this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2024
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[–] [email protected] 59 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (4 children)

A thread on rising credit card debt in the US, combined with news of sustained spending levels and a rosy outlook on the economy at the surface got me thinking about this.

Recent trends that I thought of:

  • Those "Pay over X months" schemes for smaller purchases than before.
  • Tip amounts appearing in more places than they need to be, and increasing.
  • Inflation of the prices of basic necessities and everything else
  • Everything becoming a monthly subscription
  • Deregulation of online gambling and related ads

I'm hoping for more recent trends and things I might not have considered like social media, but I also welcome personal experiences, expanding on any of the above and historical examples.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The subscriptions are out of control now. Sometimes we have to throw a tablet or phone at the kids, and of course they want the play the parts of the game they can’t click on because it’s locked. I have no problem shelling out something reasonable like $2-7 to just unlock all the crap and be done with it, but now most of these developers are asking for $10 a MONTH just to have access to all of the game assets. And they’re not live service games, have online, or even in-game currency; they just single player offline basic games like driving Thomas the tank engine around a map. Like, get fucked dudes.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Mobile games are so twisted and it's plain to see.

You reminded me of this video, 20 minutes of the basis of how to psychologically manipulate people into spending money for your game. 3:45 is the "Hook, Habit Hobby" part which is worth a watch too. It's from 7 years ago and elements of it may be beginning to crawl everywhere.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

I’ll definitely give this a watch later, thanks!

[–] [email protected] 22 points 9 months ago (2 children)

There are ads that portray people in humiliating situations, like not being able to afford their groceries while holding up the line at the checkout, so they download an app that gives them "free cash." This is portrayed as a perfectly normal, reasonable thing to do in this situation.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago

NGL I've bought a lot of people their groceries over the years

I've been that person and the child of that person who couldn't afford groceries, so I do what I can to help others

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Wow, that's dehumanizing...

I've been behind people who used price match for every item in their cart. I try to smile politely and not look annoyed, people do what they need to to get by.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Yeah I've been the person who couldn't pay too, and had to take items out

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It feels like everyone is ignoring your reference to apps like “Dave” that bombard me with ads to essentially payday lend me money if I have direct deposit.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

Oh, do they think I'm saying that people are bad for not being able to pay? Damn, that's the opposite of what I'm saying. These apps are predatory.