I used to sometimes. When there was a simple, clean ad for something I was interested in, I would click through.
Mind you, this was in an era when the internet amounted to strings and cans because I’m a fucking dinosaur. Since then, ads first went obnoxious and loud, then they got plastered everywhere, then they started being invasive.
Fuck ads at this point. There’s nothing good in them for us at all.
but but but but you’d get something good for it! You would never have missed it, but maybe you just didn’t know you wanted it? Come on, I’m sure consuming shit that will make you happy twice for two minutes each (once when clicking buy, once when getting and opening the package) will fill that hole in your soul! Spending money on stuff you don’t actually need is good!
A lot of times people will visit a website for a product they’re interested in and may not immediately pull the trigger. When they see it later 3-4 more times, the chances of conversion are way higher.
Google probably doesn’t really know if you purchased the product, and may not care, as you may want to purchase another.
I’m sure it’s like gambling and microtransactions where the vast majority of income is derived from a small minority of people who aren’t bothered by the onslaught of ads shoved down their throats.
Only did it once. The Rest EverCool comforter ad I kept seeing. Looked up a bunch of reviews and as someone who is a very hot sleeper. I can’t recommend it enough. It’s the softest coolest blanket I’ve ever felt. Every square inch is as cool as the other side of the pillow.
Upvoted for saying the phrase “as cool as the other side of the pillow”. Heard that once when someone was talking about a sports commentator and haven’t forgotten it in probably 35 years at least.
ESPN’s Stuart Scott used this as his catchphrase starting in the mid-'90s, so not quite 35 years (but damn close). Like all ESPN catchphrases, it was clever and funny the first time, not so much the next 5000 times.
I’m not sure this applies to stuff like ads. Like, if you always prioritize foss and ethically sourced products, ads can’t really persuade you to buy certain things. And you make those decisions by doing research and buying local, or even better, making as much stuff as you can yourself.
Or you could just hate shopping. I hate it all, online, in store. I end up doing way too much research and it’s too mentally taxing. I buy a phone like once every 7 years because the stress of just shopping for it is annoying, not to mention the actual process of switching.
I really need to buy clothes again… but that’s like my least favorite thing to shop for…
Oh, I totally get you! I hate shopping as well, even though it’s a necessity. In fact, I dislike it so much that I’m actually learning to make my own clothes. I realise this isn’t for everyone and that not everybody has the time, but I’m sure there’s stuff that you can do on your own that you may actually enjoy!
That’s cool! I am guessing you’re female? Women’s clothes seems to be easier to make in my experience. Making a pair of men’s pants was a challenge, the materials were expensive and they didn’t even come out that great, and I almost never wear them.
A sundress is like 10x easier to sew than a pair of pants.
Targeted ads are designed to make you feel inadequate or incomplete. Even if it doesn’t convince you to buy the product advertised, it can still shift your expectations and world-view just by normalizing a certain type of consumption (or attitude, or media, ect).
Just because you don’t spend money, doesn’t mean ads aren’t still subtly manipulating your expectations.
It is a trillion dollar a year industry for a reason.
It also just lets you know the product exists or reminds you of it while strengthening certain associations in your brain. I know I can’t think of VPNs without thinking of NordVPN and if I were to decide I want one, I don’t think there would be a chance it didn’t at least occur to me to maybe look into
And you almost certainly leave thinking you aren’t being careful enough with your privacy and you should look into getting a VPN. Works the same with any ad, or even a promoted social media post. “You’ll like this thing because of how we know you think of yourself.”
It’s pernicious and erodes everyone’s ability to be happy and content, no matter how resistant you think you are to advertisements.
I don’t think I’ve ever willingly clicked on an ad in my entire life
Same here and I’ve certainly never purchased anything through an ad. You’d think there’d be some advantage for advertising networks to identify people (there are dozens of us!) who never click on ads and refrain from serving any to them - and use this as a selling point for ad buyers so that their expenditures are not wasted.
Just because you don’t click on an ad doesn’t mean it didn’t work though. If you see an ad for Coke you may not click on it to order a case of Coke online right away, but when you go out to lunch maybe you’ll fill your cup with Coke.
I mention food ads because I feel they are particularly effective for this type of behavior. You don’t need to click on a food ad, but I know I’ve had a craving for a certain restaurant or food from seeing it mentioned online (whether an ad or just a comment/post) and then gone to get that food for dinner.
