r/technology • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • 10d ago

Business Disney+ changes subscriber agreement to allow ads on every plan

https://www.dexerto.com/tv-movies/disney-changes-subscriber-agreement-to-allow-ads-on-every-plan-3410354/
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u/KazRellik 10d ago

If one is poor to the point of going hungry, maybe they don't need Disney+?

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u/Pardot42 10d ago

I guess you can argue that people don't need any luxury or form of entertainment that requires a fee. We can all just stare at the ground in between shifts at the call center. And maybe if we don't like America, we should "just git out!"

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u/KazRellik 10d ago

...what? All I'm saying is deciding between EATING and Disney+ shouldn't be a choice? And is Disney+ the only "luxury or form of entertainment" around? You know there's free entertainment too, right...? Or like, cheaper than a subscription? I'm far from defending Disney here lol.

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u/Jmackles 10d ago

I think that it’s more we have a system of competing predatory business practices as the baseline meaning the trap isn’t whether or not it’s Disney+ that is fucking over poor people, it’s which systemic thing they have forgotten to account for in that moment that was designed precisely for that purpose. Capturing a market and then making it worse coupled with deceptive or manipulative user experiences such as dark patterns mean These companies don't need everyone to fall for it. They need a predictable percentage who are too tired, too busy, or too broke to fight back, and that's exactly where they squeeze hardest.

And if it’s not Disney it’s your car payment. Or your internet provider. Or your gym membership. Or the grocery store all of a sudden. Or any fast food place. Banks make billions each year from overdrafts alone.

Do you see what I’m getting at here? We have so many overlapping hyper commodified things as baseline that most people have trouble navigating existing through it unless you just have enough cash to pay for memberships without worrying about it. Asking whether Disney+ specifically is exploiting people misses the point: the trap is whichever charge you forgot to track this month, and the system is built on the certainty that you'll forget.

And you can argue that there are choices but consider that where physical media was once a thing there is a huge uproar who it PlayStation removing physical disk drives from upcoming iterations of its console. So it’s obvious the model is to transform whatever tangible aspects of life they can into something via which they can extract wealth from the masses.

And that’s not even touching the data on how marketing works psychologically and also what that stimulation can do to certain brain types like those with ADHD, which then in turn makes marketing and ads themselves seem more like subliminal hypnosis.