Friction
A while back, the marketing people were talking about “friction” a lot. I can’t remember if this was before or after they were talking about “pain points.” Either way, friction in this context means things that slow you down, that make it hard for you to get stuff done. (I believe online shopping was the prime example here—like every click that stands between you and the “complete purchase” button is friction.)
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately because there is SO MUCH friction everywhere now. My stupid TV just updated its OS and now if I don’t like, immediately choose what I want to watch, it starts an AI-generated video of a “cozy coffee shop” accompanied by soothing, AI-generated music. If any member of my family is in the room when this happens, we fly into a rage, which I don’t think is the intended effect.
Speaking of TV, it’s now rife with friction as all the services I paid for because they didn’t have ads are now showing me ads. I tried some sketchy IPTV services, but they freeze up all the damn time, which is actually more annoying than watching ads.
My phone rings: friction. I have to check it every time because there’s a small chance it’s an urgent communication regarding a loved one who’s in poor health. Between one and three times per day, it’s a spam call.
Check my texts: friction. Spam texts come in at a rate of about one per day. More if you count Democratic party fundraising texts. I’ve never once clicked on one, but they just keep coming.
Do a quick web search: friction. Wade through ads and AI slop to try and find some information, only to be fundamentally unsure if the info I’ve found is right or not.
Try to pay my bills: friction. 2-factor authentication necessary to pay most of my bills. (No idea why this is necessary. If you’d like to pay my bills, I will happily give you my login info.)
Mortgage company was just sold to another mortgage company: friction. Old login doesn’t work and neither does the new one. Have to reset my password every month. Could probably be resolved with a quick phone call, but thus far my attempts to get a phone number by talking to the AI chatbot have been unsuccessful.
I could go on—pretty much every aspect of modern life involves either being vigilant against people trying to scam you or being annoyed with ads or having to jump through stupid hoops they just put up. Sometimes it’s actually all three at once, which is a ton of fun.
I think “friction” is actually a pretty good metaphor for this stuff, because friction creates heat. And so because the things that should be easy and the things that used to be easy are no longer easy, we’re in a constant state of irritibility and discontent.
Because life is hard enough! Pretty much every family always has SOMETHING going on that is making life more difficult. And yet they’re using up all our patience on trying to log in to pay our electric bill.
Popular wisdom is that the American people are too comfortable to ever rise up en masse and demand change. Maybe that’s true. But every day we get less comfortable. Every day our overlords push us to see what they can take from us, how they can make our lives just a little bit more difficult. And so every day the fundamental level of comfort that stops revolutionary activity is eroded for everyone in this country.
Just something to think about.