Nothing new here but this video is a nice clear explanation of how dark patterns work. They're everywhere, and companies using them don't realise how much goodwill they lose from their visitors.
This piece, from Ed Zitron, is one of the best things I've read in a while. It puts into words what I've been feeling about tech recently better than I ever could. He's angry, but rightly so.
The people running the majority of internet services have used a combination of monopolies and a cartel-like commitment to growth-at-all-costs thinking to make war with the user, turning the customer into something between a lab rat and an unpaid intern, with the goal to juice as much value from the interaction as possible. To be clear, tech has always had an avaricious streak, and it would be naive to suggest otherwise, but this moment feels different. I’m stunned by the extremes tech companies are going to extract value from customers, but also by the insidious way they’ve gradually degraded their products.
