While I am not a tin foil hat wearing conspiracy theorist, I am increasingly inclined to join the bandwagon of those who are proclaiming that the proliferation of AI will be the death of humanity!

Now, I'm not saying that because I believe that AI is going to become our evil overlords, but because I think a whole bunch of us are going to keel over and die from strokes as a result of having to navigate the eternal maze of apps, loyalty programs and subscription-based bullshit that seems to pervade every corner of society.

No, I do not want to download an app so I can communicate with my toaster! And no I do not consider it a feature that my toaster will send me a text message to let me know that my toast is now ready. I have eyes in my head. I can see when my toast is ready, thank you very much!

I also do not have the slightest interest in paying you $2.99 a month to subscribe to your newsletter giving me allegedly new ways to toast bread twice a month. I don't need to know new ways to toast bread. Toast is toast: it's bread it's been toasted on the outside. I toast it, I add butter, then either jam or cheese and that's it... we're done. Anything else is fluffery that serves no practical purposes... at least from where I'm sitting.

I also do not want to "join your mailing list" just because I am buying a loaf of bread at the bakery. And I'm frankly a little bit annoyed by the fact that when I tap my debit card the screen pops up to either have me complete a survey, or even to leave a tip for you handing me bread over the counter.

It's a bakery! I come in, I point at what I want, you hand it to me, I pay and we're done. You don't have some special bread selling skill that warrants leaving a tip. It's just complete nonsense.

The other day, I was picking up some pieces of wood for a little home project. As I checked out there was that question again as to whether I would be willing to complete "a quick customer satisfaction survey." To be honest the only way you can improve your customer service is to not ask me to complete service surveys while I am shopping!

Much of this trend stinks of the likelihood that businesses are getting these different point-of-sale systems that allow them to create surveys and all these extra bells and whistles, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's appropriate to use them!

Pretty much nobody cares about subscribing to the "broccoli of the week club!"

The thing that the stresses me out about this — and this is particularly true when I visit a large chain or a big box store — is that it is all but impossible to opt out of these things. And if you do insist that you just want to pay it with cash and not give any of your information such as your email address (that they almost always ask for) it virtually requires a manager to come and do a "manager override" on the terminal to allow the employee to bypass collecting this information.

It almost comes across as the shopping equivalent of those invasive Flock cameras they are installing everywhere!

I'm not sure where all this is leading, but I fear the day that I'm going to wake up and see the announcement that cash is no longer a thing, which is basically your kick in the butt that you no longer have the option to opt out. So much for freedom!

For now, I do the only thing I can. which is to voice my displeasure at having to deal with these things and use it as a talking point as to why I'm most likely not coming back to this establishment.

Feel free to leave a comment — this IS "social" media, after all!

As always, a 10% @commentrewarder bonus is active on this post!

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