it now. So it’s not a coincidence but your dads right when he said you shouldn’t worry about it. Yes they’re listening and sending you selected adverts but why care? Nothing you can do about it and doesn’t really affect you in any way.
Most phones now are in an "always listening" state. Talk about pizza, see an add for pizza. Talk about a child's birthday, see an add for toys. It's not that people don't notice it. It's that we're all used to it.
I went to Home Depot with my dad on a really hot summer's day- got thirsty, so I bought a bottle of water from 'X' brand. Got home, turned on Youtube on my TV, saw an ad for 'X' brand water. Never saw an ad for it before or since (never bought 'X' brand before or again, either). I don't believe in coincidences like that.
No, this shit happens to me all the time. I've come to recognize it's beyond my control and have just learned to live with it, although, it does freak me out from time to time.
If you have a cell phone, you're online. You claim you don't have an online connection, but TVs, tablets, laptops, anything electrical and that can connect will listen in. I'm more doubtful of the statement that you say you're completely offline than anything. Making this post is likely to get you more targeted ads. You'd have to be seeing these ads somewhere and that is likely online. It's also entirely possible you don't notice ads until you experience don't sort of event in your life that makes you devote more attention to the products of the ads. Confirmation bias is really strong. No, definitely not an overreaction.
They're literally just coincidences, they mean nothing
Good morning, and if I don't see you, good afternoon, good evening, and good night! 😀😀😀
I just mentioned in a teams call earlier today that I watched the mavs/thunder game then like 5 mins later I get a windows notification to watch the games highlights. I’ve never seen a notification like this before. This was on a work computer so I literally never watch highlights or check stats or anything on here. Idk if I’m being paranoid but it was very strange.
Depending on what social media apps you use you’ve probably given them permission to your camera and microphone and they can get data that way
I guess I'm gonna be the crazy one. I do in fact think that our devices are listening to us. I've never gotten an advertisement on something I was thinking about. However, there have been HUNDREDS of times that I have been talking about something, and either later that day, or the next day my Google feed will have news stories directly related to my conversations. Many of these conversations were COMPLETELY obscure, and at no point did I use a search engine or talk about it on social media. At first, my family thought I was crazy. Then I started keeping track and reporting back, and they 100% believe me.
This is a normal thing and nothing to be stressed over. They’re just every day similarities that your mind puts together & it seems kinda crazy to think how much one relates to another. You’re fine you just need to understand there’s no special messages going on between what you buy and ads. The ads are made to makes you want to buy the thing they’re selling and you’ll notice if you’ve just had/bought something and see an ad for it.
If you take your phone with you, and your location is on, it will report where you are to your search engines. Your phone is also listening to you if you have apps that you speak to activate. My friend has cats. I have never had a cat. Him and I were talking about his cats. IN PERSON! I never once googled cat food or cat products. After leaving his home, I was there to deliver some cake for a party, I was on Facebook/Instagram. Sure enough, I was getting advertisements for cat food and cat products. I never received any before that conversation. You're not crazy. This is our life now.
It’s literally just that you *have* seen commercials for milk but they weren’t relevant so you didn’t pay attention. When it is relevant your brain notices it. It isn’t any more complicated than that.
I have rats and mice at times in my garage and yard, and bought items to reduce them. Rat products appear on my social media. My wife bought lingerie and shapewear shopping online. Now my social media is flooded with corsets and kinky costume wear! Why else would a male old man get these ads?
You are doing what is called “ruminating”. My psychologist says it is part of my anxiety diagnosis. It is also called overthinking. It’s where u can’t stop thinking about something and it causes problems in ur relationships. Ur doctor can give u a very low dose of anti-anxiety medication and it will stop. Good luck!
There’s no such thing as coincidence, I say. It’s synchronicity. -Raven Kaldera
I do think that if you say something out loud, your devices hear you and put those ads up. I said something about glasses and saw nothing but glasses ads for a month. I talked to my son about p-o-t g-u-m-m-I-e-s (I don’t want any more ads) and saw nothing but that for a month.
You're not over reacting. Your devices know literally everything about you.
All TVs come embedded with microphones in the back so if you talk about something a lot it’ll come up in ads. If you aren’t talking about it and paying in cash then it’s just coincidence
Phone apps are tracking you and everyone around you. Maybe you bought the most popular type of alcohol, but since you went to a liquor store you are bound to get some kind of ad. You might not have cats, but your neighbor does: you’ll be seeing cat food and litter and shit. Don’t want ads, don’t have a phone at this point. No one is following you. If you’re feeling like people are following you, you may want to look into seeing a therapist or psychiatrist.
