To think my phone reads my mind

[Thejoyfulstar]

Now I am not actually suggesting that my phone is reading my mind (I don't think!), but I would like some kind of explanation as to what has been happening.

I understand that if I search for something on the internet, or even have an online conversation, certain ads and videos will pop up on my social media relating to that. Ok, I understand that.

I also understand if a video suggestion comes up on my youtube for a random artist that was on the tv a short while ago. I can maybe see how my phone knows that.

I do also understand how I can be searching for something, or discussing something else online, and then have a private thought based on that previous search/conversations, not share it with anyone, and things pertaining to that private thought pop up. I get it, the technology is very clever in understanding our probable interests and ideas based on previous trends.

My husband said that the technology has so much information and software to analyse this information, that a lot of these ads are just expertly targeted at the perfect audience, and that they can almost predict your next interest based on what they already know. That made sense.

What I don't understand is how I can be out somewhere, with my phone in my bag, look at something, just physically look with my eyes, and later have something related to the thing I saw come up.

I don't mean I checked into a Coldplay concert, looked at Chris Martin on stage and got things related to him come up on my feed. I mean I look at random things that are unrelated to my location, and my phone seems to know?

This has happened to me a few times, and I rationally put it down to coincidence or some kind of plausible reason.

Two days ago I was carrying my shopping home from a nearby supermarket and as I was walking, I noticed someone with distinctive facial features. I just glanced at the person and looked away, as I do with every person I happen to glance at while walking past. I did however fleetingly think about them, and wonder if they had a condition causing the distinctive nature of their features. It was a brief thought. I went home, went to bed, and the next morning was scrolling through youtube and there was a video of a man who looked very similar to the person I had seen the previous day. It said ' What it's like living with X syndrome'.

I immediately felt creeped out and thought that this wasnt the first time something came up on my social media based on a look and a thought.

Has this happened to you? What is the explanation? There must be one?

FWIW, I dont have an active social media life. I have an account for facebook and Instagram but never use them. I use youtube and mostly understand their algorithms but this has left me very curious.

Any ideas?

Oh and switch your Bluetooth off too when not in use.

Sorry for multiple posts.... keep remembering other tips!

Turn Siri off too.

My granny used to say "hear a new word and you'll hear it again before the sun goes down".
It's confirmation bias.

@ThroughThickAndThin01

sunflowers but how on a completely different device with a completely different number on a different network?

Because you live in the same home and share the same internet connection.

Oh, well bang go any surprises I want to organise 😂

I was trying to tell myself its confirmation bias but this appears to be a very rare syndrome. My guess is that my phone was in the proximity of the phone of the person I looked at, and maybe they had looked up stuff relating to the syndrome. That's all I can think of.

@Thejoyfulstar

I was trying to tell myself its confirmation bias but this appears to be a very rare syndrome. My guess is that my phone was in the proximity of the phone of the person I looked at, and maybe they had looked up stuff relating to the syndrome. That's all I can think of.

Unless you both had your bluetooth connections on, it's far more likely to be confirmation bias.

If this mans appearance stood out to you, then it's normal to remember it. When you saw the advert, you just linked the two in your mind.

I'm really interested in this phenomenon. I am naturally inclined to see patterns and have experienced a brief stress and drug induced psychosis (not recreational), so I am well aware of the capacity for the human brain to distort reality. That was ten years ago and I am medication free and "normal" - whatever that means.

My most vivid experience of this nature was hamsters. I was on a bus and thinking about pets. I hadn't discussed pets, I hadn't searched hamsters, but I was remembering childhood pets and having a muse. Then I checked my Facebook and the very first post was someone looking to re-home hamsters.

Rationally it was a coincidence.

I'm interested in the concept of the collective subconscious, and have poked around Carl Jung quite a bit. Synchronicity fascinates me.

When it comes to mind reading tech, Facebook are doing loads of research in that direction, but so far it needs a way of marrying up a device you wear and the receiving device - I just googled.

I believe that any tech we have now is about 10 to 15 years behind military and corporate research, so I don't think we're far off AI being a more every day thing.

