273 - terrifying emotional manipulation units 😱💀
TEMU IS BRAINROT DESTROYYYYYY
, have you ordered from Temu?
WELL STOP BECAUSE IT'S THE DEVIL AND WHAT THE FUCK I'M SO SCARED WHY AREN'T YOU SCARED
Who cares about this woke mind virus we should be worried about the ţ̸̛͒͊̀̉͝ȩ̴̼͉̠̥͇̒̈́͝m̸̨̻̓͐̂͠u̷͕̣͔̺͈͐̆̋̌̕ ̵̛̝̗́́ͅͅm̸̙̋̈́̒̉͝i̷̧̩̪̼͗͊͂̀n̸͉̍ḑ̴̫̠̣̮̘̃́͑ ̵̤̹̗̖̓͜͝v̸̡̫̘̠̻͂̿͗ỉ̵̗̭͇̘͔̝ṛ̸̦̘̱͚͒͑͂͝ù̵̪̥͓ş̸̧̺͍͒ͅ.!!!!!!!!
You might be like 'Vince, Temu is so cheap and awesome and omg look at this stuff I was able to get for less than $20!' but let me explain why I hate this shit so much.
BRAINROT TO THE MAX
You know all those trends about 'dark patterns' and 'doomscrolling' and 'gamification'? Yeah, Temu has MASTERED it.
And it ain't good for anyone. Except Temu. Screw you Temu.
Here's a breakdown of how Temu has ramped up the behavioural engagement to the MAXXX and it scares me that it can suck in your brain so freakin' easily:
- I don't know if this happens for everyone, but the first time you open this devil app, it presents you with a spinning wheel of rewards that gives you coupons, or %off, or other rewards. This wheel is a version of a variable reward that makes you feel 'lucky' that you've got the best reward (which, by the way, IS ALWAYS THE REWARD). It also helps you compare what you could have had (which are all less good), so you feel like you got a GREAT DEAL when in actual fact you really just...didn't.
- They have all these coupons that let's them say 'omg you have won $750 worth of items!!!! CLAIM NOW'. Except...the coupons require you to spend X amount to get them, which they only tell you AFTER you've gone into the black hole of the app D: Look at how many of these freakin' coupons I got which I 'won' from a random spinny wheel thing somewhere on the app - how are you supposed to buy $300 worth of stupid shit on Temu???
- Let me talk about FARMLAND - this stupid 'game' took days of my life to get me working for like 4 'free' items. Essentially, you have to 'grow' crops on the app with water, which requires tapping on the wheat, and they slowly introduce other ways you can get water to grow your crops. Every crop you grow to 100%, you get '$1' worth of completion (the 99.5% you see up the top). EXCEPT. EACH WATERING INCREASES THE GROWTH SMALLER AND SMALLER. At the start it would increase the wheat growing by 10%, then it dropped to 5%, then 1%, then 0.5%, then 0.1% MY DUDE what a infuriating waste of time. This is called the goal gradient and also the sunk cost fallacy which is that as you get closer to the end, you'll keep pushing time into it because you're SO CLOSE you're NEARLY THERE. My colleague saw how crazy I was getting when I was frantically tapping for water while in a meeting with her. Absolutely cringe - I had to give up. [meme of guy giving up before he gets diamonds.jpg.png.tiff]
- GAMIFICATION. EVERYWHERE. What even is this game? Rock Paper Scissors? Another spinner? FISHLAND????? I don't even want to know.
- The power of free - giving away items or putting it out as a carrot for you. It's very addictive and very manipulative - look at how many of these things say 'free' on the front page THAT AREN'T FREE. I mean swear to god this is brainrot for people who love Amazon but want to get things cheaper. At the end of the day you're gonna be spending SO MUCH MORE money to make sure you can get them to send the trash to you. UGH. DISGUSTING.
- By the way, any of the free shit you claim, you still have to spend AU$40 to get anything from their warehouses shipped to you, so what the hell?? WHY YOU TELLING ME STUFF IS FREE AND THEN I HAVE TO BUY MORE STUFF grr I'm so angry.
- And then when you leave, they tell you to check your cart before exiting, just to create that LITTLE BIT MORE friction to leaving AND THEN will randomly send you emails once you're off the app to be like 'YO COME BACK WE GAVE YOU MORE FREE STUFF' which by the way YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO CLAIM UNLESS YOU SPEND MORE MONEY WITH US.
Absolutely DISGUSTING mastery of behavioural techniques to get you to buy shit. Amazon could NEVER.
Also I've spent at least AU$100 on it buying random stuff for my 3d printing so slay 💅
Chat soon :)
📋Today's Question
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✔️Real Life Recommendations
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Cham Cham Magical Seasoning - I went to the Finders Keepers Food Market last weekend and bought this 🌟🌟magical seasoning🌟🌟from this cool Korean brand Cham Cham. It's got a bunch of spices and salt etc. but CAN CONFIRM IT SLAPS even just with rice on its own. Actually pretty keen to try it with other stuff too - I'm sure it's something I could just like...make, but to be able to sprinkle something on my food to make it delish is good for easy meals :D Highly recommended!
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Kneecap - 4.5 stars - if I had a nickel for every 2024 film that I watched that was a heartwarming story of a bunch of guys doing something musical (that included singing) that connected to a higher truth of life and starred the actual people who the story happened to as the actors in the film, I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice. Kneecap tells the story of an Irish hip-hop band that rose to prominence in the last decade, keeping the Irish language alive by rapping in Irish, and how they overcome, well, a lot of people who didn't want them to do what they were doing. Genuinely amazing underdog story that starts the band AS the band - which was freakin' amazing because I thought they were all actors! They were so good!! The storytelling was great, a lot of hilarious moments, a hot Irish gal as the girlfriend, Michael Fassbender (somewhat unnecessarily) and lots of drug use. Highly recommended!!!
🚌 Adventures on the Information Super-Highway
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The Big Idea: An ETF that buys lottery tickets - I wish I still did my brainstorming posts because HOW FUN is this kinda stupid idea? If you have enough money, then spending it to guarantee a win in a lottery by buying up all the numbers is ingenious. Impractical, but amazing.
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How to build a 100 year old tree - with a lot of, well, other wood. and lead. and reinforced beams on the inside of the tree.
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I've been meaning to call - courtesy of Deeply Unsrs link recommendations. forgive me, , I've been meaning to call.