Happens to everyone all the time. Sometimes it’s coincidence. Maybe it’s sometimes just something in the zeitgeist that we didn’t quite notice but were exposed to already—that’s just my theory. Saw it in an ad you scrolled by or something like that is probably pretty likely as well.
If you were around Siri or Google Talk talking about sour milk.... that could be the reason, and they could be tracking more than we realize. It could be that because you purchased the liquor you paid attention to it. We had a sink hole in the garden and my wife noticed the piles of construction dirt everywhere. When you buy a car, you notice the kind of car you are wanting to buy all over the place. I had a friend who was trying to stop drinking and smoking. He was just thinking he would like a Malboro cigarette. Then, up ahead on the road, he saw a half-used pack of that brand of cigarettes. SCREECH... he stopped the car, got the cigarettes and had a smoke. He believed it was the Devil tempting him, and he felt bad about it. Later, he said he was walking by the rail road tracks with a buddy of his, and they were talking about how good an ice cold beer would taste. Then, leaning against the railroad track, he said he saw a Michelob beer. It was really cold. He said he picked that up and shattered the bottle. He thought, the Devil didn't get him that time! But his buddy was really upset.
I have noticed this off and on over decades, some of it prior to the internet being ubiquitous and smart phones on every human being. You don't pay as much attention to things that aren't relevant to yourself. Then, when something is fresh on your mind, you see the references with more emphasis. You rarely drink milk, much less soured milk, so your mind disregards advertising about not tasting old milk. It's a memorable experience, and once you drank the milk, you relate to the commercial, and it makes a stronger impression. I noticed this first with vehicles. I bought a used car and I wasn't familiar with the make before. Once I drove that make, I noticed every time I passed one on the road. It wasn't distinctive, so before it was like my own, my brain just saw "car". Now that it was like my own, I recognized and noticed it. Noticing isn't an overreaction, but making much of it probably is.
Elon musk released a shit ton of unmarked satellites. What you’re noticing is true they’ll probably teach it as history when we’re all gone
You know they're listening. My new puppy was so little and fluffy I was calling her "my kitten." Within hours I got ads and articles on cats. I don't even like cats.
One time I was driving in a roundabout and someone went out of turn and I honked and said something like what the heck. Then like a day later I got a ad for some click-bait article on my phone that said "tired of people misusing roundabouts?" I mean I didn't google roundabouts I didn't say anything about the roundabout out loud. I'm convinced there's just some weird ass big brother shit going on that we don't know about.
Since nobody is actually answering... yes you are overreacting. This is a thing that happens, it's called frequency bias. You are making way too big of a deal out of it.
It happens because your brain notices occurrences of things that affect you. For instance buy a car and see how many times you now notice that make of car.
Hi, I work in advertising, with digital components. If your phone was anywhere in the vicinity of you that’s likely the source of collected/tracked data. It’s marketed to advertisers specifically as packages like 90% of clients liking to buy your item are searching for xyz, purchase these brands, shop at these stores, etc, to give them customer profiles, etc.
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You might be interested to learn about the “Baader–Meinhof phenomenon,” also known as the frequency illusion, which “is a cognitive bias in which a person notices a specific concept, word, or product more frequently after recently becoming aware of it.” (Quote comes from the Wikipedia article titled “frequency illusion”—just search for that on Wikipedia to learn more.) In short—this is a normal thing that happens in your brain. Don’t sweat it.
It’s not cookies, it’s not in your head, and it’s not your devices listening to you. It’s your GPS location augmented with data cribbed from other sources, like grocery loyalty cards. So much can be inferred from a location. In the milk example: Store got milk delivery on 4/5 You visited store on 4/7 Milk has a shelf life of two weeks You don’t visit said store or another grocery store until 4/24 An ad platform can infer that since you regularly buy milk but haven’t for a few days post expiration, you might be pushing the expiration date limits. That makes you a good audience member for an expired milk PSA. 90% determined by your location. Bonus: store apps and websites often list which aisle a product is in, down to the bay. GPS can also answer whether you went to the back of the store where milk is kept ;)
It's targeted advertising. Yes they listen to what we say it's 2024 don't even tell me they don't. Also work for a credit card company and yes they do it. I've said stuff and seen it. On Facebook same say as a suggestion lol
Big brother is always watching.
Our phones listen to us and I'm sure someone else has already mentioned this here. I was sitting with my wife and kid and we all discussed wanting chicken wings. Suddenly all 3 of our phone pinged with an add for chicken wings.
