Hot take: my phone keeps recommending me things I already bought, and I finally figured out why
Last week I ordered a $22 rain poncho off my phone during a storm on my route in Tacoma, and now every single app I open is begging me to buy more rain ponchos. Target app, Amazon, even the weather app has a poncho ad at the bottom. Here is what I think everyone gets wrong about this stuff: most people say the algorithm is "listening" to us through the mic, but I really don't think that's it. I tested it by talking out loud about a tent for three days straight, just saying "tent" over and over near my phone, and I got zero tent ads. What actually happened is I tapped the poncho listing, sat on that page for like four minutes reading reviews, and then bought it. That one tap and that slow scroll told the system way more than my voice ever could. Same thing happened when I looked up a specific dog crate for my sister's birthday and got crate ads for two months after I already bought the stupid thing. It bugs me that people blame the mic when the real issue is the apps just never stop showing you stuff you are done with. Does anyone else get stuck seeing ads for things you already own, or is it just my phone that can't let go?