Funnily enough last night a friend mentioned the two AIs that seemed to evolve their own language. Whatever is occuring the genie is out of the bottle......

I'm interested in the concept of the collective subconscious, and have poked around Carl Jung quite a bit. Synchronicity fascinates me

Me too. Not that my head can take it but it’s fascinating. I’m also interested in the theory that we’re already living in a simulation. It sounds bonkers at first glance but there are a number of very highly regarded people who back it up quite convincingly.

There’s a really good podcast (it’s called ‘what if’ and it’s one of the early episodes. It’s two young American guys so you do have to look past the general bollocks of their presentation style) that blows my mind every time I listen to it.

@Cornettoninja

I'm interested in the concept of the collective subconscious, and have poked around Carl Jung quite a bit. Synchronicity fascinates me

Me too. Not that my head can take it but it’s fascinating. I’m also interested in the theory that we’re already living in a simulation. It sounds bonkers at first glance but there are a number of very highly regarded people who back it up quite convincingly.

There’s a really good podcast (it’s called ‘what if’ and it’s one of the early episodes. It’s two young American guys so you do have to look past the general bollocks of their presentation style) that blows my mind every time I listen to it.

Can you link to the podcast please? I'd hint to Alexa but she's a tanty bitch at the best of times!!!!

@DoWhatYouWantTo - don’t fall out with Alexa! Gotta keep the AI on side!

www.stitcher.com/show/the-what-if-podcast/episode/ep-3-what-if-were-living-in-a-simulation-simulation-theory-49885804 It’s available on most podcast platforms although they’ve done about 300 episodes now so might take some searching. If you can get past the young person bluster and bs it’s a really good listen and their research seems pretty good. They’ve done some really interesting topics although their recent stuff is more bluster/bs than substance.

‘Young person’ I’m soooo old

I think there is an element of confirmation bias. If you hadn't seen the guy earlier then if the story popped into your news feed late that day you winter give it a second thought.

But I do think there is some element of unexplainable stuff going on. I don't like coffee, never have and think at my age that is unlikely to change. I've never searched anything coffee related or anything like that, never had a single coffee related ad. A little while ago we were moving house and I was idly thinking (thinking only, not searching online or anything) about things for the new place and I thought that maybe we could get one of those fancy coffee machines, as DH likes coffee and may look nice on the worktop. I didn't verbalise this thought, it simply fluttered through my brain briefly. Half hour later my Facebook timeline has loads of ads for coffee subscriptions, coffee machines, "I love coffee" mugs. Just literally everything coffee related. I've never understood how it knew?!

Did you mention it to anyone? Your phone definitely listens. I got very creeped out when I spoke to DH about DD’s reflux and immediately an ad for Gaviscon popped up.

Glitch in the simulation

Its just a thing that happens.

Example, when I was a teenager I remember reading the word "prerogative" in a book. I'd never heard of it before and had to ask my Dad what it meant. The next day someone used it on television, and a few days after that the song "My Prerogative" came out. All completely coincidental, but seemed weird at the time.

*Thejoyfulstar( There is an explanation for this - the big items in the shop window have and RFID chip which is used by them to track inventory, and its read by your phone.

I was thinking about a book I read as a child the other day, couldn’t for the life of me remember the name but could picture the cover clear as day. Walked into WHSmiths yesterday and it was right there on the shelf.

I realise this could be a coincidence, but I’d been in the same shop the week before that and I’m positive it wasn’t there then. Not the first time something like that’s happened either. Things I think about suddenly become visible on the shelves. I put it down to the fact that I was paying more attention to those things because they’d been on my mind, whereas if I’d not thought about them I wouldn’t have noticed them, if that makes sense? I think the same applies to your phone and videos or ads etc. If you’ve been thinking about something, seeing a visual reminder of it is much more likely to make you link it to something you’ve thought about. In reality, you’re just paying more attention than normal.

I know this is an old thread but I'm noticing this more and more and it's freaking me out!!

