I Hate Ads
I hate ads.
When a social media property introduces ads, it’s the sign that they are no longer treating you as a customer. They are treating you as a commodity. The user experience no longer matters, only how many ads can they push without decreasing the commodity.
For the few social properties I access, I would happily pay a resonable monthly fee in place of ads. Unfortunately, that’s not a business model anyone wants to embrace. Its ads or die.
So.
I run an ad blocker in all my web browsers. Surfing without one is insanity. I consider it the single best prevention for malware (and other crap) short of using a Mac.
If I see an ad and I’m given an option to comment, I always peg it as offensive or sexually explicit. I don’t care what it is, I rate them all the same. See the opening sentence.
Facebook has ads, but I only see them if they are in my news feed. The ad blocker addressed the others. Embrace the ad blocker. NOW.
Tumblr introduced ads and suggested follows. They also introduced cutesy popups that displayed when you rejected an ad or suggestion. Unfortunately, none of the cutesy suggestions were ever followed. For every visit to Tumbler I was shown the same suggestion in the same place in my feed. I’m no longer using Tumblr.
Pinterest is actually the smartest of the bunch. If they show ads, I rate them as previously stated and then I’m not shown ads for a week, maybe two. When the ads return, I repeat the process and the ads go away again.
Twitter is the f-ing dumbest of this group (no surprise). The Twitter desktop app has no ads. Don’t know why, but it’s an absolute blessing. The Twitter app on my phone is another story. There is an ad every three to six tweets. I block EVERY SINGLE ONE. If Twitter were smart they would back away like Pinterest, but Twitter is anything but smart.
Youtube is the most obnoxious of the group. They run pre-roll ads with many branded videos. When I encounter such an ad, many times I just abandon. If it’s something I really want to view, then I mute the sound and scroll the page down until all I see is the yellow progress bar. When the bar reaches the end, I scroll back up and re-enable the sound. Those ads that slide in from side? Pure s$%^.
The number of ads I’ve encountered in Instagram I can count on one hand. And for that, I am thankful. Instagram is also the best property of any of the above. BY FAR. I just hope Zuckerberg doesn’t f-it up.
That's This World Over 