zlacker

You need to widen your world view. Sure, Amazon does not give a shit about you, but while "big tech" holds most of the worlds money, such large and careless companies are an extremely tiny minority of the sum of companies out there.

The majority of companies are small to medium businesses that do actually care about their customers - when your customers are measured in thousands or less instead of billions, you will go belly up if you don't. They still use ads because how the heck would you otherwise know they even existed, and yes they want you to buy stuff but they hope you actually like the product afterwards so you end up helping them get known.

Think of it a bit like when your favorite tiny, niche YouTube channel uses clickbaity titles and thumbnails, or target the 10-15 minute mark, or use the same intro/outro format and duration as everyone else. If they didn't, no one would ever see their videos as they'd get deselected by the algorithm. No one will watch a video, or buy a product, that they do not know exists.

>>arghwh+(OP)
Thank you for proving my points: small to medium businesses do not see me as a person either, but as a customer. They don't care if it's @oh_god_pls_no spending 100 bucks, or @arghwhat spending 100 bucks. We're both just a wallet to empty to them. And sure, at their scale, keeping me or you happy is the most safe way of having a steady cash flow. But that's assuming they care about either of us as repeat customers.

If pissing me off after they've gotten $100 out of me means they get three other to spend $100, it's much more valuable than having me as a repeat customer. If someone found a way to triple my monthly spend but it made me miserable, said company would inevitably do it. Because if they don't, someone will come in, and eat them alive.

Advertising is purposefully inflicted misery, on all of us. The CEO of TF1, a french TV channel, called his job "selling available brain time to advertisers". That is all you are to them, whether we're talking about Coca Cola or Joe's Snoe and Foe: they want your money, because they die without it. Every company is a parasitic organism, and advertising is currently the most efficient way to spread.

>>ohgodp+jY
Your expectations are unrealistic and detrimental. Caring about their customers does not mean crying themselves to sleep at night, wondering why you haven't replied them.

Having you spend money on a product you end up liking is positive for both parties of that transaction. Imagine it's a book you like, and you recommend it to others - who then buy it too to read it. Or a song you get others to hear. That's a happy customer of an arbitrary product. Does the author or artist know who you are personally? Of course not, but they didn't need to for them to care about their customers and make something that they enjoyed.