DIGITAL LIFE | TECHNOLOGY
The Slow and Sure Monetization of Everything
How we squandered the promise of a boundless knowledge haven
When the internet first entered homes, there was a wide-eyed optimism that surrounded it. It had the potential to democratize all of human knowledge, after all. For free, we could have each learned anything that there was to know without consequence. In those earliest days, and in our loftiest visions, the internet could have remained an ad-free frontier. Profit might never have entered into the equation at all.
But now looking back on the days of an ad-free internet experience feels like a distant memory. It’s hard to believe there was a time we could visit our websites and chat with our friends and read our information without even a single banner ad or message from sponsors.
It wasn’t long ago that Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat were all completely devoid of advertisements. To think back on it now might bring feelings of longing for the humble days of Facebook pokes and an Instagram that centered around photos and not Kardashians.
But as times changed, the paradigm shifted.
“The next 100 years are going to be different for advertisers starting today,” explained Facebook CEO and…