Last night I was in the pub and looked at the gin menu. I didn't say anything out loud but today on Facebook, ads for gin keep popping up!
Then this morning I was thinking to myself (again not out loud) that I could do with some new running leggings and lo and behold, Sweaty Betty ads pop up! I hadn't even searched for them on the Internet or spoken to anyone about it.

What's going on???!

Opened up this thread and had forgotten I'd commented on it 🤣

I have a weird one - I wear quite heavy Gothic eye make-up and I'm pretty crap at applying it - always end up with drift on my cheeks and occasionally look like I've taken a punch when I see myself in daylight....

Anyway, one morning I was having my usual fight with black eyeshadow and I thought - just thought - someone needs to invent little adhesive patches to go under your eye to catch the residue.

Not ten minutes later I checked Facebook and lo, an advert for this very thing..... 😳

I'm finding lots of weird going on outside of phone etc as well.

Had a chat with a good friend one night on the phone, when she told me she had fantasised about running away to a new life in Languedoc (I think that's how it's spelled) at a particularly hard time in her life. Thought no more of it.

The very next day I got chatting to a browser in my shop who was admiring taxidermy and went on to tell me he'd seen an exhibition of it a few years ago...... in Languedoc......

Also, I was widowed at the beginning of 2022. I recently realised that I was the same age my Mum was when she was widowed. She ended up in a little flat and one of her close friends ended up being a gay guy who was her neighbour. I am now friends with a gay guy who lives in the flat behind my shop..... in fact I have to go and feed his cats now as he's on holiday.

Don't get me started on the weird coincidences surrounding me and my late DP.... I could write a book 🤣

As for AI - I am simultaneously more and more terrified of it and also fascinated.

I just hope that T2 wasn't a prophecy.....

In fact I was chatting to a couple of friends one night about how sophisticated deep fake pictures and videos are getting. We decided that because the hands give it away it's not too sinister yet. The very next day it was announced they've fixed the coding to perfect hands.....

It does concern me that we could be faced with a future where we're never sure if what we're being presented with is real or not.....

once my DS came to me with a children book from school which had a music sheet on its back and asked if I could play it for him. And yes of course I did play on the piano

I don’t even know the name of the book and was never interested in buying it.

Same day I went on Amazon to get some hair scissors and on the search “frequently bought together” they showed the hair scissors and the freaking book!!!!

can anyone please explain this?

Chamelion Do you have an Alexa or anything else voice activated? ITs worth remembering its always listening (otherwise it wouldn't be able to hear the command 'Alexa'.)
If not, it could be your phone. I used to annoy DDIL by shouting random words at her phone and then waiting to see what adverts come up.

Some people put tape over the camera lens on the back of their mobile phones as they think they are being spied on that way. I've had a few people tell me that they do this.
I've no idea if it works (or what evidence they have ) but phones and Alexa devices etc do pick up on things and you will always gets ads crop up for things that you might look up online.

I work in an area that makes use of these features.

Essentially it's linked to IP address you access internet with and the cookie tracking of websites visited. Additionally smart TVs, Alexa, our phones can all pick up audio unless that's been deactivated, all of which can be used to create a "profile" of the individual. It also can link together profiles of other people who have used that IP address (which is why what your friends may have spoken to you about can appear to you, if they've been at your home and used your WiFi).

There is a legal case which was raised on this in America several years back. A father opened his daughters mail from a supermarket which had vouchers for prams/ baby items and sued the company claiming it was trying to encourage his daughter to have a baby (I'm giving very high level detail here, there was more to it). His claim was unsuccessful as the supermarket stated it was targeted marketing based on purchases, it had made use of the loyalty card details about purchases; she'd stopped buying sanitary towels, had purchased a pregnancy test and antenatal vitamins. Turns out she was pregnant, hadn't told her parents about it.

I've experienced this too OP. I think it's because your phone knew you had been near someone who had googled something about that condition.
I used to have conversations with my brother in law about Alzheimer's due to my in laws, but had never googled it, and suddenly I was getting Alzheimer's charity adverts, it's the same thing. He had clearly been googling on his phone and our phones were in close proximity.
It's actually quite terrifying.