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Original poster

Can my phone read my mind

123 replies

crochetmonkey74 · 14/09/2023 19:41

I know this sounds mad. But over the last few months, on approx 6 occasions I have been thinking about something. Sometimes quite an obscure thing or place. I notice that within an hour , an advert comes up on the phone for the very thing. I haven't typed it on anywhere or searched anything . What is happening? Has it been just a coincidence every time?

OP posts:
HashBrownandBeans · 14/09/2023 21:15

ive had this happen loads of times. Thought about someone I went to school with and hadn’t seen in 30 years, they popped up instantly on people you may know. Thought to myself I should sell my lawnmower as we’d paved the garden, loads of lawnmower ads popped up.

Mugsandplates · 14/09/2023 21:30

Yup this happens to me

somethingischasingme · 14/09/2023 21:35

I wanted a particular song on the speaker (not Alexa ) I said 'hey Siri play... oh I've forgotten the name.'Siri then played the song I couldn't remember the name of!!!!

MrsMorrisey · 14/09/2023 21:47

Just turn off everything that you don't need on your phone.
Go into your settings and look at all the apps.
Maybe it's MRNA vaccines 😂

2x2x2 · 14/09/2023 21:56

I’ve had this on two occasions. I was browsing an aisle in Tesco and saw the Yop yoghurts. I remembered how I loved them in pregnancy. Got home - Yop advert.

Then in the bath, I moved a Child’s Farm bottle out of the way. Lay back in the bath and scrolled instagram - Child’s Farm advert.

How do they do it? They’re not adverts I’d ever normally get.

WeWereInParis · 14/09/2023 22:00

You're probably just noticing it more. I'm using the MN app right now and couldn't tell you what ads I've scrolled past on this thread, they haven't caught my eye.

Just scrolled back to check, one is for sofas. I'd probably have noticed that more if earlier I'd been sitting on my sofa and had thought "hmm this sofa is getting a bit tatty, might need a new one soon".

WeWereInParis · 14/09/2023 22:02

WeWereInParis · 14/09/2023 22:00

You're probably just noticing it more. I'm using the MN app right now and couldn't tell you what ads I've scrolled past on this thread, they haven't caught my eye.

Just scrolled back to check, one is for sofas. I'd probably have noticed that more if earlier I'd been sitting on my sofa and had thought "hmm this sofa is getting a bit tatty, might need a new one soon".

I'm not saying they don't track all sorts of things, by the way! Just that if you really are sure that you (and no one in your house on the same IP address) haven't googled it or said it out loud, it's probably just catching your eye more.

SirCharlesRainier · 14/09/2023 22:10

PP have mentioned good points like location, common trains of thought, algorithms, targeting, and yes they'll all be having more of an effect than you'd first imagine.

But I'm afraid the main driver is indeed just good old confirmation bias - you take notice of the hits but ignore the misses. How many thoughts, however fleeting, cross your mind in, say, a year? Tens of thousands probably. The chances that 6 of those would not happen to coincide with one of the hundreds of thousands of adverts you see must be absolutely tiny. As the saying goes, "improbable things happen".

In the days before the internet the equivalent thing used to be someone ringing you just after you thought about them, or around the time that someone else was dying. People would try to explain that to themselves with the afterlife, telepathy, ghosts. Now we all have phones with us all the time, so they've become the go-to rationalisation. Still doesn't make it not a coincidence.

Luno · 14/09/2023 22:14

It's the aliens. They work in tech companies. 👽👽👽

Circumferences · 14/09/2023 22:30

I think these things are just coincidence.

For example, right now I have Mumsnet Ads at the top, one just now was a bowling company "Bring your family bowling" - I haven't thought about or gone bowling recently. I haven't even been past a bowling place recently as I live in the countryside...

Now I'm getting an ad at the top of my screen from Mumsnet itself encouraging me to join their panel to share my opinion for the opportunity chance of free stuff. Not very suspicious seeing as I'm a MN user.

It's possible that confirmation bias is being applied to randomness in some people's cases.

Circumferences · 14/09/2023 22:31

Now I'm getting an Ad for Amazon Books.
I'd love to think "wow Mumsnet has read my mind because a friend lent me a book the other day" but actually, I haven't thought about getting a book for ages and Amazon are very aggressive advertisers so that's the reason why I'm getting ads from them on MN.

YewTree84 · 14/09/2023 22:34

We were talking about this at work and someone joked that it's the nano tech in the covid jabs. Are you all jabbed? 🤣

YewTree84 · 14/09/2023 22:36

SirCharlesRainier · 14/09/2023 22:10

PP have mentioned good points like location, common trains of thought, algorithms, targeting, and yes they'll all be having more of an effect than you'd first imagine.

But I'm afraid the main driver is indeed just good old confirmation bias - you take notice of the hits but ignore the misses. How many thoughts, however fleeting, cross your mind in, say, a year? Tens of thousands probably. The chances that 6 of those would not happen to coincide with one of the hundreds of thousands of adverts you see must be absolutely tiny. As the saying goes, "improbable things happen".

