this post was submitted on 19 Nov 2023
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I'm yet to see anything other than anecdotal evidence that proves that phones listen to what you say around them and serve ads based on that. the only thing I've seen was a research performed a few years ago that proved the opposite.
My assumption is that it's almost certainly the other way around. Ads visible surrounding you in your life work their way into your head and make it to your conversations. At that point it stops being subliminal and you're thinking about it and notice the ads.
My entire theory is hinged on the idea that advertising works. That all these companies spending millions and billions on ads fundamentally know what they're doing and that you're being hacked in an insidious and grotesque way by them.
My worldview still makes it a duty to protect your own goddamn soul by installing as many ad blockers as possible though
oh, I definitely believe that a part of the "I've been talking with my partner about a trip to Spain and now I'm seeing the ads about it everywhere" is experiencing frequency illusion.
another big part of the phenomenon is how predictable the human nature is in some ways. oh, you're middle class with a steady income and it's a second half of November, with the days getting shorted and the sun setting even sooner after the clocks have been adjusted? it's super difficult to guess that you might be considering a vacation somewhere warm and sunny.
I haven't thought about this possibility but it makes sense -- the infrastructure is in place for this kind of approach and it's certainly cheaper than the former theory in the first place.