[btbuildem]

You could make the argument that the phone, combined with all the extremely addictive "services" it provides, is just a piece of hardware that allows the advertisers to use you (via these services, like social media).

In that case it's you, paying thousands for the hardware, to enable others to use you and the limited time you have on this earth.

[marginalia_nu]

There's some parallels to traditional animal husbandry.

On the one hand, we domesticated some cows to get milk, in another sense the cows have enslaved the farmers and gotten them work all day to pamper them like royalty, the farmers ensure there is always food in all seasons, they're made to build the cattle shelter from the weather, they go out and hunt predators, they shovel manure, they get up at ungodly hours to milk the cows, and so forth.

So who actually domesticated whom?