just learned something depressing about my flatmate

Submitted by neku in just_post (edited )

i was making dinner while he was having his and he was watching ads over and over on his phone so i asked him what he was doing. he has several apps which apparently pay fractions of bitcoins (apparently they are now "millibitcoin") to people for watching ads. he described it as his hobby. i asked him how much hes earned from it and he said "$30". i asked him how long he's been doing it. "6 months". "$5 a month" i say. "yes" he says.

what the fuck are you supposed to say in that situation. like dude. six months??? $30????

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flabberghaster wrote

How do they know you're actually watching

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nova wrote

they don't, but you can't use your phone while watching the ad, so it's good enough for them

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twovests wrote (edited )

Man :(

I'm in the US, so things might differ worldwide, but $5/month seems egregious for this. Some games give you in-game bucks when you watch ads. Microsoft Rewards is generous for the same deal (or, at least it was in ~2012, I bought an Assassins Creed game for $5 with my sick ad loot.)

Places like r/beermoney have good resources for this kind of "surveillance capitalism labor" and places like r/churning have good resources for the kind of "credit card rewards" or "$200 to open a checking account with us". In a few US and Canadian states, you can even get paid something like $0.05 per can or bottle you return. And Fiverr, MTurk, etc.

Hell, I've made about ~$2000 so far just from class action and related suits. This person (if in the US) would make a lot more money by just opting our of arbitration when possible.

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neku OP wrote

he's just a kid (like 22 or something) so i'm sure when he gets an actual job and a girlfriend he'll realise that tapping on ads for pennies is a waste of his time. its just sort of bleak, but also funny

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