The bundle

You ask for text. Just a few words. They don't sell text. Text is free. So they sell the wrapper. You get HTML, CSS, and two megabytes of JavaScript. Fifty million lines just to render your banana cake recipe. Then the platform. The likes, the comments, the feed from your new tribe. You want an email client. Just send a message. They give you an AI assistant, a calendar, a crypto wallet, and a monthly fee. You want the potholes fixed. But you cannot just buy the asphalt. You have to buy the whole ideology. You want clean water. You get a political party, a culture war, and a tribe to defend. You can't just buy the water. The buyer comes bundled too. Wrapping, pretending to be someone. The real merchandise here is the self. Strip the packaging and there's nothing there. There is no self. Just the fear of finding that out.