Ads Ads Ads (klick me!)
As soon as we move through the interwebs, we are confronted with them: online ads. These can be arranged in beautiful ornaments on the site along your actual content of interest, with shocking and unbelievable titles (‘she lost 200 pounds in one week! Doctors are outraged’), or advertising based on your online activity like Google searches which can reappear anywhere, with facebook having the perfect profile of your age, interests and likings. This individualized advertising should be super effective, right? And then there’s that kind of pop-up ads you wouldn’t want your children to see.
So, naturally I’m overly glad to be able to rely on a strong ad blocker, of which there are plenty to choose from for any web browser, even on mobile phones. As a result, there are some ‘blank’ spaces on many sites. But sometimes, there’s this kind of text:
Do I need to have a bad conscience because I’m not giving sites economical support by consuming their ads? Is this the end of the free internet?
No. Reflecting on any of my past online purchases, I never took those ads seriously nor let them lead me to shopping. If I want a certain product, I’m aware of it before I see any ads.
This is what a study confirms for other internet users too.
Besides, there are several news organisations that explicitly don’t want to use any advertising on their websites, who rely directly on viewer donations. How many times have I closed an interesting post halfway through because of a sudden annoying pop-up, even if it’s only a ‘please sign up’ note? Often.
There are even sites (like the German news site focus) that sneak out of the reach of ad blockers by having their ads always change their URL, so they escape the programs by not being on their ‘bad guys list’.
Bummer, huh? Well, we will just keep ignoring those links- as we always do.