Of course, this type of ad result is very difficult to track.
Basically the only times I click on ads is when I’m searching for something and the search engine I’m using has paid ads for the thing I’m searching for at the top.
Beyond that I can’t think of any times I’ve ever clicked on an ad intentionally.
it’s not about your clicks, it’s to influence you, it can influence people in multiple degree, maybe next type when you go buy something think about it
Used to think otherwise, that I was immune to the phenomenon that you’re describing. But then the other day I realised my shoes were hurting my feet. I was seriously considering buying shoe inserts (if that’s their English name), even had the brand in mind, until I realised what was happening.
I’ve seen ads for this brand on tv like a decade ago. Before that, I honestly had no clue such things existed, I’d seen them in a store like, twice. Never seen anything related to them ever since. Literally forgot about them until I felt the slightest urge to buy them. I was really taken aback when I realised what had happened in my “advertising-immune” mind
Idk why the heck you just got downvoted into oblivion for pointing out the irony in google calling this a “privacy feature.” Good old reddit moment it seems.
lol it’s no worries. actually I have the privilege of being bot-downvoted by CCP sympathizers because of comments on this post lemmy.world/post/2338419, there is also the possibility that I’m just an asshole.
I don't particularly care about your or his internet spats or attempt to control the all important narrative on lemmy. You are the one giving him rent free space in your brain and on your keyboard though.
See WarmSoda!? This is why I shouldn’t have stopped. People ask this question, your advice was wrong! I’m going to continue what I was doing before you called me stupid.
edit: The link points to lemmy.world which is intermittently getting DDOS’ed.
Please ignore my negative initial vote score, as I have the privilege of being bot-downvoted by CCP sympathizers because of comments on this post lemmy.world/post/2338419, there is also the possibility that I’m just an asshole.
It’s funny how small incremental changes over the years felt like nothing big was happening and then at some point we all woke up to a world where the largest advertising firm in the world basically is the internet for the vast majority of people. Everyone uses chrome and rarely types in a web address, they just type the name of the thing into Google and trust mommy to show them what’s appropriate. They’ve back doored the entire population into basically what AOL was trying to be 20 years ago.
“we are going to help protect your privacy” from WHO Google? Is it from you? Because it seems like we need protection from you most of all. Constantly being gaslit by mega-corporations is the new American dream. It’s okay because they love us, deep down, and we know that even though they don’t show it.
It’s funny how small incremental changes over the years felt like nothing big was happening and then at some point we all woke up to a world where the largest advertising firm in the world basically is the internet for the vast majority of people.
In a microcosm of the same kind of creeping normalcy, Bethesda charging a few bucks for horse armor in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was once a reach too far, until it wasn’t.
Now we have Star Citizen levels of grifting as well as ActiBlizz “buy a currency to get a currency that is leveraged as currency to get credit toward a currency in a battle pass” layer cake grifting.
Can you expand on the last paragraph? I am not a gamer, so although I understand most words in that sentence I really have no idea what you’re referring to.
Well, to put it simply there are these things called microtransactions, basically you want items in a game or extra lives or something like that, you can pay for them instead of earning them, sometimes they make it so that certain items can only be paid for, worse they make it so that certain items can only be paid for and will only be offered for a limited amount of time. If you miss the window to buy them now you will never be given another chance. Normally this is something cool like a tie in with a new movie that came out or something of that nature. Fortnite does this a lot, hope you got those Marvel characters when they were offering them cuz you’re not getting them now.
But as if that wasn’t bad enough there was another layer to it, one of the things you can buy with microtransactions, using real money, is a form of money that can only be used in the game.
So, what you give them a dollar, they give you 100 coins, and there isn’t even exchange rate? Of course not
There are various bundles where you can buy the premium currency as it is often called. Typically the more expensive bundles give more, and it’s not tiered properly, so let’s say $5 gives you 800 coins, but $10 gives you 2,000 coins, it’s to goad you and to always buying the higher amount, even if you only want that one item.
But it can get worse, they can set the prices so that you can just barely afford the item you want with that $10 tier, so the next year is 5000 coins for $20. And with that you can get enough coins to buy the item you want and have just a little left over, but not enough for you to do anything with unless you buy a lot of coins to supplement that amount, which can trick you into thinking that you’re getting a good deal when you are actually being fleeced pretty hard.
