About twenty something years ago I might I have said that ads are bad because they are so damn irrelevant to my life. I didn’t think it through. Now technology has made it possible to serve me relevant ads by going Big Brother on me and I still hate ads!
I find it hard enough these days to walk through the Zurich main station with all their moving ads distracting me left and right. I hate the noise so I wear headphones. I hate the ads so soon I will need to wear ad-blocking glasses! All ads do is add temptation to my life and if I then deny myself the indulgence, the ads add misery and unhappiness to my life where just moments ago I was happily ignorant and content.
#Ads #Privacy
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Your writing is really good at connecting yourself with other human beings. We all are here to connect with each other. I ride the bus to “people watch” and maybe connect with a person or two. Try that out; focus on the humans around you and not the distractions. I know it is easier said than done.
It is funny as my kids tell me “You really know everyone, don’t you?!?” ...but that is me just not getting distracted from the crap marketing and other things and just being in the moment with the rest of us.
– At PresGas at freeradical dot zone 2018-05-25 02:52 UTC
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I love people watching when I’m on holidays. I once spent days with a friend in Florence just watching the tourists. I guess I’m a Flâneur wanna-be: “the man of leisure, the idler, the urban explorer, the connoisseur of the street.” (Wikipedia) But also this: “to remain hidden from the world” (Baudelaire, quoted on that page). Such a wonderful article.
There’s also being in public early in the morning or late in the evening, tired, exhausted. Social contact, people talking to me, and ads trying to gain my attention seep my energy. I don’t mind as much when I’m happy and fit and full of energy. But during my commute, not so much.
Also, thanks for the kind words. 😄
I guess you could just provide the URL to your Mastodon profile as the homepage URL below and it would link your name automatically. Mentioning Mastodon accounts works as well, e.g. `@kensanata@octodon.social` → @kensanata.
– Alex Schroeder 2018-05-25 08:29 UTC
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The End of the Ad-Supported Web: “This started with the “information overload” complaints from 20 years ago and continued with the incessant slideshows, notifications, click bait and eventually fake news: everything that can steal a couple more minutes of the free web users’ time is financially rewarded: **the content itself becomes an excuse for the ads that surround it**.”
The End of the Ad-Supported Web
– Alex Schroeder 2018-12-17 06:26 UTC