I am avoiding nearly all ads.
The more irrelevant the advertising I see, the happier I am about my digital footprint.
Plus, it’s funny to me when “the algorithm” tries to sell a moist, pasty red-head lotion and hair relaxer because I matched into that demographic somewhere along the line.
I like to imagine the life of the person ads think I am. I get ads in Spanish, I get medication ads for illnesses I do not have, and sometimes literally cannot have,I get ads for high end lab equipment. By far my favorite was an ad for deep sea oil rig sand traps, why would that ad even be made, and why send it to a 50 year old man in a landlocked state who is watching minecraft lets plays and pink pony club covers.
lol why the hell even is an oil rig sand trap?
“Deep sea oil rig sand trap” sounds like an underground rock band song title.
I’ve never seen a targeted ad. It’s very rare that I see any ads at all. Ublock Origin does a very good job of getting rid of them.
I’m really surprised to see so many people talking about ads. The only ones I see are the non-digital ones in the metro.
Agreed.
A coworker was showing me something in his phone and I was amazed, how clutered it was with all these ads. I don’t know how people can cope with today’s internet without an adblocker
Why are people normalizing targeted ads, let alone being impartial to ads at all?
There can be good targeted ads eg. For locus businesses. But usually they are not that.
When I did have Instagram I did really like that it told me about local events, the downside that I had to scroll reels to get them. All those events listing websites don’t have the type of events I want to see. So there’s no places I know about them unless it’s from Instagram.
the cork board at the good coffee shop has filled that niche for me pretty well
Oh yeah, I like that.
It’s the targeting itself that is bad. Very, very bad. It’s a blueprint for mind control and singling out opposition. In the current political climate, this spells bloody trouble.
Elections are far out and this ain’t America. Also if the radio would be able to do it so should online ads. That’s the line, though.
If I am looking to buy a product or service that serves a specific need, then I would rather be able to use a search engine to find it.
Ads have more than 1 purpose. Eg. Creating awareness a new restaurant opened in your area.
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Because I pay for shit I use so it’s not really that bad. Shocking I know. God forbid you pay someone for the service.
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Because in the grand scheme of everything ads have so little effect on life and my experience that whining about it is a complete and utter waste of time.
Because in the grand scheme of everything ads have so little effect on life
That’s objectively untrue, though. It’s just so effective, you don’t notice it anymore, and that’s kind of scary.
👌👍 they have a huge effect on my life. You clearly know better than I.
Advertising works, and changes your habits and opinions, whether you acknowledge this or not.
I just don’t care, it’s not having a huge effect. I know I know, it is only the ads and ecosystem that makes me want a new GPU from my 2 realistic choices. And I might know of the existence of some other stupid product.
I have better things to be annoyed and concerned about.
I don’t see how paying for a service implies or justifies solicitation. Ads, especially online, persistently obstruct information and strive to be a general sensory nuisance. I don’t even watch cable TV because the ads have become so noisy, brainless, and aggressive (also since so much of the network content has as well).
I think they might mean that consuming ads is a form of payment?
They’re not wrong but I still block them. One it has gotten out of hand ads are obnoxious and everywhere. Two they have infected people computers before so are not safe.
Oh, you don’t understand how commerce works? Everything is just run for free I guess. Nobody is getting paid for anything at all.
Are you trolling?
Understanding how ads work is trolling now?
We…… twice…… established that a consumer is already fiscally paying for these services which then add ads onto the service
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I’m seeing this the other way around. It’s possible the normalization is incidental: the comic exists because it’s a common interaction these days.
At the same time, the comic is from the New Yorker. Magazines have a different attitude about advertising in general, so (IMO) this is as anti-ad as a magazine comic can get away with.
I’m pretty sure mine are based on my physical location and not me. Walking sticks, supplements, glucose monitors.
I’m pretty sure Google figured out I’m a woman in my 40s living in Finland so my YouTube ads reflect that. Get feminine product ads and toy ads before Christmas.
And sometimes weird B2B adverts like business software and logistics services and industrial equipment.
One time it was straight up “hey, gurl, wanna buy a tractor???” …probably because I have watched Farming Simulator let’s plays. Years ago.
So did you buy the tractor?
Come on, every woman living her 40s in Finland has a tractor already.
Fair point
Install ublock origin
I have uBlock origin on my browser. The ads are only a problem in YouTube for TV and Android, which is sadly where I watch most of YouTube. But I do my part of backing out whenever the damn counter says 50 seconds remaining, and whenever YouTube pops up a quiz about the quality of advertising, I say it’s shit. Someone has to be in the trenches to observe that the thing is shit.
Over a decade ago I did some volunteer work with disabled children for a few months. Basically assist them, organize a summer camp for people with and without disabilities, teaching other volunteers how to approach and effectively help them, etc.
I also did some workshops showing non-disabled people what certain disabilities are like, how they affect you in ways they wouldn’t even expect, how to improve things to make them more accessible and so on.
Even today, I get constantly shown ads for clinics, medical treatments, wheel chairs, prosthetics,… ugh
Install ublock origin
I do use uBlock Origin. But I’m not allowed to do so (and do not have the privilege to do it anyways) on my work devices. My PiHole takes care of a part of the ads for these, when I work from home, but still…
Also there’s a decent chance, that $App finds a way to shove ads down your throat anyways, though there aren’t many apps left that try to show ads, as I consider that a ban able offense that’s worth a Deinstallation without warning
What would a workplace have against adblockers???
Do they WANT viruses on work computers? Adware exists and is a threat.
Nah, but they mandate chrome based browsers, and after manifest V2 was removed…
We do still have ad blockers, but they do not work as effectively as before.
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Never accept all cookies, just the bare minimum.
“Necessary” cookies should have to be able to be rejected
Temporary Containers extension fixes this (I use its continuation fork, Temporary Containers Plus, since the original has not been updated in 5 years because the author is dead), all new tabs with no container are changed to a temporary container that is deleted after a configurable time without any tabs in it
I love it when, rarely as it may be since I block ads as much as possible, I get a completely unrelated-to-me ad… it just means they have no clue who I am
Every once in a while, it glitches out on me and starts showing me adds for born-again Jesus seminars.
Or it’s trying to tell me something. One of those two.
Looks like the right one is leaning on a big pile of poo
Also like Daria Morgendorffer
It’s a handbag.
… stuffed with poo.
Not me, opted out of everything I can that would target me and with the VPN I use it just randomly picks locations and servers
I absolutely love getting ads in random languages I don’t even speak
I can’t even read the ads so It’s like an extra layer of protection from their marketing due to my own ignorance
I hate when someone asks me about some random thing, I quickly Google it for some quick info about something I don’t care about at all, and then I have to deal with pop up ads on that product for weeks afterwards.
Use duckduckgo for these random searches
Valid.
I see you purchased a washing machine. May I assume you are collecting washing machines? Of course I may. Let me offer you these excellent deals for washing machines!
You guys are seeing ads? I barely use my phone and on my PC I use Firefox with ublock origin. It’s simple really.
fennec with ublock origin works wonders on the phone too.
Or just the default Firefox app, which supports extensions.
Yeah, seriously. This whole “Firefox on mobile doesn’t support adblock/extensions” sentinent is very stubborn, yet I’ve been using them for multiple years without fail at this point.
I haven’t seen an ad in ages.
I was gonna say: I have no idea what this is like.
I’m simultaneously living my best life, (mostly) ad free, and at once unaware of how the rest of the world navigates an ad-encrusted digital space.
