Websites, please stop trying to shame me for not subscribing to your annoying marketing emails

Confirm-shaming is the most annoying new marketing trend on the internet

Confirm-shaming is the worst.
(Image credit: Chaichan Ingkawaranon / Alamy Stock Vector)

We all know by now that the internet contains all sorts of bad things, ranging from the truly, truly wretched to really not advised to kind of irritating to absolutely infuriating. And within that continuum lives something called "confirm-shaming."

Truthfully, I didn't know confirm-shaming was a thing with an actual name until a couple of weeks ago when I was browsing online, casually shopping for shoes, and up popped a big box on the screen to block the pumps I was eyeing, forcing me to engage with it instead of the objects of my desire. It asked me something like, "Do you want all the gorgeous footwear you can possibly purchase for cheaper than you ever imagined?" There were two possible answers I had to choose from in order to move forward, and one was essentially, "Yes, I am a wise individual who is also fashionable" while the other was some version of, "No, I'm terrible and bad and will die in penury wearing hideous footwear."

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Jen Doll

Jen Doll is the author of the memoir Save the Date: The Occasional Mortifications of a Serial Wedding Guest. She's also the managing editor for Mental Floss magazine and has written for The Atlantic, Esquire, Glamour, Marie Claire, The Hairpin, New York magazine, The New Republic, The New York Times Book Review The Village Voice, and other publications.