4 ms·

Dear 2016, You haven't figured it out yet, but we consider advertising unethical. Yours, 2066

by Brainix 10y ago

themartorana 10y ago
I can't imagine this will be true. What's wrong with advertising? It's how I know about things! The depths to which advertisers go to with tracking feels rather unethical at times, however.
- dingaling 10y ago
  > What's wrong with advertising? It is psychological warfare, conducted by corporations instead of States. But the objective is the same; trick you into changing your behavior to benefit them.
  - abenga 10y ago
    I don't know ... thinking selfishly, I'm employed and paid by a a corporation that uses advertises to increase revenues from their products/services. As are almost everyone else here. Even the "altruistic" non-profits and whatever are largely funded by the very same corporations. Will there ever be a time when economic activity is largely carried out by people and organizations that do not seek profit? If advertising increases said economic activity, isn't it a good?
    - frankquist 10y ago
      If corruption increases said economic activity, is it a good? If destruction of the environment increases certain economic activity, is it a good? I'm not saying these things are similar to advertising, but the reasoning is flawed. That in the current setup of our economic system something makes economic sense, does not necessarily make it a good thing.
- frankquist 10y ago
  I am at a loss for alternatives, but I am skeptical about advertising. Not in a completely general sense, but what bothers me is that much of it is manipulative. It uses images, sounds and movies in certain progressions to influence me, sometimes in a covert or unconscious way. Now, certainly a lot of other communication efforts are aimed at persuasion, but then, you often have to consciously go and find them. It is easier to filter (I can choose not to visit the opinion pages of website or its comments section). Advertising on the other hand crawls into your life from all directions (billboards, video ads that suddenly start playing, popups, street vendors) and is sometimes impossible to avoid. Often it's slick but shallow. It's like, you enjoy eating good food but instead, everywhere you go, you are being force-fed hamburgers. I do not want an information diet that fills up my working memory, costs me energy, manipulates my emotions and yet leaves me unfulfilled.
- ionised 10y ago
  It's psychlogical manipulation. It uses your fears, your neuroses, your addictions and your need to remain involved and up to date against yourself as a way to extract your hard-earned resources and time.
PhasmaFelis 10y ago
It will most likely go the opposite direction.
drdre2001 10y ago
Do you have any other ideas of how browsers are going to make money? Without charging their customers?
- swsieber 10y ago
  Nope - we thought that wasn't quite needed since they were being set up as a public service, not a monetization platform. We need a project like the Linux kernel, except for a good browser.
  - kevinjcliao 10y ago
    https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/ https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/
    - swsieber 10y ago
      I don't consider this a good rebuttal - Firefox has done stuff like pocket (not monetary but invasive) and search engine deals (monetary). Though it is pretty close.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - drdre2001 10y ago
    Don't we have a couple of "Linux" like browsers already? Like Konqueror? Or are those not good enough?
    - swsieber 10y ago
      Nope - they aren't good enough. It's not easy to install. What I would love in a browser: * An organization set up to oversee it that does not need to care about money (pipe dream part here). * Easy to install. * Standards compliant. * Open source. All in all, Firefox is the closest (imo). What rubs me wrong about chrome is that originally it was to be monetized - at least I don't remember such.
vu4374fv18 10y ago
Grandpa, I heard you were an activist back in the before-time, what did you do when they were burning the earth? Oh, I was mostly worried about how an advertising company was using my interests to decide whether to show me an ad for batteries or hair cream.
- forgottenpass 10y ago
  "And grandpa, what was great uncle vu4374fv18's fight?" "He snarkily shitposted to the internet whenever someone cared about an issue that wasn't the most pressing societal issue at the time. Even if their profession brought them into closer proximity to one than the other."

Dear 2016, You haven't figured it out yet, but we consider advertising unethical. Yours, 2066

by Brainix 10y ago

Dear 2016, You haven't figured it out yet, but we consider advertising unethical. Yours, 2066

I can't imagine this will be true. What's wrong with advertising? It's how I know about things! The depths to which advertisers go to with tracking feels rather unethical at times, however.

dingaling 10y ago
> What's wrong with advertising? It is psychological warfare, conducted by corporations instead of States. But the objective is the same; trick you into changing your behavior to benefit them.
- abenga 10y ago
  I don't know ... thinking selfishly, I'm employed and paid by a a corporation that uses advertises to increase revenues from their products/services. As are almost everyone else here. Even the "altruistic" non-profits and whatever are largely funded by the very same corporations. Will there ever be a time when economic activity is largely carried out by people and organizations that do not seek profit? If advertising increases said economic activity, isn't it a good?
  - frankquist 10y ago
    If corruption increases said economic activity, is it a good? If destruction of the environment increases certain economic activity, is it a good? I'm not saying these things are similar to advertising, but the reasoning is flawed. That in the current setup of our economic system something makes economic sense, does not necessarily make it a good thing.
frankquist 10y ago
I am at a loss for alternatives, but I am skeptical about advertising. Not in a completely general sense, but what bothers me is that much of it is manipulative. It uses images, sounds and movies in certain progressions to influence me, sometimes in a covert or unconscious way. Now, certainly a lot of other communication efforts are aimed at persuasion, but then, you often have to consciously go and find them. It is easier to filter (I can choose not to visit the opinion pages of website or its comments section). Advertising on the other hand crawls into your life from all directions (billboards, video ads that suddenly start playing, popups, street vendors) and is sometimes impossible to avoid. Often it's slick but shallow. It's like, you enjoy eating good food but instead, everywhere you go, you are being force-fed hamburgers. I do not want an information diet that fills up my working memory, costs me energy, manipulates my emotions and yet leaves me unfulfilled.
ionised 10y ago
It's psychlogical manipulation. It uses your fears, your neuroses, your addictions and your need to remain involved and up to date against yourself as a way to extract your hard-earned resources and time.

PhasmaFelis 10y ago

It will most likely go the opposite direction.

drdre2001 10y ago

Do you have any other ideas of how browsers are going to make money? Without charging their customers?

swsieber 10y ago
Nope - we thought that wasn't quite needed since they were being set up as a public service, not a monetization platform. We need a project like the Linux kernel, except for a good browser.
- kevinjcliao 10y ago
  https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/ https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/
  - swsieber 10y ago
    I don't consider this a good rebuttal - Firefox has done stuff like pocket (not monetary but invasive) and search engine deals (monetary). Though it is pretty close.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- drdre2001 10y ago
  Don't we have a couple of "Linux" like browsers already? Like Konqueror? Or are those not good enough?
  - swsieber 10y ago
    Nope - they aren't good enough. It's not easy to install. What I would love in a browser: * An organization set up to oversee it that does not need to care about money (pipe dream part here). * Easy to install. * Standards compliant. * Open source. All in all, Firefox is the closest (imo). What rubs me wrong about chrome is that originally it was to be monetized - at least I don't remember such.

vu4374fv18 10y ago

Grandpa, I heard you were an activist back in the before-time, what did you do when they were burning the earth? Oh, I was mostly worried about how an advertising company was using my interests to decide whether to show me an ad for batteries or hair cream.

forgottenpass 10y ago
"And grandpa, what was great uncle vu4374fv18's fight?" "He snarkily shitposted to the internet whenever someone cared about an issue that wasn't the most pressing societal issue at the time. Even if their profession brought them into closer proximity to one than the other."