They're reading our thoughts!!! Light hearted 😘

[MistressoftheDarkSide]

I've had it happen before when things I've thought about coincidentally show up on my Facebook feed, most notably when I was putting on eye make up and wished someone would invent a sort of pad to stick on your cheek under your eye to catch the eye shadow dust so that you don't try wiping it off and look like you've been slugged in the face. I was alone in my bedroom, my phone was nowhere near my dressing table, I had not uttered one word about what I was doing, nor do I search for make up online. And blow me down, when I picked up my phone, there was an advert for that very thing.

I've just had it happen again.

Was reading a long thread about a domestic situation where lots of advice was given to the OP, and I thought, just thought, "Time to get your ducks in a row, and your squirrels in a circle" which goes back to a previous thread about the origins / use of the phrase "ducks in a row". I commented on that one with preferring the idea of squirrels in a circle, Wild West style. I didn't comment on the domestic situation thread because I had nothing new or different to offer.

I've just checked my Facebook and bugger me, the first three posts were feelgood stories about people adopting / feeding rescued squirrels.

Now I get that algorithms are sophisticated and can "predict" things that are likely to be of interest based on scrolling / hovering etc, but this is weird, right?

Yes, it's probably just coincidence, but am intrigued to know if any of you have experienced this?

(Yes, I'm probably nuts).

It's happened to me, I knew my phone was listening and I got ads for what I talked about but there have been 2 occasions where it advertised what I had just been thinking about without me speaking a word!

Here's one I've just been thinking about. I am on the periphery of a very complicated situation with a former friend who could easily be described as suffering from "limerance". I had never heard of this word until recently.

As the situation is directly affecting me, some family and friends, I have had discussions over the phone and in person about the situation with about three people, in order to form a consensus about how to deal with it without pouring fuel on the fire, but as I didn't know the word "limerance" the discussion has been around irrational romantic obsession etc.

Within two days of the first discussion "limerance" was cropping up everywhere every time I picked up my phone. Article in the Guardian, things on my Facebook, YouTube videos, honestly it was really weird.

It's the exact word that I didn't know I needed 😅

It could be really sophisticated algorithms, but I've not written anything in text or messages, and certainly not put anything on social media as it's a very sensitive situation.

This one is bugging me quite a bit.

I have had ads for things I have only thought about too. I can understand it if you have said something out loud or looked an item up, but thoughts only is just weird.
I have also had ads for the brand of clothing I am wearing, and had ads for Viakal immediately after cleaning the bathroom with it. Home alone and phone in a different room!

I work for a tech comapany. One of the things brands do is target people who are linked to someone they know is interested in a certain product. So you might be chatting with a friend and they mention a certain lipstick brand. Then two hours later you go home and notice you are being targeted with ads for that lipstick. It’s likely that your friend bought this online, you are linked to her online and the brand is now targeting you as they think (due to a number of different factors) that you are also a good target.

I can’t explain the mind reading thing!

I'm going to sound mad now but two kindle unlimited books I've read lately have gave names in if people I was talking to the day I read the book, food choices I'd made and references to other stuff that had happened in my own life very recently. Coincidentally I'm sure but I was a bit "woah!!"

Thank you op for creating this thread! This has been happening to me for a year now, but I haven't mentioned it to anyone because I sound utterly crazy! Exactly the same as many of you have mentioned, will be thinking for example" oh, I've ran out of simple face wash etc etc ", next minute adverts for simple face wash. Or, ' god, my hairs going grey", up pops hair dye to cover grey hair...I've not searched for the items, or spoken about them to anyone. Weirdest one was when my dad lost his watch so I popped to buy a replacement in Argos, left my phone at home, and came back to adverts of the exact same watch!

My boss was telling me he'd booked a holiday in Croatia. For the next month I was inundated with adverts for holidays in Croatia.

So a new drink product is promoting itself to the kind of people who make up your friendship group. And so probably has been targeting your friend as well as you. And it's working.

This is called advertising.

Surely this is strong evidence that your phone is not listening.

It doesn't need to.

The tech companies know (almost) everything about you through your online and offline behaviours. Where you live. What you earn. Who your friends are. What your life stage and family situation are. Where you go. What you do when you're there. What you've been looking at online.

And they don't just know this about you. They know this about everyone. So, even where there gaps in their understanding of you, they know all about your type.

They don't need to listen to your conversation. And this is proven by them sending you ads for things you have been just thinking about as well as things you've said.

A lot of it is confirmation bias. How many times have you been thinking about something and an ad for it HASN'T come up somewhere? I'll take a bet that this might run into the millions...

But human brains are designed to spot patterns, we're really really good at it. So we will pick up on 'ooh, I was just thinking about that, spooky!' But imagine if we did the reverse 'I've just seen an advert for something that I have never heard of before in my life! Spooky!' Everyone would look at you like you were batshit.

Whatever it is, sometimes it's really weird.

I've had it with things in the "real world" too, which stretch the concept of coincidence into the realms of synchronicity.

A notable one:

While adjusting to widowhood I had a long conversation with a fellow widow, and I'd expressed my fears about lack of direction and a desire to run away from a life that was just one long exercise of "salt in the wound".

Fellow widow told me that she had constructed a fantasy to work towards, just hypothetically that involved decamping to a cottage in Languedoc.

The next day I was at my shop, which sold, amongst other things, taxidermy. Went outside for a "breath of fresh air" and an older chap was looking at a piece through the window. I got chatting to him and he told me that he'd seen a fantastic display of taxidermy in France with his partner..... specifically in.... Languedoc.

But it didn't end there. Late DP was interested in the history of the Cathars, and a friend brought it up in the same few days around the previous two incidents. To kill time on a particularly slow day, I googled the Cathars to refresh my memory. Turns out there's a strong association between the Cathars.... and Languedoc.

Dunno quite what to make of that.

Or the time I was waiting for a friend to join me for breakfast who had also recently lost his partner. While waiting for him, I saw a post from my widowed friend commemorating the death of her late husband, which made me slightly emotional, and just at that moment the radio on in the cafe blared out "I can't live, if living is without you" which nearly finished me off to be honest.

Most recently, after my son and I went back to his flat immediately after watching my dear Dad depart this mortal realm, I sat down, and saw his DP had paused what she was watching - the scene was someone on their deathbed, comatose, with the exact same breathing prongs that Dad had.

Please keep your stories coming, whether it's just pattern recognition, algorithmic shenanigans or whatever, I find it all fascinating 😊 and thank you for the contributions so far 😘

I was scrolling about on MN, this thread and others, and I had Spotify on in the background.This track, which I had never heard before by an artist I have never heard of before, played. I thought “Did I really hear that?” I replayed it a couple of times. Then, still not being quite convinced, I googled the lyrics. I’ll try to attach the Spotify QR link.

Daddy Was A Milkman
Track 10 on 2016 album Daydreaming

All About Love (Lyrics)
All day we run, like them squirrels in a circle
We owe, we pay-what's the point there anyway?

Oh my.

That's got the hairs on the back of my neck standing up!!!!

Er, why?

Sorry, just re-read your original post.