Wherever I go, I often see the sentiment “This website has ads, so it’s trash” pop up in conversations. And honestly I don’t quite get why. 90% of the internet has always had ads, you just scroll past them and mind your business. At least they’re personalized now so you can pick a topic you like instead of diapers and miscellanous spammy trash as there once were.
90% of the internet has always had ads
I very clearly remember a time when only a handful of websites actually had ads on them and having an ad blocker wasn’t a straight up requirement to stem the tide of popups and banners.
Youtube, before Google bought it, was pretty nice. A little ad taking up a square in the upper right corner, just above recommended videos, and I think that was about it. Nowadays it’s completely impossible to watch YouTube without ad blockers or premium subscription.
yeah, i dont know what id do without adblock on youtube.
For even more blocking there’s a plugin called sponsorblock. It automatically skips marked sponsor segments in videos. The segments are user submitted so not all videos have em but it’s so great!
My personal take is that people start understanding the negative impact unhinged marketing can have on your well-being. Ironically, while following influencers and having their happiness and worldviews happily influenced by social media.
Ad Blocking IS Cyber Security
theres a good part in Ready Player One (movie) where the ceo guy is showing how many more ads they can cram imto your field of view and you can still see. Was like 60 or 80% of the visual area. Unfortunately that example is how most advertising heads think. Just cram more and more ads on screen makimg the thing you are trying to do impossible or unusable
Hey, found a YT clip, it was 80% of an individuals visual field before inducing seizures! How exciting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpPE85JogjwIt’s the websites with ads that heat up my phone so much it hurts that are the problem.
90% of internet has always had ads
And we were content to be back when it was a single banner. But then they started flashing, and crowding the screen, and popups that got so obtrusive they would sometimes spawn forever and crash your PC.
You are almost certainly using a browser with a popup blocker, because advertisers can never just let it be: they need to become more and more obtrusive until they start harming their customers. Protecting yourself from ads is a necessity.
Every modern browser has that built in, and phones actively block most of it. Unless you’re surfing the internet on IE4 or whatever, you are already filtering a good chunk of the dreck, because someone else saw fit to protect you from it.
Yes, the internet has always had ads, and us not being ok with it is why you’re able to browse at all without infinitely spawning popups in front of you.
Also, you realize you’re posting on an ad-free platform?
Ads have gotten worse and worse overtime. Some websites are so stuffed with ads the performance of the website suffers. Then there are risks associated with ads when many have become malicious or used to track people. Then what is advertised can also be extremely questionable. Everything from useless products to addictive mobile games to harmful “health” products to crypto scams show up on ads.
I’m fine with some ads on free websites/service if they’re not crazy but too many sites have gone nuts. I’m not ok with ads with paid services. Ads during shows/movies are a no go when I paid for them.
Its a privacy issue as well as just an awful annoyance. Fuck you I dont want to watch your shitty ad I need to watch this video so I know how to fix my dishwasher.
There may have always been sites with ads, but they didn’t always track and profile you behind your back - that’s what’s wrong with online ads, not that there’s something wrong with advertising per se.
At least they’re personalized now
And if they’re personalised then that’s a whole level worse because that means that A: they’ve profiled you and B: they can now be much more effective at influencing you. Don’t buy the story that any of that is for your benefit.
Ads is never just ads. It’s primarily a business model that is fundamentally anti-consumer, because when your main remenue starts becoming showing ads to your user instead of selling them something of value, your priorities shift from trying to make a good quality product to trying to max out engagement in order to print as many ads as possible.
Advertising is a huge waste of societal resources.
Think about it: what’s the actual point of advertising, from the consumer’s point of view? I would argue it’s to get notified of available products, and why you might want that product.
But that’s not what advertising does 99% of the time, now. Advertising now is a collection of products that you already know exist, have probably already looked at, but now you’re getting spammed. Because they aren’t trying to educate you as a consumer - they’re trying to use exposure to trick you into buying their particular product instead of someone else’s identical product.
If you look at the total GDP that goes to advertising, it’s frankly insane. It’s lost 20%. Add finance into that, and most of our GDP is centered around meta-economics rather than stuff people want/need/will use.
No the internet has had ads during your lifetime but older people know exactly how it was before. :)
If I told you that you could see a movie for free, but every 20 minutes or so we’d pause the movie and slap you with a fish, would that be okay?
Would it be better if we analyzed your website usage to choose the specific kind of fish that you’d prefer to be slapped with, would that be okay?
That’s what ads feel like. I hate them, and I’ve almost entirely eliminated them from my life.
At least they’re personalized now
All that means is that they’re tracking everything about you to figure out what ads would work on you. They share your data between companies to build a profile on you.
I used to think the same as you but after enough time I just got completely fed up with everyone constantly trying to sell me things. Basically every interaction online is someone trying to take money from me. Not only that but they go out of their way to make things shittier because you’re more likely to part with your money. Like how article websites wait just long enough before you start reading before covering the screen with an ad and breaking your concentration. You can’t just scroll past those and mind your business.
90% of the internet has always had ads, you just scroll past them and mind your business.
Nah, I’ve always hated ads, and always blocked them as soon as we had the capability.