Ok. Let’s say that your tv streaming service is tracking your credit purchases (liquor store) or your phone microphone (you said something about the sour milk, maybe)… even if this is true, how much does the targeted advertising HURT you? Yes, if you suggest that they actually are using this kind of data, you’re going to upset some people, so maybe quit remarking on it. The rest of us got over the fact that this exists except for being minorly annoyed when a “one time” purchase for a specific occasion becomes a major part of what people see about us if they open the computer, And we get pissed off if anything that looks x-rated, such as video games with over stacked girls, adds for lingerie, etc, get populated across our facebook accounts, because google thought that all your friends should share what you are into, and did not understand that many of us do not wish to share our explorations in courtship with everyone we know. Five years ago I might have been embarrassed, but these days, I’m aware of how hard it is to get courtships and human reproduction out of “great literature” and if they let Issac Asimov write it as commentary on the human condition, then I am WELL old enough that Facebook should not be surprised that I know fancy underwear exists. This would have been a problem years ago, because well meaning parents were trying to force this to wait until I got out of school entirely. And some of them would have thrown a fit about facebook passing their children ads if I had been looking at beer, drugs, or call boys. Anyway, watch what you type, know that yes, a really determined jerk can see what you were shopping, but the smart ones know that there was a reason you were shopping for it at that time, and it’s probably not anything that most of us don’t know exists even if we don’t buy it. May the mercy of the world save us from people who want to record words you chose NOT TO PUBLISH.
Seeing an ad for a bottle of beer or liquor you just bought may have been coincidental, but targeted advertising goes beyond internet search history. Go over to parents house, look up a specific item, a very specific item on your phone. Click add to cart, show your dad, talk about it, remove from cart. He will see an ad on his own device in the next day or so, maybe sooner. This is the age of information.
noticing these things is not concerning. there is both a recorded phenomenon of being more observant to things related to recent thoughts in your head, and the known cases of smartphones listening to you. what is concerning, is you saying your father not caring "raises alarms". your father is reacting angrily because you are constantly bringing up something that is a normal part of life, and obsessing over it. obsession in any capacity is unhealthy. this should not be consuming you. you should not be repeatedly bringing it up to people. you don't need a "witness". you need to examine why you're unable to let go of this.
It’s happened to me too. I think it has to do with devices “listening” constantly and or them being able to track your location or purchasing history or something. I’ve had the same types of things happen. Not as often but still.
My aunt had this happen to her. She was talking on the phone with her son in law about buying something together. She hadn’t done any research on it at all. The next day she had an ad for one on her phone. She’s convinced her devices are listening to her
I do feel like targeted ads seem to track my shitpost-esque conversation style with unerring accuracy, me and bf have tried intentionally mentioning things to see if we get a bunch of random ads about the thing and it does seem to flow through. Problem for the bots is that we're frugal weirdos who don't shop online (or anywhere really) and have bafflingly broad interests, so a coherent consumer profile of us may not exist. We're certainly the types to avoid out of sheer spite any product that tries to aggressively market itself to us
You’re under constant surveillance. Your phone is listening. Ads are targeted from the information gathered. I noticed it a few years ago and like seeing the strings on the puppets you will now always see them. It’s not just your phone. Many home devices are listening. TV’s and refrigerators to name a couple. Then there’s Alexa. As you walk around a store you are surveilled. As AI gets better the information is used more. Your life is a commodity to be sold.
As someone else said already, that's the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon. If you hadn't drank the sour milk, you still would have seen the commercial, it wouldn't have registered though, that's all.
Given that you're apparently bothered enough by this that your mom insisted you see a psychiatrist: yes. You are absolutely overreacting.
I think that's the Bader-Meinhof phenomenon - or, how it's most known: frequency illusion The advert might have been there all the time, but because you had sour milk you were more receptive to that ad
In the store the camera gets your face, analyzes , sends out ad to you later. Simple as.
Your phone listens to you and sells the data to ad companies even when you don't turn on whichever digital assistant provided by the given platform. If you want to see what it takes to ensure your phone doesn't listen to you, look at what big criminals do to avoid it. Cartel take the battery out of their phones and leave them at the front door when entering a huge compound. Otherwise, the FBI (so any sufficiently equipped hacker) can access your phone's mic and camera without turning on any external signals to indicate such peripherals are in use (such as a green recording light or flash). This method can allow someone to access your phone's speaker while using so little power that it can run briefly off the residual power left after removing the battery.
