"My friend Michael jolts on his barstool, beer sloshing dangerously close to the rim. "Did you hear that owl?" he whispers. "Not an owl," I say, matter-of-factly, wiping condensation from my glass before it drips onto the bar. The bartender, in his mid-30s with slicked-back hair and an immaculate black apron, lets out another whooo. "It's Tourette's," I add quietly into his ear. He takes a long, slow swig of his hefeweizen, processing."
"Filling the screen of his iPhone 16 Pro Max, clad in a scuffed clear case, sits a sponsored post: "Tourette Syndrome Awareness Month. Donate Today." Michael's voice drops into a register I don't usually hear outside ghost stories. "We literally just talked about Tourette's. How did I get this ad already?" I manage a laugh that's only half genuine. "Your phone isn't listening to you." Even as I say it, I know how razor-thin the reassurance sounds."
A bartender emits a clean, high-pitched whooo that prompts a friend to ask if an owl is nearby; the narrator identifies the sound as a Tourette's tic. Later, the friend finds a sponsored Instagram post about Tourette Syndrome minutes after their conversation, prompting alarm about whether phones listen. The narrator offers a thin reassurance that phones are not listening, while acknowledging widespread unease. The moment connects to broader concerns about pervasive data collection across social media, purchases, location sharing, searches, and AI queries, and about how technology can target and know individuals intimately.
Read at CNET
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