I live an ad-free life since about 2010. But I do wonder what it’s like to see targeted ads.
I don’t get ads. I am nothing.
Love that for you.
I got advertised bras the other day when I was forced to see ads for the first time in years
Considering I don’t use bras, that’s probably a good sign
Maybe it predicted your future man boobs.
I don’t
I opted out of as many ad trackers as I could ~10 years ago and took every precaution I could.
…it resulted in-- and I shit you not-- really embarrassing-looking ads with words written in capital red letters that read something like “HUGE DISCOUNTS ON HORSE SEMEN BY THE GALLON!” complete with pictures of creamy liquid.
I searched as best I could to make sure I didn’t have a virus or something, and I found some user with the same query as myself; it was a legitimate advertisement from their bottom-of-the-barrel advertisers who-- I guess?-- didn’t pay to target users and had just put in the bare minimum money for ads.
It was so horrible of an experience I stopped the charade and let them learn about me again-- which I can’t help but think was part of the plan.
I am confused, why not just use an ad blocker?
Is the woman on the right Daria all grown up? I didn’t realize how bad I want that until now.
I haven’t seen an ad in ages.
I was gonna say: I have no idea what this is like.
I’m simultaneously living my best life, (mostly) ad free, and at once unaware of how the rest of the world navigates an ad-encrusted digital space.
I don’t see ads
UBlock Origin and NoScript are both very useful
I love VPNs for this … I get to see advertising from around the world … Japanese noodles, Nordic furniture, some weird German food, Turkish real estate, Australian drinks … and all of it delivered in languages I don’t understand.
I do sometimes wonder what the ads say but like you I can’t be bothered to learn Australian.
It’s not hard … you just turn the monitor upside down and you can translate everything.
Hey, speaking of VPNs, why does Lemmy not let me post anything or even comments when I’m on my VPN? As soon as I turn off my VPN, Lemmy lets me participate again. 🤔
Because you’re on lemmy.world. I don’t have that problem with my server unless I’m using a crappy VPN that’s really slow
November 2023 I tried getting into a million different instances and dot world is the only one that wouldn’t buffer in silence forever and actually sent me a verification email. Radio silence from every other instance. Please tell me everyone’s magic secrets for getting into other instances.
You don’t even have to do that to get served foreign ads. If you search on country specific search sites long enough, it’ll eventually bleed over to your native feed.
You guys are seeing ads? I barely use my phone and on my PC I use Firefox with ublock origin. It’s simple really.
fennec with ublock origin works wonders on the phone too.
Or just the default Firefox app, which supports extensions.
Yeah, seriously. This whole “Firefox on mobile doesn’t support adblock/extensions” sentinent is very stubborn, yet I’ve been using them for multiple years without fail at this point.
Why are people normalizing targeted ads, let alone being impartial to ads at all?
I’m seeing this the other way around. It’s possible the normalization is incidental: the comic exists because it’s a common interaction these days.
At the same time, the comic is from the New Yorker. Magazines have a different attitude about advertising in general, so (IMO) this is as anti-ad as a magazine comic can get away with.
There can be good targeted ads eg. For locus businesses. But usually they are not that.
When I did have Instagram I did really like that it told me about local events, the downside that I had to scroll reels to get them. All those events listing websites don’t have the type of events I want to see. So there’s no places I know about them unless it’s from Instagram.
the cork board at the good coffee shop has filled that niche for me pretty well
Oh yeah, I like that.
It’s the targeting itself that is bad. Very, very bad. It’s a blueprint for mind control and singling out opposition. In the current political climate, this spells bloody trouble.
Elections are far out and this ain’t America. Also if the radio would be able to do it so should online ads. That’s the line, though.
If I am looking to buy a product or service that serves a specific need, then I would rather be able to use a search engine to find it.
Ads have more than 1 purpose. Eg. Creating awareness a new restaurant opened in your area.
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Because I pay for shit I use so it’s not really that bad. Shocking I know. God forbid you pay someone for the service.
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Because in the grand scheme of everything ads have so little effect on life and my experience that whining about it is a complete and utter waste of time.
Because in the grand scheme of everything ads have so little effect on life
That’s objectively untrue, though. It’s just so effective, you don’t notice it anymore, and that’s kind of scary.
👌👍 they have a huge effect on my life. You clearly know better than I.
Advertising works, and changes your habits and opinions, whether you acknowledge this or not.
I just don’t care, it’s not having a huge effect. I know I know, it is only the ads and ecosystem that makes me want a new GPU from my 2 realistic choices. And I might know of the existence of some other stupid product.
I have better things to be annoyed and concerned about.
I don’t see how paying for a service implies or justifies solicitation. Ads, especially online, persistently obstruct information and strive to be a general sensory nuisance. I don’t even watch cable TV because the ads have become so noisy, brainless, and aggressive (also since so much of the network content has as well).
I think they might mean that consuming ads is a form of payment?
They’re not wrong but I still block them. One it has gotten out of hand ads are obnoxious and everywhere. Two they have infected people computers before so are not safe.
You don’t understand how commerce works? Everything is just run for free I guess. Nobody is getting paid for anything at all.
Are you trolling?
Understanding how ads work is trolling now?
We…… twice…… established that a consumer is already fiscally paying for these services which then add ads onto the service
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I’ve never seen a targeted ad. It’s very rare that I see any ads at all. Ublock Origin does a very good job of getting rid of them.
A coworker was showing me something in his phone and I was amazed, how clutered it was with all these ads. I don’t know how people can cope with today’s internet without an adblocker
I’m really surprised to see so many people talking about ads. The only ones I see are the non-digital ones in the metro.
Agreed.
The more irrelevant the advertising I see, the happier I am about my digital footprint.
Plus, it’s funny to me when “the algorithm” tries to sell a moist, pasty red-head lotion and hair relaxer because I matched into that demographic somewhere along the line.
Not me, opted out of everything I can that would target me and with the VPN I use it just randomly picks locations and servers
I absolutely love getting ads in random languages I don’t even speak
I can’t even read the ads so It’s like an extra layer of protection from their marketing due to my own ignorance
i’ve been having to translate the TV ads for my wife since they show up in a language i know but she doesn’t. it’s kinda fun since she used to be a certified interpreter (well, i guess the cert hasn’t expired so still is?)
I see you purchased a washing machine. May I assume you are collecting washing machines? Of course I may. Let me offer you these excellent deals for washing machines!
Use ad blocking DNS.
Use VPN.
Never accept all cookies, just the bare minimum.
Use browser extensions to block trackers.
Use security and privacy focused browsers.
I can’t remember the last time I saw ads, let alone targeted.
Never accept all cookies, just the bare minimum.
“Necessary” cookies should have to be able to be rejected
Temporary Containers extension fixes this (I use its continuation fork, Temporary Containers Plus, since the original has not been updated in 5 years because the author is dead), all new tabs with no container are changed to a temporary container that is deleted after a configurable time without any tabs in it