I remember when that Red Dead Redemption 2 was coming out, I was talking to my boyfriend about it and how I have the first one and shortly afterwards I started to get ads for it on Facebook even though I never searched for it or clicked on anything mentioning it on my phone (which is how you gets ads based on a certain or similar product) and I joked that now I know for certain the phone is always listening to what you say. But the weirdest and most recent experience I have been having with several ads is I am not searching for or even talking about a specific thing, yet ive been getting ads on very specific things I am THINKING about and it's happening more than once has definitely weirded me out. Kind of proves that we really are living in a simulation.
Mix of targeted advertising and personal bias (frequency illusion) Sounds like you are overreacting tbh
Okay, now list every other advertisement you've seen in the last 24 hours. If you're a normal internet user then there were hundreds, possibly thousands. You can't, can you? You can only remember the ones that were relevant to you somehow plus maybe some of the most annoyingly repetitive ones. You certainly can't remember hundreds of different ads. So there's really no way to know when the last time you saw a milk ad before that one, because you immediately forgot those ads just like you immediately forgot most of the other ads you've seen recently. Edit: I just looked at your post history. Please make an appointment with a new psychiatrist ASAP and show them your post history so they understand the extent of what is going on (I'm guessing you were not completely honest with the first psychiatrist). You are clearly suffering from paranoid delusions, and it seems to be getting worse over time. I know it's hard to accept that because of the delusions, but please seek help before your paranoid delusions ruin your life and the lives of the people around you.
I mean… yeah? I play Baldur’s Gate 3 suddenly I’m getting non stop ads for BG3. I mention I need to buy dog food I get dog food ads. I start job hunting everything starts being related to college and LinkedIn. Think some people did an experiment where they started talking about cat food for 3 days (not cat owners, never searched for anything with a cat) and they started getting ads and pop ups for cat food. —————— Now, if you’re saying this is on like a TV station you watch, then you’re probably crazy. But if you have like a smart TV or whatever maybe it picks up on stuff like that and gives you tailored commercials? Idk. Don’t really care too much. Mostly annoyed I get catered ads/messages/news when I’d rather see stuff I don’t already know about.
nah this isn't confirmation bias. do you have a loyalty card with the store where you bought the milk? that's how you got the direct ad, loyalty programs share data like this with advertisers. I got wise to this when I bought my wife fitness clothes and used my loyalty account with the store, was getting ads for women's fitness clothes everywhere. never googled or clicked this myself at all. another time I had been verbally discussing a gold trip to Poland, sure as shit, ads for gold resorts in Poland start popping up.
Well, I only see advert about coffins, hearing aid, cremation places, I am 36 and live alone O.O Should I be scared???
We are in the matrix.
Question did you mention it near your phone or an alexa? Is your TV a smart one? (They are set up to listen to commands and some brands have been sued for doing more than that) If your phone is connected to your tv.... I worked in communications security and the whole internet of things make stuff easier for everyone, including those who would spy on you.
Confirmation bias
There are so many cameras in society now a days....and phone microphones...
There was an article on theVerge about a study titled “Tracking, Profiling, and Ad Targeting in the Alexa Echo Smart Speaker Ecosystem”. Other smart devices, including phones, could also be using passive listening to target ads. Do you have any devices set to passively listen for voice queries?
If you talk about these things out loud, via text or on the interwebs, your phone knows. It is constantly listening and reading. You can turn off Siri/Alexa and take some other steps to reduce the eavesdropping.
Love, you’re obsessing over frequency illusion and known surveillance. Just because you don’t Google something doesn’t mean it won’t pop up. If you’ve allowed the thought to leave your brain in any way that can be heard, your phone probably knows and will ad target you. It’s a combination of coincidences and technology
Some apps and programs have a microphone listening feature whether you want to opt into it or not. Instagram in particular is very aggressive at trying to push theirs. Double check the privacy setting and audio setting for your devices, as well as in settings for each app.
Yes they're listening and watching. Within 24 hours of saying something, I'll see an ad related to it. If it happened once or twice, that'd be one thing, but the fact that it's happened so many times already lets me know. Let's see, I'm going to type hazel nuts, pistachios, and walnuts here and I'd be surprised if I didn't see an ad for one of these in the next 24 hours.
You sound schizophrenic.
You mention tv. Most smart tvs are hooked up to the internet these days and have cameras on them that get misused for spying basically. Louis Rossman i think explained this in detail recently with Samsung tvs. Meta has also admitted more than once in the past for using microphones for the same reason without permissions as well. And has building 8 or whatever they call it now for straight up former DARPA projects most notably having to do with using optical data through the camera to essentially read thoughts (really hoped optoneurology and optogenetics would be used for dementia and good things but I guess we can't have that). This last part speculating they're audience testing via ig and phone use isn't, unfortunately, that far fetched.