• ThisIsMyLemmyLogin@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I find it disturbing that there are people out there who spend much of their time thinking about new ways to get people to see adverts. Surely it falls under the “bullshit jobs” category that David Graeber once wrote about.

    • HeavyDogFeet@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I hate shitty ads as much as the next person, but you’re ignoring how much of the internet runs on advertising money. Think of all the websites, services, apps, etc that you use that are “free” (read: ad-supported) — without ad revenue, a large percentage of them would be too expensive to run.

      I’m not saying ad-tech companies/people are always good, many of them clearly do unethical shit, but the idea that you’re being forced to see ads is kind of crazy. You always have the option to not use ad-supported stuff, it’s just a lot more limiting and expensive.

      • RubberElectrons@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I’m ok with that. The internet was a lot weirder and more interesting when people were creating their own services and sites. We’re on an ad-free, donation-based platform right this very second.

        No banks and their policies to answer to, just some regular folks and their weird lemmy servers. You like it? Cool. You don’t? Also cool.

        • HeavyDogFeet@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Your point doesn’t make sense. Even back when people where creating their own services and sites (which they still are, it’s not like that has ever stopped) there was still often ad-funding when those things grew to a scale where donations alone couldn’t support them.

          And yes, lemmy is ad-free. That’s doesn’t mean the model will work for everything else. Ad-support can be a great way of keeping something accessible and free for people who can’t or won’t pay for it. It’s not always a bad thing.

          • diyrebel@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            1 year ago

            The heart of your stance is apparently that pernicious socially harmful mechanisms are okay as long as they finance something useful. Correct?

            Or is it that you don’t see the harms of advertising?

            Advertising is a wasteful arms race. Bob may not want to spend money advertising his business, but if Mallory (his competitor) spends money on ads, then Bob is forced to spend money on ads to recover marketshare loss due to Mallory’s ads.

            • HeavyDogFeet@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              That’s a pretty disingenuous interpretation of what I said. But I get it, you don’t like advertising so it has to be completely evil with no redeeming qualities or nuance.

              • Valmond@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Oh you talked about the good ads!

                Really, I have yet to see an ad that is not just trying to enter your brain with force and malice.

                It’s just getting worse too, the “Buy Acme product!” image is now a +100% loudness jump-scare video on auto-pay.