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Not OP but I've had some thoughts on ads for a while that I've never shared: 1. Ads ruins user experience. This is pretty much an objective fact. People can an
by sdegutis 7y ago
Not OP but I've had some thoughts on ads for a while that I've never shared:
1. Ads ruins user experience. This is pretty much an objective fact. People can and do adapt, but it's moving away from the ideal.
2. Ads often manipulates the user (emotionally, psychologically) to get clicks, which is just downright unethical.
3. Often unethical things are advertised, things that shouldn't even be on the market. These are usually rolled into an ad network, and ad embedders don't get a say in what's shown or not.
3. If we removed 99.99% (or maybe 100%) of all ads, I can't imagine that people will have a harder time purchasing what they need, when they need it.
Considering only points #1 and #4, there seems to be no harm in supporting ads in any way.
But #2 and #3 make it seem, to me at least, unethical to even work for a company whose business relies on ads.
I know a man who turned down a job opportunity discussion from Facebook this week for this exact reason, and I think that's noble, especially considering he's very poor and could use the raise.
- kasey_junk 7y agoJust as context, the vast majority of ad budgets are not tied to click through metrics. Ford & Coca Cola do not care a whit if you click on their ads. The vast majority of advertising dollars are around a) brand recognition and b) spending to make sure that it’s the people they want to have brand recognition (for coke everyone, for Ford F-150 a particular demographic). They believe this is important. They have years of evidence to prove it is & that you don’t think it works on you doesn’t matter to them.
- datavirtue 7y agoBrand recognition. In other words: brainwashing or poisoning. Unethical.
- jodrellblank 7y agoThe very fact that it works, is the reason it shouldn't be allowed. They pay, your life changes, for their benefit. You have no say in it. It provably works even if you try to resist it, and don't consent to it.
- vmurthy 7y agoCouldn't agree more on 2 and 3. What is even more unacceptable to me is that these ad networks track everything I do on the web. It is one thing that I see an ad for a laptop when I search for Chromebook (I'll call it contextual for ease) but totally different thing that I see ads for say Professional training when searching for Chromebook because I happened to click on a post on LinkedIn long ago. Other words, I don't like companies having a profile on me which they can use however the way they want at a later date.
- sdegutis 7y agoThat's a good fifth point that I didn't consider: ads inherently promote and encourage data collection in unscrupulously unethical ways.