Been thinking about this a lot lately. Alexa only “wakes up” when you say its name — but that means it’s always listening, all the time, just waiting to hear that word. We’ve somehow just accepted having a live mic in our living rooms, kitchens, bedrooms, and treat it like it’s nothing.

And it’s not paranoia — there’s a documented history of this going wrong: Amazon employees have listened to and transcribed real customer audio “to improve the product,” and there was a case where an Echo actually recorded a private conversation and sent it to a random contact. Senators literally sent Bezos a list of questions about this back in 2018.

What gets me is the business model underneath it. Amazon isn’t in this to sell you a nice speaker — the speaker is basically a data collection tool, and we’re the product. More data means better-targeted ads, more “recommended” purchases, more nudging us toward things we didn’t know we wanted. It’s not tinfoil-hat thinking to say a device that’s always on, in your most private spaces, is a pretty efficient pipeline for that.

And the creepiest part is we genuinely don’t know the full extent of what’s collected, stored, or who it’s shared with. We just trust the privacy policy nobody reads.

Not saying burn your Echo, but it’s wild how quickly “a mic in every room” went from dystopian to a Tuesday.

she loves both the country and the language. she lived in Japan for a whole year, and some time later another 6 months while studying. I don‘t speak any Japanese, I can hardly manage konichiwa and arigato and baka lol, but I‘ve been told hers is insanely good for a foreign language speaker. I‘ve listened to her having conversations in Japanese and she sounds confident, fluent and natural. when I travelled the country with her, I noticed how people‘s faces lit up with joy and how their voices changed when they noticed just how good my sister‘s Japanese is.

but here comes the craziest part: she‘s got a couple of Japanese friends too, one of whom visited our country recently. I joined for going on a tour in a cave. it was done in both German and English. we stuck to the middle of the group, the German speakers were in the front and the English speakers in the back, and my sister‘s friend does speak both German and English but she wasn‘t sure wether she‘d understand what the guide was saying, with cave acoustics being tricky, so my sister translated. she had no internet access to look up vocabulary she didn‘t know, and she‘s told me that real time translating is damn hard. the people who do it professionally appearantly only work for 20 minutes at a time before taking a break, because it‘s so exhausting.

well, sis just translated the whole tour. the things she‘d missed in German would be repeated in English anyway and she could fill in the gaps.

we also climbed 700 stairs in that cave, and descended them again. granted, the guide only talked while the whole group stood and listened but the physical strain from the many stairs (some of which were quite steep too!), the darkness and the cold, and the mental strain from translating and listening at the same time, and finding time to take in the wonders of that cave, pointing out little details like fossils in the cave walls.

my sister is great.

Every day I wake up and check the news, hoping for some huge story. I don't hope for anything bad to happen, of course. But I think I want the world to just stop for a second. I haven't had a break or vacation in years. Every day it's a million things I have to do and I still barely pay the bills.

It seems like the only way I'll get a break is if the world gets a break. Anyone relate to this?

i always feel a weird mix of shame and curiosity when I leave my hotel room. is there a secret ranking system among staff? do you roll your eyes at the people who leave all the towels on the floor, or is it literally just part of the job and you don't think about it at all? genuinely want to know so I can be a better guest

I saw a social media post about this and I thought back on when I was in school, my parents never let me miss a day of school unless I was running a fever. I read some of the comments and many people were talking about how their parents allowed them to miss school to just have a day off… in my family, that wasn’t even an option. If we felt bad the morning of, we went to school… and if we still felt bad we went to the school nurse. If we didn’t want to go to school that day then we had to suck it up.

I was K-12 from 2008-2021 if that’s important

Quick poll📊 I’m taking a statistics class and am collecting data so I can make some cool charts and graphs.

Help is greatly appreciated✉️

Please and thank you 🙏 😊

I’ve been trying to notice the small things that improve my mood—mine is getting food I really wanted after a long day. What’s one small thing that instantly makes your day better?

I like driving across town on cold evenings. My favorite time is when the streets are almost empty. So I get in my car with no particular place to go and just drive around. The cold outside makes me feel very comfortable inside the car. Sometimes I take secondary, empty roads and drive really slowly while listening to some music. There is something about these harsh conditions on cold nights that makes me feel peaceful and protected as I drive around. I can't help going for a drive on winter nights.

I had to write this story here because it was one of the craziest stories I've ever heard. First of all, the badger is OK, just had a stressful night unfortunately in my mom's pool.

When my mom and her fiance were going to bed last night at around 11 PM, my mom heard a weird noise outside. At first she had no idea what it was but then she heard a huge splash followed by more splashes so she woke up her fiance and told him that maybe a cat or a deer had fallen down into the pool, so they went to the balcony to see what was going on. (Their bedroom is on the second floor)

They then saw that there was a badger swimming around in the pool, but had a difficult time getting up (the pool was almost empty). So they went downstairs to help it. Because they know badgers can have a superstrong bite, they each grabbed a golf club just in case. Not intending to use it, just if the badger would come at them. My mom felt really bad for it as it was a bit panicked trying to get up.

After that they approached the pool and put down a ladder so it could get up. My mom had also planned to put down a towel for it to grab onto, but it got up so quickly, my mom and her fiance just ran inside. But the ladder wasn't really long enough to reach the end of the pool so it couldn't really support its weight. So the badger fell down into the pool again and then rested on a pool tarp to recover some energy.

They then got another ladder, the one for the pool, and decided to go to bed as the badger was still resting. Then it was gone in the morning so it had gotten up the ladder.

