How a notification tricked me into buying Disney+ subscription
Hello again,
In a world driven by apps and websites, everyone of us, especially 20’s youngsters, encounter these ads based on our interests. Well, I am from computer science background and hence very well aware of these tricks which are used by companies to make us buy their product. And, this is why, the following incident makes more less sense and seems a bit funny to me.
Just like everyone else (pun intended), I was playing a game of ‘Hay Day‘ (if you are interested in building farms, check it out) as usual. Suddenly, this ad pops up on my phone screen — See what’s new is coming on your favorite platform Disney+. And, even though being fully aware of the selling techniques, I still felt like — Oh ! What’s the harm on clicking this and seeing what’s new. Soon, I found myself paying for the monthly subscription and watching ‘Modern Family‘ (quite a nice show though) endlessly.
I am a 100% sure that something similar must have happened to almost everyone. Sometimes the ‘happiness from consumerism‘ factor overwhelms us and we end up paying for something which we actually never would have done in our full conscience.
Long story short, this experience made me thinking if this is the right way to being an informed customer. I then decided to focus on such expenditures and figured out a few hacks which worked for me:
Never buy anything using Ads
Advertisements are made by talented sales professionals and in the current day and age, skilled data analysts. Their job is to convince us to purchase their product and it is our duty to not fall in their trap.
Where does this product fit?
I always make sure that I buy only what I need not what I want — specially non-essential items. And this need builds not in a second, but after frequent thoughts about do I REALLY need it. And, to determine that, I always go for one question — WHERE DOES THIS FIT IN MY LIFE? And, after following this, it has done miracles to my savings as well as made me a guilt free shopper
Once is enough.
I usually find people (including past-me) buying same kind of app/website subscription multiple times such as 5 different fitness apps, 3 different OTT subscriptions and many more like these. Sometimes the look or feel is different or it has one particular feature which is unique and rest is same and people don’t want to miss on that. What I followed is to make sure that I don’t have more than one of same kind of app. Say, If I am using Seven (7) for workout, then I do not download any other app subscription and make sure to try that at least a week. And, I am not a fan of these OTT platforms, but if you really want to stream content, it’s best to see what type of content you really like. For me, I like short stories, docu-series and some family rom-coms, so I have CuriosityStream and a shared account between me, my sister and my dad for Netflix.
These are the few hacks which helped me to not put holes in my pocket for non-essential stuff and still keep my life fun and entertaining with a pinch of learning. I am not sure if these hacks can work for all, but if they do, feel free to post your experiences in the comment box below.
For now, That’s all folks.
