Technology, Coincidence and Subsequent Triggers

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I have been doing relatively well mental heath-wise for the last two years or so. I started an online business which is doing well and I work from home. Because of the nature of my business (Digital Marketing), I am in a position where I have to be on my computer a lot, and online.

I am well aware of the fact that a lot of our data is collected online by these major companies for the sake of advertising. It is true that our web activities are sort of monitored in that regard. However, I have increasingly found myself experiencing a very peculiar phenomenon relating to these technologies. And it has become bothersome as of late. I’m not sure whether this is something that is treated with medication.

So what I have experienced is that, when I think about something, a peculiar, out of the ordinary thing, for whatever reason, I will receive an advertisement about that. Believe, I’ve engaged in very logical thought about how this happens. I have retraced my steps in many instances, and I’m certain I did not search that particular thing online, nor did I verbally speak about it or text someone about it.

So the question is, how do they just know? Or why do things coincide in such a way?

An example of this was some time ago when I blocked someone off Telegram. It was a potential love interest, but they had become flaky and inconsistent with communication. A few weeks after this, I was just randomly wondering whether that person had noticed that they had been blocked and whether they cared.

Not too long after, I received a very sketchy, low-budget ad on Instagram talking about “There’s no need to block your friends. How do you know they don’t care?” It was an ad for some tracking service that let’s you see you visited your Instagram account.

I just get very weirded out by things like this. I accept it may simply and purely be technology. But despite this, it does trigger some paranoia in me. When this happens I feel like someone is watching, reading my mind, knows my thoughts and manipulates technology etc…

Is this something I should seek therapy for or a more medicinal approach. The thing is, these are actual technological occurrences and not delusions…

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It’s just unfortunate coincidence.

I wrote a poem about this a while back.

Coincidences can freak us out. Especially if you suffer a little bit from “delusions of reference”

A delusion of reference is the belief that un-related occurrences in the external world have a special significance for the person who is being diagnosed. … Delusions of reference may also occur in other media. For example, a person may believe there are messages for them in music.

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Coincidences like that drives me up the wall and leaves me paranoid as hell each time. It’s for that reason I don’t use the internet much anymore.

It is only when I reduce my activity or stop going on the internet for a while e.g. Facebook, and increase my meds for a while, that the paranoia become less.

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Coincidences drive me crazy

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I also have had coincidences. If the impact is very strong they can make me acutely ill.
I have my own explanation: that they are caused by a spirit. I don’t know why he would do that.

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It isn’t straight up mind reading but rather pattern recognition. People are more predictable than we want to admit we are and most people do pretty specific things in specific situations. What big tech has is a ■■■■ ton of data that shows that if you like X you’re extremely likely to also like Y.

Let’s say for example Google figures out that you like heavy metal. It isn’t wrong to like heavy metal. Some people like heavy metal and some people don’t. Then let’s say that they figure out that 96% of people who like heavy metal also like cheap beer. What Google knows is that betting that you like cheap beer if you like heavy metal is a safe bet as there’s only a 4% chance that they’re wrong. So what they then do is work with advertisers who want to sell cheap beer and say “metal fans like cheap beer, target them.” That isn’t individual mind reading; that’s just recognizing patterns in human behavior. If you like heavy metal then chances are you’re in the 96% that also likes cheap beer. To an individual this might look like mind reading as you get targeted advertisement but it really isn’t mind reading. What happens is Google analyzes your patterns, connects them to overall population patterns, and figures out what you like and what you tend to search for. They’ll also notice things like people who enjoy heavy metal are extremely unlikely to search for, say, Brittney Spears and are thus not going to recommend her to metal fans.

What they use is machine learning which chews through obscene amounts of data and finds the patterns. It genuinely is just computers doing math and pattern recognition then figuring out “people who do X are highly likely to also do Y.” There are also certain patterns that most people show in their searches when they’re going through certain things or are about to do certain things that are also recognizable.

The other thing is that big tech tracks what you search for and knows what you do and don’t like. Yes this is actually kind of creepy and I don’t like that they do it but right now it’s legal so they aren’t going to stop. Even then though most of it is mundane; we all have our favorite foods, income levels, and demographic information that affects how we behave. So if I like cheap tacos Google probably knows I like cheap tacos. So if I go to Google Maps and search for “restaurants” it’s going to give me recommendations that are appropriate to my preferences and income level. If I’m broke as ■■■■ and like cheap tacos it is less likely to show me the most expensive steakhouse in town first. That’s not mind reading that’s just the machine looking at the numbers and making recommendations based on the patterns it knows.

This also isn’t new. Supermarkets and department stores have been analyzing customer patterns longer than computers have been around and have noticed weirdly specific behavioral patterns in humanity. The only difference is that computers are doing it rather than people at Google. One downright weird thing that people do when going into stores is we turn right first. Not everybody does it but the vast majority of people when they walk into a store look and turn right. Why? Who the ■■■■ knows? However there’s a weird exception; the Japanese go left.

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Also Maybe algorithms probably suggest things to you that you scroll passed, planting ideas in your mind, and then they present the thing the planted outright.

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Its kind of like how you can predict what your loved ones are thinking. The algorithm affects you and you affect the algorithm

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stop it @anon47167357 nobody is reading his mind, algorhthms be damned…

@anon21178144 tell your pdoc about it and see if you can get your meds tweeked…sounds like the beginnings of paranoia.

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sorry I didn’t read it all…

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you are being offensive…pdoc is the only way to find out if meds need to be fixed when we are delusional…

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Technology does cause paranoia and that might trigger psychotic paranoia but i cant say for sure if it does or not. Recently i had to type an evaluation for work into an app and was paranoid that everything i typed could be read and not just what i submitted. Also i did an online test and was paranoid that my google search results could be viewed by the college. Also i recently bought a webcam for the course and was paranoid about the webcam watching me when i wasnt using it. None of these paranoias turned psychotic but im on meds

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I dont want to alarm you but this was happening to me with youtube. It was recommending stuff i had spoken about.
So i removed my google assistant audio permissions on my phone and its never happened since.

All our data gets mined and targeted for ad revenue.

Just disable app permissions and browser permissions in your google apps or apple apps or whatever app your using.

Its the world we live in where we have to look at the fine print.

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Also i think theres a misconception where people think its a person that listens to you on your phone if you gave it permission to.
No it just a computer listening and interpreting the audio for suggestions or whatever.

Like amazon alexa listens 24/7 and learns from you.

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I figured out how to disable the targeted advertisements from Google and other sites. They should be making it more user friendly and easier to disable location data and advertising…and it still happens to me when I think of something it always seems to be the first thing that shows up in the search engine–i think its also a coincidence that people of the same vibe think the same way…

Britaly2010 explained it well at first, but seemed to get triggered by the topic. I never studied artificial intelligence, but when computers were being invented a lot went into them-- people who ran the machines were once called “computers” everyone is like a mini computer now with new tech…information travels so fast, and you can learn more online than in a public classroom.

when I dream or get ideas that just come from some unknown source I see them as signs…I have learned to cope with what others perceive as schizophrenia to me is more of a “hyper-sensitive” and I dont like people make me fearful or paranoid. The more you give into fear the more you know their tactics are working…I actually had that phrase in some sense pop into my head before I woke up and posted this…something about not letting fear get the best of you, or let the tools that should be used for good things like education and progress—become weapons—like social media can be a weapon of misinformation.

Hope that helps!

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