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Like others I don't buy this argument. They wrote that the two choices are > Paywalls. You pay with your money. > Ads. You pay with your attention. But that
by ajkjk 6y ago
Like others I don't buy this argument.
They wrote that the two choices are
> Paywalls. You pay with your money.
> Ads. You pay with your attention.
But that's not quite right. Ads have two options themselves:
> Ads. You pay with your money, because the ads get you to buy stuff.
> Ads. You pay with your attention, wasted on stuff you'll never buy.
Two negatives. Either you buy stuff you otherwise wouldn't (and therefore don't need, and were manipulated into buying), or you don't buy stuff and just have to suffer the attack on your attention in a world where your attention is already strained to its limits. No good outcomes here.
No argument for ads works if you believe, like I do, that buying things in general is bad -- bad for you, bad for the human race, and bad for the environment.
- gundmc 6y ago> buying things in general is bad -- bad for you, bad for the human race, and bad for the environment Do you mean to qualify this in any way? This is quite the radical statement that I'm not sure how you can reconcile with human existence any time the last X thousand years.
- stevenhuang 6y agoNot so radical. See the minimalist movement and related themes. Specifically, there's the prevalence & overabundance of low-quality manufactured products made possible through economies of scale and mispriced environmental externalities. In fact I think it's a good thing for one to question once in a while if they really need to buy that new thing.
- ajkjk 6y agoNot really. I think we should operate such that consumption is slightly negative to begin with. imo, buying something you need is good, but then you don't need an ad to tell you to do it. Buying something you want is good. Buying something you neither need nor want is bad. Allowing something to manipulate you to want more stuff seems bad compared to it not happening.
- gundmc 6y ago> Buying something you neither need nor want is bad. Allowing something to manipulate you to want more stuff seems bad compared to it not happening. Okay, those are the qualifiers I was looking for. That makes sense. It sounded like you were taking a stance against all purchases and not just excesses.
- ajkjk 6y agoI sort-of am: I'd say it seems most reasonable to assign a negative reaction to any purchases, so the positive reasons need to be enough to justify it.