zlacker

The fundamental problem here is a little broader than ads, but "ads" mostly cover it. The problem is the commoditization of human attention. The incentive to catch and sell attention is poisonous to all human endeavors. Some things need to grab your attention to fulfill their purpose, I'm not against the idea of something directing a person's attention. Where it becomes a problem is the murky line of that direction of attention being something that is bottled and sold, or otherwise used in the interest of the distracter rather than the distracted.

So ads that someone seeks out of their own volition? Fine. That's just marketing material, and falls in the same category as every product announcement, press release, etc. What if a product catalog is mixed in with coupons or other rewards? Not fine anymore, you've mixed up reward-seeking and information-seeking.

If someone means to direct their attention and gets distracted by an important notice, like "I mean to drive down this road, and the stop sign grabbed my attention," that's also fine. The information is relevant to the human and important for augmenting their intention. But if you download an app and try to do something, only to be met with a banner/popup/whatever informing you of other products on offer by the company? Well, they're not selling your attention to third parties, but they are monetizing it by taking your intention to use one product and attempting to redirect it into a potential purchase of another, so that's out. If you want, you can include a clearly-labelled "our other offerings" section in the app, out of the way, somewhere it would only be encountered by someone seeking it out.

Distracting people cannot be allowed to be one of the main drivers of our economy.

>>idle_z+(OP)
> Distracting people cannot be allowed to be one of the main drivers of our economy.

Sure it can. Apple, Google and Microsoft get millions of impressions every day and everyone accepts it. Just because it's uncomfortable for you to think about doesn't mean that it's not happening, at-scale, this very minute.

>>bigyab+n6
"Cannot be allowed" means "We need to stop this" in context, not that they don't believe it's happening.

>>BobaFl+F6
Well, they cannot stop it. We're already in a post-advertising world and the US has no consumer protection laws to protect your attention.

If your OEM decides to serve you ads, you don't get to complain. The alternative is to buy a device with adblock or Airplane Mode and supposedly this represents a healthy, competitive economy.

>>bigyab+D7
Every once in a while we need a general strike which achieves financial destruction of the corrupt who have taken the seat of power.

>>iwontb+49
Okay, go strike. Stop buying iPhones and smart-devices and let me know how many people follow your righteous warpath.

I don't disagree with your thesis. But the time for revolution has long since passed, this admin won't do anything about the ads. Nor will it's constituents.

>>idle_z+(OP)
Commoditization of human attention is a great explanation

>>bigyab+o9
> But the time for revolution has long since passed

Oh?

>>idle_z+(OP)
> the commoditization of human attention

It isn’t commoditised. It’s priced to a tee. If you can afford to keep your attention, you do.

The problem is we’ve let sociopaths like Zuckerberg and Mosseri convince us that we’re born into their servitude. That the natural order for our kids is for their attention to be stolen. That their parents have to then pay and work to buy it back.