Personalized ads just won’t let go

Nearly two years after I canceled my wedding, ads and apps won’t let me forget it, said Lauren Goode in Wired. A photograph of the breakfast I prepared the morning I made the most painful decision of my life “popped up as a ‘memory’ recently in a photo app.” I still see “wedding ads on Instagram” and receive “Happy Anniversary!” emails from WeddingWire. Ad-targeting platforms are built to “funnel more content for the things you’ve indicated you’re interested in.” These systems don’t know “when life has been interrupted” and your needs have changed. There’s always the option to “go nuclear,” trash all my photos, “obliterate accounts, remove widgets, delete cookies, and clear my browser cache again and again.” But I don’t want empty photo albums just because tech companies decided to “create an infinite loop of grief.”