June 27, 2012
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Intrusive Internet
Here we go again. Facebook can suck it. All those “like” buttons can suck it. Discord and I were driving back to New Haven from Tampa, and the radio station in Virginia broadcasted a tornado warning. So I went to my iThing to look it up, and then BOOM my Facebook claims I “liked” it. I didn’t even realize I was signed into Facebook! And it didn’t give me a box asking if I wanted to like it either. It just liked it while I was mashing at the page because it was loading slowly. A whiles back, a game or page or something that I’d looked at once claimed I “liked” it. Last year, there was a Facebook page that asked to access my Facebook data, the way Facebook apps did back then, and that added itself to my “likes”. Sometimes things I’ve never ever seen or heard about appear on it, stupid internet romance/personality quizzes claiming my support. Go away.
A friend begged me to download Rage of Bahamut for the iPhone/iPad and use his referral code. I played it for about a week. It was the sort of stupid thing where time is currency, and not checking back in time meant wasted currency, and my time-earned currency could be stolen away by PvP that I couldn’t opt out of. But you know what? I don’t mind that. I was fine playing inefficiently because I liked the pretty cards and didn’t care about being better than other players. But it kept sending me notifications! Its settings were all cosmetic, so I went to the notification center and turned them off for that app. I got them anyways. I turned the whole notification center off. I got them anyways. I deleted the app and went to the app store to leave it a scathing review. There, I saw the other reviews, which were incredibly incredibly stupid. All people begging for others to use their referral codes, so they could get an in-game reward. If you ever run into Rage of Bahamut, stay away! It’s a stupid game. It asks you to spam your friends, and you can’t turn off notifications. It’s also poorly-designed. It’s really hard to find anything in-game.
Sometimes I look at sites, or buy things from sites, or donate to something, or sign a petition. And then it asks me for my email address, sort of like an online signature. That’s fine. But then I get added to the stupid panlist by default, and it’s such a silly panlist that it sends many many emails over totally trivial things. I’m fond of the Democrats. But I don’t give a baboon’s butt if Romney got more donations than Obama. I certainly did not need six emails about it in one day. I saw it the first time. I might read it if it was on WikiNews. I don’t appreciate people trying to whip me into an outrage over something that isn’t an outrage. And all those emails asking me to donate to be entered into a lottery to have dinner with Obama. I wasn’t interested the first time, and I’m not interested now! It reminds me of a class of little students copy-paste spamming, over and over. I saw it the first time. I don’t need it every week for months.
It’s a real shame, because a panlist can be used to communicate important things. But here they just get lost in all the junk. And I unsubscribed. I found the tiny “unsubscribe” link, and then I did it despite the page trying to guilt me into staying. Oh, we know you get too many emails, but you should stay anyways because we need your help! Too bad.
There was some thing I joined awhiles back. It might have been ACLU membership? (But I don’t want to falsely accuse the ACLU if it wasn’t.) Some feel-good human-rights thing. I joined because the membership fee felt like a worthwhile donation at the time. But then they called me on my phone, and they asked me to donate. I said I would look it up online later. The lady on the phone did not say “have a nice day” and hang up. No, she kept right on talking, talking about how important it was and asking me to make a donation now. I said I did not feel comfortable donating to something I had not researched. I said I would look it up and decide then. And then she started to become cross and pushy, repeating how important she thought it was and asking me to donate then, and eventually I told her I was busy and hung up. Henceforth I am an enemy of phone campaigns.
It is vastly too easy to get things associated with me. They become associated with me, and it’s not an underlying passive association either. It’s one that makes itself felt and heard, like a sore in the mouth or a mosquito bite on the foot, that comes back to pester me, all for the sake of getting my attention or that of people whom I interact with. By uglifying my Facebook, by cluttering my inbox, by interrupting my iThings, by claiming my time for their beggars to chastise me, and by advertising to others that I allegedly support these things (I do not). In fact they are alienating me from otherwise worthy causes.
Where did all you zombies come from? But I don’t like you. I wish I could have a “dislike” button to permanently dislike you and make your popularity suffer. All you zombies, go away. To the rest of you, please disregard anything on my Facebook that claims I “like” it.
