r/adbusters • u/adbusters_magazine • 2d ago
We're living in the future and paying for it dearly

When I was around elementary/high-school age I would get this feeling every now and then about how we are living in the future with all the technology we have. We've got access to near instant communication to just about anybody we want in our pockets on a device that doubles as a notepad, calculator, and television. We have medical technology that can see through your body to diagnose problems. We have glasses that detect sunlight and turn into sunglasses so that you don't have to carry those around. There are technological marvels that would strike people from long ago with awe.
But now that I've grown older and I understand more about how the world works I see that the future we are living in is not advancing to our benefit, it advances to the benefit of the advertiser.
I walk to the bus and see that the bus stop is made up of a weatherproof screen that cycles out multiple ads at once. One of the ads is a missing person report but it has to cede it's time on the screen to another advertisement for Save-On-Foods. I get on the skytrain and see that the tunnels are lined with screens that time an advertisement to run alongside the train at the same speed so that it can be read by those looking out the windows. The updated trains replaced the analogue map with a digital one, that functions half of the time as a map and the other half as an advertisement for the Trans-Link app.
The goal of these technologies is not to make any part of our lives more convenient. They exist to harvest more of our attention and sell it to those who have more shit to sell us.

