I’ve lost my AirPods, and I simply refuse to pay for new ones. The latest 3rd generation AirPods – And it’s great! I checked it! Starting at $169. The older, second-generation version is $120 (yes, there are sometimes deals online). These prices are not ridiculous. After all, they’re premium products, and the price point is in line with other high-quality wireless headphones.

However, I simply don’t want to pay $169 for headphones. I’d rather pay way less. Say… $20, maybe $25? I don’t think I need to explain myself here. I would like to keep more money in my pocket. This seems somewhat reasonable.

And yes, I am very willing to settle for quality. Apple AirPods have spatial sound with Dolby Atmos, great pairing functionality, and long battery life. I don’t expect $20 to make all of that happen, but I do want something completely acceptable.

Fortunately, Amazon has an amazing selection of cheap AirPod-like wireless earbuds. They have weird brand names you’ve never heard of, prices seem random (and there’s often a coupon on Amazon, which makes it even more confusing on pricing). I set out to test them out to find out which one fit my needs: cheap, but still usable.

I tested five anonymous brand white earphones, or, as I like to call them, the ShitPods.

My criteria for selecting five of the many options were:

• It should look like an AirPod. I skip the colorful or differently shaped earbuds that might have been just as good.

• Price point under $25.

• Lots of reviews, good or high rating. (Yes, this can be played around with, but at least it’s a start.)

• Free shipping and returns with Amazon Prime.

But first, there are two disclaimers:

1) I use headphones mostly to listen to podcasts and audiobooks. Music quality is not my primary concern. If you are an audiophile or music is your passion, you will likely pay more money to get better headphones. I also use it for phone calls, so microphone quality—the person on the other end needs to be able to hear me well—is important to me.

2) All of these things were available on Amazon, but by the time I tested them for a month, two of the original five listings had already disappeared. That’s because Amazon’s marketplace for cheap electronics is a fun house for hyper-capitalist acceleration, as New York Magazine’s John Herrmann explained in his recent article “Paired Amazon. There are strange fake brand names like “CXK” or “Raviad”. Reviews often deceptive or fake, The sellers are often not the manufacturers, and the prices are constantly changing. Chances are that if you read this a few months after it was posted, the product links will change again.

Laser, 30, is a licensed clinical social worker in Chicago who runs his own center Special training, created TikTok less than a month ago to post videos about the kinds of things he focuses on with his customers: self-esteem, body image, anxiety. Then, last week, he got a comment on one of his videos.

“At that moment, my blood was hot,” Laser told BuzzFeed News.

Laser, who now has nearly 31,000 followers on the app, said he never thought of a different reading of the words when he did the math, and in his job he sees the word “therapist” so often that he never thought of another interpretation.

Several commenters have pointed out that it looks like a joke in a Saturday Night Live Sitcom “Celebrity Jeopardy” featuring Darrell Hammond as Sean Connery:

“I will never put rent on my credit card,” said M, a 26-year-old in Boston. She’s been trying to pay off the credit card debt she’s had for about a year She asked that her full name not be used. “I’m not sure I’d feel comfortable—or, to be honest, trust myself—to try this tactic.” She lives paycheck to paycheck and fears she will forget to pay her card for a month or fail to set aside that portion of her paycheck if her rent goes to a credit card. “It looks like a rabbit hole waiting for me to fall into,” M said.

“Credit card companies make money off people who don’t pay their bills on time,” said Lamarre. “Credit card people, like me and my friends, are at least getting rewards for using the cards responsibly. … It’s not something that I control, that people aren’t responsible for, but I try to tell people how to work within the system and not be a victim of it.” .

the Average credit card balance Among Gen Z consumers last year it was $2,854, according to Experian. LendingTree’s Channel predicts that Gen Z consumers’ credit card use will increase as they age, as did millennial consumers. Many of them are still not fully financially independent. When the pause on student loan payments is lifted, and more Gen Z adults are coming out restrictions Which makes it difficult for people under the age of 21 to get a credit card, their dependence on this type of debt is likely to rise.

As credit card companies develop new incentives, the channel has encouraged caution. “I certainly wouldn’t invite Gen Z, or anyone else, to come out and say, ‘Gee whiz, I have to start making my car payments with my credit card now, because I’m going to get more points,’” the channel said. For most people.” ●