Technology-driven consumerism
In a bleak future, the Philippines falls victim to technology-driven consumerism, ensnaring its populace in a web of manipulation and financial vulnerability.
Tech companies, locked in cutthroat competition, relentlessly churn out ever-more immersive and addictive consumer experiences, reducing Filipinos to mere instruments of consumption. Invasive advertising tactics bombard individuals with personalized ads, exploiting their online activities and search history to fuel an unending cycle of consumption.
Deceptive marketing practices, such as the "rule of 7" principle and fake pricing schemes, further exacerbate the onslaught, luring unsuspecting consumers into a maze of false promises and hollow deals. The proliferation of scams on e-commerce platforms, fueled by AI-generated content, preys upon the vulnerabilities of Filipinos, exploiting their limited digital literacy and penchant for shopping.
As impulse buying becomes frictionless and financial literacy remains inadequate, many fall victim to the allure of materialism and instant gratification. Financial responsibility becomes a distant ideal as Filipinos succumb to the relentless pressure of consumer culture, imperiling their well-being and financial stability in the process.
In summary,the future of the Philippines is marred by a relentless pursuit of profit at the expense of its people, trapped in a cycle of consumption-driven despair with no end in sight.
Ever since one-click checkout was incorporated in Tiktok Shop, online shopping addiction has become more prevalent amongst Filipinos.
Along the bustling EDSA highway, towering billboards loom overhead, each displaying personalized advertisements tailored to individual preferences. Amidst the cacophony of tailored ads, the once-iconic highway transforms into a bleak landscape of soulless commercialism, where individuality is overshadowed by the relentless march of corporate interests. Stripped of autonomy, citizens are ensnared in a web of surveillance capitalism, with every preference being meticulously cataloged and exploited for profit.
Selected Quotes
...[R]ight now, we see that the current e-commerce industry has flourished a lot, but not without any negative or bad side effects. In our local cases, Shopee and Lazada, albeit they have served millions and millions of Filipinos by being able to order products online and then get those useful products in a few days time, there are a lot of dangerous aspects regarding it. From a financial standpoint, spending money is now easier than ever, unlike before, when you had to go to a mall to spend 5,000 on shopping, you can do it with just a few clicks. And for those who may be unaware of their financial spending, that's going to be very bad for them.
...If you may see that Shopee and Lazada, they often have unregulated items. Basically, there are cheats in marketing their product. They can do fake markups and then say, "Oh, it's X percent off for this specific time" and then it just turns out that it's a way to get customers hooked. I'm pretty sure_ if not all, I'd say that in my experience, a big chunk, let's say 60 to 70% of items sold, and these e-commerce websites have fake markups to seem that they are indeed on sale, whereas that's actual the price. So stuff like that where the idea of people is to make profit--although it is a business and that is a goal--people go beyond it to a point where it makes the human experience worse than it should be. [T]hey take advantage of technology to get the advantage over other people, which I believe should not be the case, and by then, I hope, all these stuff have been regulated. So I hope that by then, these stores will be regulated, these fake markups will be gone, and then there will be an honest to goodness overview for the people that "Hey, you are shopping. Be careful with your money."
...[I also hope that] there won't be scams. I've had my personal experience with the scam, I've lost a bit of money, and it got me pretty mad way back then, and I do regret that it happened, but I guess that would not have been possible, if not for tech right? So I hope by then none of these things would have happened, and as humanity, as humans, as society as a whole, we would not have this negative outlook towards technology that "Oh, it's dangerous. Shopping could be dangerous." You shouldn't shop online...and say, if I were to spend a sizable amount on, say, buying a new device, I should not have to worry and say "Hala, Baka manakaw!", where product could be fake, or something like that. So I should not have to worry about that by that time, I hope, by the time when we reach, let's say 2040.
Honestly, what I'm imagining is Wall-E: we're just sitting, traveling on chairs, and then if I want to buy something...and then everyone just becomes unhealthy. I don't know; that's what I'm picturing.
So if they evolve AI enough to just keep selling us stuff that we don't need, but we feel that we need...we're gonna build a dependency with that instant gratification of buying something, which is something already happening right now. But imagine if the tech evolves and does it on a larger scale again; I keep saying that. But yeah, I think that's one thing...like we all become very materialistic because of the new developments, because of how things are sold to us, because of how they're marketed to us, and even the product itself. Like I'm pretty sure, in relation to all those other [previously mentioned] categories...there's gonna be products built for those, and I'm gonna keep shopping for each of those. [For example:] Oh, there's a Ready Player One entertainment system? I'm gonna buy that. Oh, there's a flying car? I'm gonna buy that. Oh, there is a new way for me to meet someone...to socialize while I'm at home? Okay, I'm gonna buy that. Like you just gonna keep buying and buying because of all these new developments, I guess.