In the days before the internet the equivalent thing used to be someone ringing you just after you thought about them, or around the time that someone else was dying. People would try to explain that to themselves with the afterlife, telepathy, ghosts. Now we all have phones with us all the time, so they've become the go-to rationalisation. Still doesn't make it not a coincidence.

Edited

Yes, agree!

BertieBotts · 14/09/2023 22:52

Combination I think, Baader–Meinhof phenomenon, something about AI being very good at predicting what we'll think of next before we think of it, and subliminal messaging e.g. the person who had "randomly" thought about holidays might have previously seen a holiday ad or friend's post about a recent holiday, and then forgotten, assuming the subsequent thought was random and not triggered by anything. But I don't think we do just generate random thoughts, they are triggered by something. We just forget most of what we see/read/hear because we screen it out as irrelevant. Imagine if you actually did remember every single ad, FB post, ingredients list, menu, price in a supermarket, packaging blurb, safety warning, stranger's face, clothing etc etc etc that we come across every single day?? How would you pick anything important out of all that noise? Of course we blank most of it out but then it probably influences our subconscious.

Do you remember that weird thing where a shop in America (Target maybe?) started sending a teenage girl loads of coupons for money off formula and nappies, and her dad was furious and complained - and then she found out she actually was pregnant? She hadn't even known! But they had somehow figured it out from her purchasing patterns. (Not something obvious like a drop in sanitary items either).

JaceLancs · 14/09/2023 23:08

Whatever algorithm is following me is completely off target
i am being bombarded by ads for
wild deodorant
plumbing supplies
learn a foreign language
tv series (turned on set once since Xmas)
how little they know me!!!!

JaceLancs · 14/09/2023 23:09

Now Ben and Jerry’s - I don’t like ice cream and never eat it

JaceLancs · 14/09/2023 23:09

Ladbrokes - I don’t even know how to gamble

FairyPolka · 14/09/2023 23:18

To use the example you gave of thinking about going on a cruise, I wonder if the reason you thought about that was because you had glanced at an advert for a cruise, or perhaps liked a friends post of them on a cruise? Social media advertising is all very subliminal, I think. Fascinating stuff, I’d be interested in knowing if this may be the case. Is this how it works? Because surely a smart phone cannot yet read minds.

dontletsaskforthemoon · 14/09/2023 23:19

ReadRum · 14/09/2023 20:56

I picked up a friend from an ivf clinic after she had a procedure and couldn’t drive (she’s a single mother by choice).
From that day on, having obviously been location tracked, all my advertising changed completely. Firstly it was for fertility products and then baby things. The products track the age of my friend’s child.

Edited

This feels really sinister. Did you feel a bit odd seeing the adverts.

hopeforlucky3 · 14/09/2023 23:25

singlemum93 · 14/09/2023 19:53

I certainly think they track your location even to the point of what shops you have been in and advertise things to you! Not sure about reading minds but it is creepy

I was in Boots today and there's currently a boots ad on my feed Smile

301963Laurie · 14/09/2023 23:27

I was chatting with a friend about doggy pushchairs because my little dog at the time was struggling. Definitely hadn’t googled etc and hours later I was getting ads for dog buggy’s etc . Yes am certain my phone listens to me !

KrisAkabusi · 14/09/2023 23:28

Dyinforaliein · 14/09/2023 19:50

Also, prepare for lots of talk of 'confirmation bias' and how its basically just a fluke that very specific things you've been thinking about keep coming up on your social media.

But it IS confirmation bias. You can't dismiss the answer just because you don't like it.

The OP noticed an ad because it was something she thought of earlier. But she didn't notice the 50 other ads she just scrolled or walked past or saw or heard in the same time period because she didn't ascribe any significance to them. Only one was memorable, 50 weren't, so that's what stands out. The other 98% of ads are forgotten about. And that's why people are rubbish at assessing probability and statistics.

MaryWelly · 14/09/2023 23:30

I think it's the other way round. Adverts are repeated (usually set to show you the same one a few times per day) you probably subconsciously saw the sistema lunchbox advert or cruise buffet - but didn't consciously realize. Then you thought about it later consciously - and AFTER that you noticed the advert

UnctuousUnicorns · 14/09/2023 23:31

sunights · 14/09/2023 20:58

I've had this lots, as well as random pages pop up from my history with info I needed but couldn't find at the time. I have a ND / autistic brain so wouldn't put it past myself to subconsciously set these things up... but also believe in spirit and ancestor guides and don't see why they wouldn't have access to tech!
TLDR: I know it to be true and am open minded as to why!

Oh yes, I've had experiences of spirits using tech to communicate, so this thread doesn't greatly surprise me. I have full ad blocking on my phone and tablet though, plus my location is switched off, so I don't get any of this stuff myself.
I haven't actually seen the film "The Matrix", doesn't that refer to this mass consciousness/spirit/God/call it what you will, that connects us all in thought, whether we realise or not in our mortal state, because ultimately we are all One in Spirit? Interesting to ponder... I think so, anyway.