Sometimes it feels as if the marketing departments of stores that I speak of and like, listen in on my telephone calls. That is the only feasible excuse, in my opinion, for the highly specific and tailored advertisements that strategically pop up on my Facebook feed or Amazon list of suggested items to buy. At other times, I wonder whether we are just really close to technology fully managing to control us.
It is not difficult to see how it can do so. We already depend on it for so much anyway. Take for instance plane tickets, an algorithm tells us what is the best one for us, taking into consideration layovers and time frames among other things, faster than a human could. So why would companies not process other types of data, to better understand us and provide themselves with solutions for their financial benefit.
While technology is always being praised for helping us to work better and more precisely, the power of it also poses a huge set-back when it comes to living sustainably. For instance, it feels as if it takes away the social fun from shopping in store. Because of how hassle-free online shopping is, in our obsession with it, we subconsciously and involuntarily provide more information about ourselves than we should. In comparison, in brick and mortar stores, it is more difficult to track our behaviours and of course it is left up to human interest to process the information as best as it can.