r/Millennials • u/A-Helpful-Flamingo Elder Millennial • 12d ago

Meme Nice to have common ground

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18k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

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30

u/fieregon 12d ago

Is this an american thing? My tv, fridge or car doesnt require any of that.

29

u/Forest_Orc 12d ago

There is a trend of internet of shit where you connect appliance to your home wifi. So instead of the old washing machine or oven that you start by turning a knob and plays a beep when done, you program it with a smartphone and it sends you a notification when done.

Doesn't feel like a useful feature

10

u/ourlastchancefortea 12d ago

here is a trend of internet of shit where you connect appliance to your home wifi.

  1. Don't buy one, that does it.

  2. If it does, don't connect it.

  3. Profit.

2

u/pearljamman010 Xennial 12d ago edited 12d ago

There are nearly zero options on Amazon or existing big box stores that do that and aren't low quality for a higher price than the "smart" alternative.

Some devices don't function until you do an "internet connected firmware update." So even if you don't connect, or connect to a bogus network, you lose advertised features.

Also, some can automatically sniff out neighboring guest networks that don't require PWs and connect anyway.

I agree with the sentiment, but it is getting harder and harder to do each day.

I stand corrected, that's just been my experience at big box stores, unless you buy pre-owned and obviously not a universal standard. I just meant to say that the majority of big deals I've seen (like $400 off or 50% off) are on smart TVs or freaking dishwashers. That incentivizes others to buy them because "hey, this one with all the convenience is just a little more than the dumb appliance and has a better picture / has features that let you control your crockpot from work!"

4

u/Successful-Reason403 12d ago

Wrong

I bought a TV last month for $250 that works just fine without being connected to the internet. 

I also bought a mid priced washer, dryer, and refrigerator in the last year that also have none of these problems.

I didn’t go out of my way searching for these things. Just picked something in stock at the local big box stores.

1

u/Haunting-Appeal-649 12d ago

You mean you bought a dumb TV, or you bought a smart TV but didn't connect it to the internet?

There are dumb TVs, but they are usually budget TVs that don't look very good. They aren't cheaper because they lack smart features (those features cost literally nothing). They are just genuinely bad picture quality. I have one of those in my bedroom, and you literally can't watch anything with darkness in it because the picture quality is so bad.

If you're someone who wants a nicer, even mid priced TV, but don't want it to be a smart TV, no brand is doing that right now. It has nothing to do with people spending more, they are just shoving Smart features into everything because it's easy to do.

2

u/Successful-Reason403 12d ago

  or you bought a smart TV but didn't connect it to the internet?

That

2

u/ourlastchancefortea 12d ago

Strange haven't had the problem yet to buy a non connected device. And in my experience they are always cheaper (except for really cheap knockoff stuff).

1

u/SyntinenSaatanaKurja 12d ago

How is it lower quality product if the other product with internet access is annoying?

0

u/Never-Trust-Me 12d ago

Let’s all start a company and make some new washing machines. Who’s with me?!?!

8

u/Cromasters 12d ago

It's still very easy to get appliances that don't do any of that crap. I don't own any!

2

u/Pearson94 Millennial 12d ago

For real, the only "smart" device I own is an electric kettle and I just chose to never connect it to the Internet. Works just fine without it and I'm not sure what features I'm missing because of it.

1

u/Darkdragoon324 12d ago

Yeah, I don't see why a kettle would need that. I guess maybe so you can start it remotely and have the water ready to go for tea when you get home from work or something? But I wouldn't want anything boiling when I'm not there.

1

u/Pearson94 Millennial 12d ago

Pretty much that. Pre-setting it to be ready for you. The thing is, I don't plan to have coffee and tea at the same time every day so I just use it manually

1

u/Cromasters 12d ago

The only benefit I could see is being able to set it to start up when you wake up in the morning.

But coffee makers have been able to do that for years without needing to be connected to the Internet.

1

u/dudestir127 1988 11d ago

My electric tea kettle has a switch, I flick it, and it flicks itself off after a minute or two once the water is heated up (I'm an American with one). Why would someone possibly need to connect it to wifi?

1

u/Pearson94 Millennial 11d ago

You got me. I'm also American and the one thing I do like about this kettle is you can set the exact temperature to hear the water (former barista, tea fan, and coffee snob over here loves that feature).

6

u/The_BarroomHero 12d ago

So much (maybe all) of the "internet of things" was selling consumers a not-particularly-useful feature that normies had never seen before (and didn't really need), and just waiting for that sweet, sweet data to come rolling in... which was what They really wanted.

1

u/humanHamster Millennial 12d ago

Yep, most IoT stuff is bullshit. I'm a tech loving guy but my "IoT" is more like a "LoT" (Lan of Things). I have a lot of "smart" devices but I run them all locally on my home server rather than using cloud services. My fridge, washing machine, dishwasher, etc. are all not smart, because that doesn't make sense...

1

u/Radiomaster138 12d ago

Useful for them. They want to remove all the buttons from the appliance so they can force you to buy a new one when it is no longer compatible with their app.

1

u/angrytroll123 12d ago

I recently got some smart appliances. I like em. I don’t have to use them if I don’t want to.

1

u/DenikaMae 12d ago

My phone has a timer feature. I feel like that’s good enough for me

1

u/cmdr_scotty Millennial 12d ago

See I'm weird, I like having stuff connected to my network, but not when it's insert corporate giant here that wants it. I'll gladly build my own device to interface it.

1

u/TheMainEffort 12d ago

I feel like the notification would be more useful for a communal washer in an apartment situation. Like a “come get your shit, fuck ass” type thing.

