I’ve decided to use this blog as a type of diary. It will be full of mundane daily nonsense, as well as an occasional rant. Speaking of which . . .
I hate that I cannot be online for five minutes without ads shoved in my face. On Youtube, on a one-hour video, I have to click off of at last 12 ads. Even on a diary site I use, when I try to read posts, the screen gets entirely blocked by an over-screen ad, on top of the one sliding up from the bottom and one on either side of the page. Most times, at least three of the ads are the exact same ads at the same time. Which is pointless. Seeing the SAME ad four times in the same place at the same moment is not going to generate any more revenue than seeing one of those.
I’m just so frustrated that at the end of a long workday, I cannot watch youtube without ads, or read posts anywhere it seems. At least on Fb, it’s part of a feed, and I can just scroll on by.
So, from now on, I’m going to avoid all sites that are overloaded with ads. I don’t mind an ad here or there. I don’t even mind one ad on a page. But when it is actually disruptive to the activity I went there for, like reading posts or watching videos, then what’s the point?
I already pay for a streaming network to watch movies and tv shows. On top of internet costs, subscriptions to things I absolutely need for work, it’s like the internet is nickel-and-diming me to death.
So, I’m done with it. For entertainment, I’m going to return to a form that has zero ads. Books. I’m going back to reading books.
I’m sure there must have been psychology studies on the stress levels imposed by an over abundance of ads. It’s probably why TV commercials are generally two 30-second commercials at precise intervals. So 1 minute of ads every 15 minutes or so. But Youtube having two ads, some of which are five minutes long, every five minutes is just too much.
So, because on principle I don’t feel I SHOULD have to pay for every single thing I want to do on the internet, especially when it’s advertized as “free”, I just cannot add one more subscription to my life. It’s not exactly fair to have something offered as free, yet make it such a miserable experience that the user is forced into paying, just to stop the unpleasantness. That is, at best, hard selling. No Thank You.
And now where the ads are so targeted and we have all kinds of listening devices, I can’t even have a conversation without a misdirected ad showing up somewhere on my screen. Yesterday, I happened to mention the word bankruptcy (not for me, btw) to a friend, and all day long, wherever I had to be online, there were ads informing me that I didn’t need to resort to bankruptcy, there are other ways. Not only am I not going bankrupt, but if I were, the last thing I would need in my life would be more stressful ads!!
Maybe I’m just cranky this week. Okay, yes, I AM cranky. But that is even more reason that it’s not a good idea to shove fifty million ads in my face as I’m trying to relax.
It seems like the entire world has gone 100% commercial. Socializing has become monetized.
Yes, I’m aware books cost money too, but I can buy one when I want, I don’t have to pay every month just to be able to read a story.
Okay, well, I guess I’ve reached the end of my rant today.