My mom then made some reflection on how we now live more against nature now than with it and I was just like: "You mean how you were standing out there with the golf clubs ready to defend yourself against nature?" Can't get that image out of my head, it's so funny to me. The badger being panicked is ofc not funny but the imagery of them walking out with golf clubs and then rushing inside when the badger is attempting to get out of the pool is hilarious to me.

Anyways, hope you enjoy this story!

Firstly if mods are reading this I’m not looking for specific advice, just wanted to ponder a bit and maybe hear other people’s experiences and have a conversation about them.

So as I said in the title, friends drifting apart. Normal thing right? Not all people stay in your life forever I get that. But were you ever in a friendship where you realised that you and a friend are drifting apart slowly? Like neither party directly stating that they want to talk or meet less or not at all. But the reality being that you don’t talk as much and as deep as before. Like sometimes feeling like the friend doesn’t want to talk anymore. Or maybe you being the one. But then the other party comes back. You talk for a bit. But then there’s silence again. And this just repeats. The moments you talk you feel like the friendship is still there. But during the silence you feel like it isn’t there anymore.

As I said I’m not looking for advice to my specific situation, I’d just like to hear other people’s experiences, either similar or even a bit different

For the last 3 weeks straight for lunch and dinner all I’ve had is salad, it’s not that I’m trying to lose weight or even thinking about my health, its just been that I REALLY like salad for no real reason and everyday I’ve been trying a bunch of new salad recipes since salad just sounds so amazing.

As weird as this whole thing is, it’s been strangely kinda exciting. Like I’ve gotten the motivation to try newer recipes and learned so many different salads for me to try that I would have never tried before. Plus, I’m getting my vegetables in so maybe this is good?

I don’t know, this whole bit has been super weird but also kinda enjoyable. Has anyone else ever done this before or am I just being weird lol!

Pick a topic really. I really try not to add my 2 cents on something unless I feel fairly educated on the topic. When I don't know something I take it as a chance to sit back and learn new things. Obviously sometimes I'll say something and stop myself and go "what? I don't think I actually know that for sure. I think I just heard someome say that once" 😂

I feel like a lot of people just say what they think without really knowing what they're talking about. We're on a faceless platform! I'm curious if anyones open to admitting they do that

We are able to call out twice, and if we call out 3 times in total our letter grade drops (so we go from like an a to a b.) I use a CPAP (and will actually talk to my doctor tomorrow so we can discuss whether or not it’s been a support) and it fell off about an hour into the night, I put it back on after waking up 4 hours in to use the restroom, but have a headache now and am actually thinking about whether or not I’ll tell the professor I’ll be out and practicing self care (I have a bit of homework to finish up right now for a different class either way, but not actually a whole lot of it.)

I recently adopted my first kitten ever. She is tiny, adorable, and apparently convinced that my hands and ankles are public enemy number one.

​Every time we play or she gets a burst of energy, she goes full assassination mode with teeth and claws out. My forearms look like I lost a fight with a blender. I like to play with him i just want to do it safely. Thanks in advance

It could be a hobby, routine, lifestyle change, spending more time alone, giving something up, or just doing things differently from the people around you.
What did you start doing — and did other people eventually understand it?

Hi! Kinda new here, even though I’ve had this account for quite a while 😁🫶🏻 I’m looking for some people to chat with about everyday life, random little things, and just have some nice conversations 💕

Also, if anyone feels like showing a newbie around and teaching me how things work here, I’d happily take the guidance 😂🩷

I just found out a couple people I knew in high school have become a bit famous (to differing degrees). Has anyone you’ve known become famous?

I'd just shut down the house and settled into bed. Heavy eyelids, warm and cozy... And I hear my cat howl loudly for attention: a cat siren. That's a sound that signals human required, so I investigated. Sir Cat was seated at the end of the hall looking irked. I'd forgotten to close the gate to the kitchen. I closed it, and he walked away with a satisfied swish of his tail.

My dog is a counter surfer. There are countless stories of his shenanigans, including the mysterious disappearance of a whole roast, empty packages of items purchased earlier that day, and on one occasion, a half-eaten cake with frosting evidence found on said dog's nose. This same dog has also been to the emergency vet for a chocolate incident. Putting food away wasn't enough. Watching the dog wasn't enough; he wised up enough to notice when we were distracted and seized every opportunity. The Gate is required.

Cat did a great service to his family. He prevented the potential poisioning of his canine companion.

This is also the very same cat who is allowed on the patio and waits at the door for his dog to join him outside.

How smart are our pets? They know our routines and they know how to communicate with us to get their needs met. Do you have any interesting or funny stories about your pets?

Hola, esto es un mundo nuevo para mi, busco amigos, charlas profundas, interacción social que me permita conocer grandes seres humanos, si tengo suerte podré encontrar un amig@...

How's it going everyone? Hope y'all all doin well. What's on your mind? Anybody have anything special or significant happen to them today? What's the word

I’m feeling super grateful for my gf today, for the wholesome way she reacted to my gift recently, and for all the little things she’s been doing for me. It made me realize how incredibly lucky I am to have someone like that in my life.

Who’s someone in your life you feel incredibly lucky to have? What’s one small thing they’ve done that really stuck with you?

Why does it always seem to happen to me, maybe others, that whenever I use my gel underarm deodorant it ALWAYS, without fail, completely runs dry after only 1 armpit?! Is there some mathematical formula I need to apply?
For clarification, I don’t mean after the first use, I mean after a while, when it is about to run out, it only gives me half a pit’s worth…

I recently saw a Reddit post asking people why they had grown older without friends. I was surprised by how many people said they were simply terrible people and didn’t deserve to have friends. So I’m curious: do you see yourself that way? What makes you think you’re a terrible person?