I believe it’s crucial to highlight the significance of my feedback. In recent weeks, I have been bombarded with desperate requests for feedback from various companies. For instance, Amazon asked for my recommendation based on my experience with their returns process. They even asked me to rate the delivery of the pillow insert I was returning. EGO Power+, the company behind my broken string trimmer, wanted to know if the callback they had missed had solved my problem. They asked me to complete a survey. When I used DoorDash to order an acai bowl, I was prompted to rate the dasher who had delivered my Vietnamese noodles days prior. An Etsy seller from India pressed me to rate and review my rug purchase to help their business. Later, DoorDash hoped I would rate the acai joint separately. However, I faced a dilemma with the acai bowl as it didn’t meet my expectations. Was it the fault of the acai bowlery or the app operator? It seems like I’m constantly being asked to resolve these matters.
Close friends, family, and colleagues have reported similar experiences. After visiting a doctor’s office, one of them was bombarded with requests to review and rate the practice. Frustrated, they finally left a negative review, partially because it seemed like the office prioritized feedback over providing helpful medical advice. Another person had a local market constantly pestering them to review a nonalcoholic aperitif they had sampled and forgotten about.
This phenomenon has become so common that it has created a sense of malaise. It can be described as data panhandling – a constant and invasive demand for feedback on everything. These “requests” are not genuine; rather, they are attempts to collect specific data for presumed purposes. For example, the question of whether you would recommend a company to a friend or colleague is often aimed at obtaining a market research benchmark called “net promoter score.” This metric persists not because it holds real value, but because it’s easy to use. When doctors or dentists ask for ratings, they often do so to boost their local search-engine ranking, making it easier for new patients to find them. Five-star reviews in retail or food-service delivery are often used as a means to control poorly paid flex workers, rather than improving customer service. If you feel disconnected from these feedback requests, it’s because you truly are.
This dynamic doesn’t significantly improve even when the underlying reason for the feedback request is evident. When the Etsy seller asked me for a review, it made the truth clear: buyers rely on ratings for trust, but platforms like Etsy use them to rank results. Rating the rug I purchased isn’t solely about expressing my satisfaction; it’s about supporting a small business halfway across the globe. Initially, this may feel gratifying, but it can quickly turn into a burden. How can consumers be responsible for the livelihoods of every person involved in each transaction they make?
On one hand, rating well doesn’t cost anything. On the other hand, being prompted to rate implicates us in economic circumstances for which we are not accountable. Saying, “Just don’t order from companies that mistreat their workers” is an oversimplified solution, as alternatives are becoming scarce. When you purchase an item or a meal, you unknowingly gain ambiguous power over the labor of others. That’s problematic on its own, but then the company that put you in that situation asks for your help to further perpetuate the mistreatment.
Moreover, the demands for feedback are continuous. Data-panhandling companies may ask for reviews on the delivery, the product, the vendor, the retailer/platform, and even the support/return experience. What initially seemed like a simple transaction expands into a complex ecosystem of departments, divisions, partners, providers, and their associated surveys, rankings, and metrics. However, imposing this business structure onto consumers only spreads corporate bureaucracy. To illustrate, I just want my broken string trimmer replaced under warranty. I don’t want to evaluate every email, phone call, customer-service representative, repair partner, or freight service I encounter throughout the process. Being asked to rate a call I didn’t even receive makes me question my sanity.
This overwhelming demand for feedback is persistent for every purchase, regardless of its value. Whether it’s a $500 air fryer or a $5 power strip, a medical procedure or a craving for crab rangoon, they all require ratings on a five-point scale. The cognitive burden this places on individuals is immense. No one can reasonably be expected to determine if a pack of wood screws offered a four-star or five-star fastening experience. These acts of data panhandling consume both your time and autonomy. They require you to justify who you are. Did the monstera-leaf bedsheets you bought make you happy? Are you now a monstera-leaf-sheets person? Every transaction now feels like a failed therapy session.
Nobody wants to solely identify as a consumer. We are more than just buyers; we are free individuals. However, the age of data panhandling has eliminated the freedom of anonymity that came with being a consumer. In certain contexts, your life may be rich and multifaceted. You could be a registered nurse dealing with a challenging teenager, or a social worker with a hidden talent for macramé, or even a successful stockbroker with a commitment to local youth baseball. But at the checkout, you were simply a vessel voting with your wallet. You could transition in and out of that role, connecting it with your deeper motivations at times and neglecting them at others. Today, you buy a lawnmower because you’re a man who takes care of his lawn. But today, you’re also hungry because you’re mortal, and a Cobb salad sounds refreshing and substantial. Your purchase choices could be anonymous, not just to the seller, but to yourself as well. You may not know why you chose a Cobb salad today, you just did. Unfortunately, the data panhandlers have taken that freedom away from us.
Consuming is no longer a simple act; it comes with hidden demands that emerge later. Even seemingly pleasant transactions, and even forgettable ones, are now tarnished because you must evade the relentless corporate entities demanding your assessment, opinion, feedback, and review. The era of being a consumer has ended, replaced by something even worse.
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