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If Americans don’t trust institutions anymore, maybe it’s because they’re always trying to trick us

Whether it's scam artists bombarding us with attacks, or legitimate companies coming up with deceptive ways to take our choices away from us, dealing with digital "decision slime" is exhausting.

Americans spend too much of our daily lives avoiding tricks, traps, and scams, writes Amanda Bergson-Shilcock.
Americans spend too much of our daily lives avoiding tricks, traps, and scams, writes Amanda Bergson-Shilcock.Read moreJenny Kane / AP

Americans today have record-low levels of trust in nearly every institution, and I know a major reason. It’s because we spend so much of our daily lives avoiding tricks, traps, and scams.

Both fraudsters and legitimate companies spend billions trying to get us to accidentally subscribe to things, give up our personal information, and allow invasive tracking and surveillance of our activities. Dozens of times a day, we are carrying out a mundane activity and are forced to stop and determine if we are being tricked. Is it any wonder people don’t trust Big Business, bankers, news sources, or even hospitals?

We’re worn out from protecting ourselves against an avalanche of bad actors. And when we complain about it, we are treated as foolish for being vulnerable, and naive for thinking consumer protection laws should actually protect us. Or we’re fobbed off with apologies that are really just excuses to keep doing business as usual.

Recently, I spent a few days keeping track of all the attempts at trickery that demanded my attention. Most aren’t that different from the shady practices of the 1980s, but the sheer volume of scammy emails, texts, phone calls, and other interruptions is absolutely new.

We’re worn out from protecting ourselves against an avalanche of bad actors.

I cataloged hundreds of decisions I had to make to sift through the garbage and protect myself from bad actors. Many weren’t optional interactions — they were effectively a tax I had to pay for engaging in normal activities, like having a credit card or buying a gift. I have come to think of this endless wave as decision slime — a dirty, dangerous muck we continually have to wade through as we try to carry out everyday tasks.

I logged in to check my American Express card balance, and immediately a splash screen covered up the dashboard. The text invited me to apply for a “personal loan,” and the ad highlighted a button to click. Not the exit button, but the “Apply” button. This is an example of a dark pattern — a user interface designed to make you click, even if you just want to get away.

Doing a Google search, I got a dizzying list of results — but only when I looked hard could I find the small print that explained which of them were actually sponsored advertising. Back in the day, Google used color coding to clearly distinguish ads from legitimate content. Today, the ads are virtually identical to organic search results.

My text alert buzzed: Bank of America was telling me about a fraudulent transaction. I almost clicked on the link — but just in time, I remembered that I no longer have a BOA account. Scam attempt foiled. Good thing I wasn’t busy or distracted when the message came in, or I might have absentmindedly clicked.

I saw a newspaper headline that LinkedIn had quietly changed its policies to vacuum up user posts to train its artificial intelligence. I quickly went into my privacy settings on the site to block this, then posted the article to alert my contacts — but LinkedIn buried my post, and it received less than 10% of the engagement that my normal posts receive.

My phone rang in the middle of the work day. I ignored it, but soon there was a voicemail from my mortgage company, Mr. Cooper. No details, just, “Please call us.” That sounded ominous, but when I worriedly made time to call back, it just turned out to be a stealth pitch for refinancing my barely eight-month-old mortgage.

At Fanatics, I ordered my nephew’s requested holiday gift, then instantly unsubscribed from its marketing emails. Not in time, though. Minutes later, I got marketing spam from Fanatics and a second email “deal” inviting me to start online sports betting. Luckily I don’t have a gambling addiction; there’s no way to preemptively decline this garbage on the order page.

Our time and attention is precious.

Later I received an email from Experian, telling me in alarming tones that my email address had been found on the dark web. This useless notification occurs every few weeks, because somehow “A year’s worth of free identity theft monitoring!” is the only so-called compensation I’ve gotten from various merchants after their websites got hacked and my personal info was stolen.

Our time and attention is precious. Whether it is scam artists bombarding us with attacks, or legitimate companies coming up with ever-more-deceptive ways to take our choices away from us, decision slime is exhausting. And insulting.

It doesn’t help that many elected officials have resisted accountability mechanisms to hold these companies responsible. The Biden administration took some meaningful steps via the Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, but the Trump administration has signaled its intent to cut the latter, and when I searched for a link to add to this article, the White House website returned a 404 Not Found error for the “Presidential Proclamation on National Consumer Protection Week.” I did find a road map for state consumer protection agencies, and maybe that’s the best we can hope for right now.

I can’t help but think, though, that the world would be a much nicer place without all this slime.

Amanda Bergson-Shilcock is a lifelong resident of the Philadelphia area. She works in the nonprofit field.