You’d hope people would set alarms instead of, but of course they don’t.

12

u/chiharuki 12d ago

You have the option to not get the fancy stuff that does all that

1

u/Haunting-Appeal-649 12d ago edited 12d ago

No, you really do not. You have it backwards. The problem isn't people are paying extra for things they don't need, the problem is it's actually cheaper for companies to shove "smart" tech into everything.

A bunch of otherwise reliable car brands are ripping out all of their buttons for tesla knockoff interfaces, which look somewhat sleek but will hardly work a year after you buy them. They don't do this for funsies, it's literally cheaper to put a touchscreen into cars vs buttons that actually work. And so now you have to slide through 5 menus just to turn your fucking AC on.

It's not quite the same story for Smart TVs, but it costs them literally nothing to make a Smart TV. Half the time, they just throw the same build of Android on it. And in return, they get the chance to do ads, collect data, and get a cut of streaming subscriptions. They are leaving free money on the table by making a dumb TV. For the consumer, getting a Smart TV fucking sucks, not just for the ads, but because the software is shit and degrades very easily. I have to click like 15 buttons just to turn down the brightness on my TV, and it lags through every menu. I would just get a dumb TV and put a Roku in it, but I have yet to see one that has a half decent size and picture.

It's only getting worse year over year. Everything now needs wifi and gives companies the opportunity to enshittify everything we own.

9

u/alcomaholic-aphone 12d ago

For fridges and cars it’s usually only the fancy ones. The TVs though happen with even the cheap ones. They have Roku or whatever other device built in that want to show you ads and then the streaming services want to show you ads too.

3

u/Timeshocked 12d ago

I got so lucky with my last Roku and Samsung tv’s…the models just before they started doing that shit. I hope these tv’s last forever! lol

6

u/WideHuckleberry1 12d ago

No, it's simply that these things all exist and people like to pretend it's the only option rather than some niche thing.

4

u/MetalEnthusiast83 12d ago

Nope. I’m American and none of that is accurate for me.

Also the game boy used 4 batteries

5

u/Successful-Reason403 12d ago

None of my American electronics or appliances are required to be connected to the internet.

3

u/hatesnack 12d ago

Yeah not sure why this myth gets spread so much lol. No cars "require a subscription", no appliances NEED to be connected to the internet if you dont want to use the online features, and idk where people are seeing ads all over their TV. My Samsung OLED only has ads for shows I might watch, which seems fine to me lol.

4

u/ColumbaPacis 12d ago

Because they do.

> No cars "require a subscription"

Tesla FSD (Full Self Driving) is a software update, that costs $99 / month.

A few others car companies require you to subscribe for features like remote heating over your phone, or similar features. Most do allow you to drive the car without a subscription... still. But given the trend, I would not be surprised if they started requiring an app and subscription to even open your car door.

> no appliances NEED to be connected to the internet

The LG Smart TV I bought recently does not allow me to open ANYTHING without singing into the LG account first. Not even Youtube as a guest or any other app. Even if some of these apps allow you to use them without an account (most don't), the TV itself doesn't let me do that. Bought it in 2026.

You probably didn't buy any of these things since 2021. Things have gone REALLY downhill since COVID.

3

u/ColumbaPacis 12d ago

Regarding the Smart TV thing. I ended up getting a separate smart stick, even though the TV was already "smart".

Never connect your Smart TV to the internet!

And yeah, it is a pretty cheap TV, so they are cramming all this stuff in there to get extra margins when they can't on the TV itself I guess.

2

u/lavapig_love 8d ago

You need to hit up your local thrift stores and buy old tech while you can.

You've essentially paid however much that smart TV costs for a black brick, which is stupid.

1

u/ColumbaPacis 8d ago

It was like $500, fairly large screen size .

I could not find an old 4k TV without smart features. If I could, I would have bought one.

1

u/lavapig_love 8d ago

Look on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace. Otherwise, seriously, check out all your local thrift stores.

1

u/wannaridebikes Millennial 7d ago

Can you use a remote to switch inputs? Then you can hook up a smart stick or even a small pc that can stream via the browser and ignore the TV's interface entirely.

0

u/hatesnack 12d ago

I mean my car is a 2021 with no subscriptioms, and my wifes car has an optional subscription that basically just acts as a launcher to android auto wirelessly AFAIK. Again, no subscriptions are NEEDED to drive the car.

Your comment about the TV doesnt track for me? If you dont wanna use an LG account, get a streaming stick or something. I bought my OLED just last year and, as I said, only ever see ads for shows on the apps I have installed.

Nothing you said goes against anything I said lol.

1

u/theflyingarmbar 12d ago

"no appliances NEED to be connected to the internet" - that's an absolute, there is bound to be one.

5

u/maevian 12d ago

I have a cheap Chinese fridge from haier and it had a WiFi feature, but you can just not connect it.
The same for my TCL tv, it has an Apple TV connected, but the TV itself has no connection to my internet. When it fully reboots it gives a notification ‘microphone on’ and a few seconds later, couldn’t connect to the internet. That always confirms my paranoia about not connecting it.

3

u/SnooSuggestions9294 12d ago

No this guy is just dumb

2

u/sohcgt96 12d ago

TVs... hard to avoid smart TVs. Fridge? Easy to buy non-smart, most of them are. Car can, but that's so I can do software updates myself vs dealer. I just use my phone's hot spot instead, which is off most of the time.

1

u/badgersprite 12d ago

Not American, I needed an app and to download software updates over WiFi to run an air filter