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Right, advertising is a form of disseminating information, but the issue is that there are limited resources to process all this information in the world. What

Right, advertising is a form of disseminating information, but the issue is that there are limited resources to process all this information in the world. What ads do is forcibly take my attention and direct my resources towards processing their content without my permission. Sure, I can look away but I need to exert effort (even if it is the slightest bit). Processing what they want to tell me makes me more informed about their product (as opposed to their competitors) which, if their ad wasn't terrible, will make me less uncertain about it. This easily makes a number of people more likely to buy it since it will feel familiar, thus making this company better off even if their competitor had a better, but at first more unfamiliar product.

soared 7y ago
Do you equally dislike everything in the header, right rail, left rail, and footer on every single webpage? Does processing the top bar of hn take away from your pool of mental resources? I don’t want to be a dick but this argument lacks weight. Does your brain work less effectively when it’s cloudy, since it takes mental resources to see clouds rather than clear sky?
- elefanten 7y ago
  All the things you reference serve a purpose for the user. There's a whole field about how to design them, etc. Ads are not designed or deployed to serve the user. Are you seriously saying the average ad you see is optimized to provide you useful information? When did you last see a Tide commercial cite the studies that showed it cleans the best? Ads are designed, bought, placed and engineered to interrupt your thought process and direct it elsewhere, then present information that's optimized to make you remember and select that product. Sometimes (in proportion, rarely) that information happens to be useful, but it was still presented in via psychosocial dark patterns.

soared 7y ago

Do you equally dislike everything in the header, right rail, left rail, and footer on every single webpage? Does processing the top bar of hn take away from your pool of mental resources? I don’t want to be a dick but this argument lacks weight. Does your brain work less effectively when it’s cloudy, since it takes mental resources to see clouds rather than clear sky?

elefanten 7y ago
All the things you reference serve a purpose for the user. There's a whole field about how to design them, etc. Ads are not designed or deployed to serve the user. Are you seriously saying the average ad you see is optimized to provide you useful information? When did you last see a Tide commercial cite the studies that showed it cleans the best? Ads are designed, bought, placed and engineered to interrupt your thought process and direct it elsewhere, then present information that's optimized to make you remember and select that product. Sometimes (in proportion, rarely) that information happens to be useful, but it was still presented in via psychosocial dark patterns.