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I use ad-block. Ads are polluting my brain. I'm thinking of something while traveling on the bus and suddenly I catch myself reading some silly slogan on a boa

by zimbatm 13y ago

I use ad-block. Ads are polluting my brain. I'm thinking of something while traveling on the bus and suddenly I catch myself reading some silly slogan on a board. Now it's stored somewhere and I might think about it later again. I never wanted to read that thing and feel like it has been forced upon me. How many hours of collective thinking power have been lost to ads processing ? Ads publishers treat us like a free resources that they can tap into. They hire psychologist and sociologists to know the best way to trigger emotional responses into us. They track our every move on the Internet. TV shows are especially created to dumb us down and make us more receptive to the ad-break. And ads are so omnipresent that they are virtually unavoidable. I don't remember the last time I got convinced to buy by an ad but it must work since they keep doing it. So yes, I don't feel bad and ad-block the hell of everything and wish I could do it in the real life too. EDIT: Actually my biggest grief is that the price of ads is not clearly exposed. I need to know upfront how much of purchasing influence I'm expected to spend on average otherwise how can I choose what is cheaper ?

selmnoo 13y ago
You bring up good points. But the reason I've always had an issue with ads is much different: the only people who can afford ads in the right places are the ones who are already big. In other words, it is extremely unfair. The people who could really use an ad on a TV don't have money to afford it. It's a perverse kind of system that somehow we just accepted without every questioning it.
bemmu 13y ago
I am torn how I feel about ads. It seems that they work for web and app publishers, because it's a way to collect micropayments, while making people feel like they are not really paying anything. Instead of asking someone to micropay you $0.001, you ask them to waste brain cycles to tune out the ad + cause some increased chance that they'll overpay for a brand name later. This might end up being more expensive than the payment would have been. I must admit I would behave the same way. If you gave me a way to pay $5 / month that would be split among the sites I visit based on the pageviews I generate, I probably would not do it. I wonder if there would a way for such a system to be set up, so that it could offer something more than just installing AdBlock would. I doubt it, but would be happy to be wrong. It seems that ads are the only realistic way for this to work for publishers, while adding an unfortunate mental tax for everyone not savvy enough to install AdBlock. I hope one day we will come up with a solution.

by zimbatm 13y ago

selmnoo 13y ago

You bring up good points. But the reason I've always had an issue with ads is much different: the only people who can afford ads in the right places are the ones who are already big. In other words, it is extremely unfair. The people who could really use an ad on a TV don't have money to afford it. It's a perverse kind of system that somehow we just accepted without every questioning it.

bemmu 13y ago

I am torn how I feel about ads. It seems that they work for web and app publishers, because it's a way to collect micropayments, while making people feel like they are not really paying anything. Instead of asking someone to micropay you $0.001, you ask them to waste brain cycles to tune out the ad + cause some increased chance that they'll overpay for a brand name later. This might end up being more expensive than the payment would have been. I must admit I would behave the same way. If you gave me a way to pay $5 / month that would be split among the sites I visit based on the pageviews I generate, I probably would not do it. I wonder if there would a way for such a system to be set up, so that it could offer something more than just installing AdBlock would. I doubt it, but would be happy to be wrong. It seems that ads are the only realistic way for this to work for publishers, while adding an unfortunate mental tax for everyone not savvy enough to install AdBlock. I hope one day we will come up with a solution.