...In a pessimistic sense, next worst case, there [are probably] scams...I think the worst case there is having bogus stores to scam people and get their data or their money. I think...that's our worst case there.
[M]aybe financial irresponsibility...if shopping is made easier, than there's less resistance on your part to like make a good judgment of how to spend your money.
As for [a pessimistic future of] shopping...I don't think there's much aside from ads. What else could it be? I guess scams might be easier [to do]; the more advanced tech is, the [easier] it is to scam people with tech...Deepfakes [could do this], right? You can pose as different people. It's so easy. You can even copy their voice...so the more advanced [deepfakes] become, the [easier] it is to pose as somebody else and scam people.
[I'd] think of those ads on Shopee, where their items are based on what keywords [you put on] Google. One time, I was looking for Pilates socks, and then when I opened my Facebook feed, I was shocked to see so many [advertisements for] socks of different types and colors. You'll get addicted because that's what you put online, and then you will have to click. What'll happen is a never-ending shopping addiction because the ads [around us] are based on our keywords or cookies...basically what activities we are doing. So yeah, again, too much data, and the influence on your shopping habits.
So nowadays, there are way more people becoming addicted to [buying] viral bags on Tiktok. For example, whenever they see the bags on their devices, they'll buy it, even if they have no money. They're forcing their parents to give them a month's [worth of] allowance and spend it on the freaking bag, just so that they could keep up with the trends. So I also read a few days ago a Reddit thread about it: because of apps like Tiktok, children develop shopping addictions....which ended up affecting their parents, yaya, and driver. The kid was asking the parents to buy an iPhone Pro Max. Of course, they couldn't afford it. But the parents had no choice. They gave in and treated their kid with a freaking iPhone and new clothes. The kid also started to develop [a virtual persona]...because of social media, you can just take a picture of anything, and you can pretend that it's yours. Kids or high schoolers are pretending that they live in a condo [for example]...they're lying a lot about their virtual persona. So it's like separating the virtual persona is the actual persona. So we are now getting two separate identities, and youngsters are most vulnerable to this. It just feels so sad when...now I can't imagine how [they] would develop as adults. Who knows, they might become like [the Marcoses]: stealing money so that they can live a lifestyle that they cannot afford.
Pero kung yung bad na 2040 na timeline yung mangyari magiging copium ko yung paglalaro ng video games. That's how it would personally affect me.
...I think consumerism is an all-time high, which is good but also very bad for people...like there's whole psychology related to like marketing and stuff, right: you only start to really think about buying something, even if you don't really need it, if you see it more than 7 times. They they have a thing on marketing. But I also saw it in a magic show movie...Now You See Me. So yeah, it's that thing. But I was like "It's true, though", because I started getting conscious of it, like how many times do I see this product? Wherein I know I don't need it, but I'm actually starting to get convinced...it's the same thing.
So consumerism is at an all-time high, making people buy things that [they] actually [don't] need, which actually contributes to like a lot more problems in general. But I also can't fault [them], because...when there's money, there's business, and [when] there's business, there's jobs. God knows what's the answer to that.
And then, human productivity would plummet, and we'd have no actual humanity anymore. Like TikTok can eat so many hours of everyone's days, and then none of us can actually recall what we 5 minutes, 3 TikToks, or 1 minute earlier. That's literally poisoning our brains and they could do that if they wanted to, and I hope they do not, because they are technically doing it right now. But...I believe there's still some ethical guidelines involved. But if those ethical guidelines get disregarded in this this dystopian feature we're talking about, we can picture us being trapped like that.
Well, for entertainment...I think the next worst case here is...I assume that it's gonna...take a lot of people's attention. So [the] next worst case there is [that] there'll be more people [exposed] to it talaga. Maybe they're not gonna...think or be more critical about issues; they'll be more concerned about entertainment. Kasi yun naman kasing buhay ng mga [tao na palagi nanonood ng] Netflix...it's the attention economy, diba? So nandoon iyon. I think iyon yung worse eh...yung attention talaga...at least 24/7...It's harder for us to get our attention to more pressing things, kasi mas hooked tayo with entertainment.
[A pessimistic future would have]...too much entertainment, I think. More and more, we're like realizing, like with the advent of TikTok and whatnot, that there are, I don't know if literal but it feels like literal brain rot. What else to say? Maybe entertainment must be...controlled.