Fortnite is so bad because despite it being a good game, it does all of the above and targets to children who don’t know anything about money.
There are cases where you can buy one form of Premium currency with real money, so that you can buy a higher tier of Premium currency with the premium currency you bought with real money, forcing you to pay even more.
And this is one reason why modern games suck, the other reason is that everyone is using the same Engine.
That’s fascinating, it’s like microtransaction recursion. I actually want someone to say fuck it and pull the wool off and just create a legitimate gambling first person shooter… I would love that. I used to play counter strike a long time ago and love poker. Just have like an ammo buy in cost that forms the prize pool. Make it tournament style with a bounty a top 3 and just rake part of the pool for profits and all that money your going to have to pour into cheating detection.
I imagine one day these practices will be cracked down upon when the European Union comes out for blood, the European Union is actually pretty good at getting us new laws that help regulate the internet and Technology.
I don’t have a problem with a game that is based on gambling, I just don’t think one should be targeted to children, and I definitely believe that you need to be upfront about what you’re actually doing.
Sadly the European Union is a case of, the wheels of Justice move slowly, but they are moving. Only recently did they make loot boxes illegal, but loot boxes had already been abandoned by the industry in favor of something far worse, the battle pass.
Basically you pay a fee, and then you can unlock various features by doing certain missions, but if you don’t claim everything by the time the battle pass goes off of sale, then tough luck, and if you don’t get that battle pass, you are likely never getting a chance to get those features. So not only does it encourage you to buy a battle pass, but to play the game obsessively to make sure you unlock everything from the battle pass in time. And all that time there are bombarding you with ads for various other products that you can buy with micro transactions. It is Devious.
I play World of Tanks which has frequent battle passes. I used to try and grind earlier but then came a moment where I said fuck it, this feels like work and not fun. So now I just treat the base game as what I get. Any other reward is just a bonus. This change in mindset has worked quite well for me.
They gotta their digital peasantry, I mean users, from other feudal lords, I mean corporations, to maximize their power over them and ability to exploit them, I mean … No wait that’s right.
small incremental changes over the years felt like nothing big was happening and then at some point we all woke up
I (and many others I presume) has been saying Chrome is shit since the beginning. It didn’t feel like nothing was happening, it felt like we were slowly getting to the old days of IE and Netscape.
There are always a few that see this stuff coming, but they usually get looked at like a crazy person shouting about the sky falling.
It also feels like they really push a lot of the terrible on mobile first, get people used to concepts with the “that’s just how mobile is, it’s a different world” and then when most are accustomed to it they move to regular pc enshitification.
I do not like how websites prioritise the mobile view over desktop view even when it is on a desktop. You have a widescreen and want to waste all that horizontal space? Just ridiculous!
Yeah yeah, I understand it is less maintenance from a developer point of view, but still it is infuriating as a user.
You’re not wrong. My nan died the other day, fucking guy didn’t even take of his cap as they carried her through the kitchen to the backdoor. The box of Zatteran’s at least bowed its head.
I need more details. Let’s get to the bottom of this. How long had it been been since you arrived home? Were you standing or sitting down? Holding any drinks? How heavy is your backpack?
Yeah I feel like we’re getting somewhere now. At first I was on OP’s side, but now I’m imagining them like sitting on the sofa drinking a Diet Dr Pepper while watching Judge Judy reruns and half carrying on a conversation with their dad while wearing their backpack. Then after Judge Judy renders her verdict, dad is suddenly like “why are you wearing a backpack?” Then OP gets defensive and weird, and finally we find ourselves at the situation in the meme.
That would be pretty weird if if I did that. But in case anyone is curious, It was a few minutes after I had just gotten home from college and went inside the house and then went over to my dad to say hi before going to my room. He immediately asked me why I had my backpack on and I told him that I had just gotten back from college. It was at that moment he told me that wearing a backpack while talking to someone was weird. My Mom later walked in and asked what we were yelling about and she then started laughing because of how stupid the conversation was. I was standing the entire time we were arguing.
Is this a first time occurrence? Has there ever been any other indication of your dad’s discomfort around people wearing backpacks? There might be some history here that you’re not aware of. Some past bad experience he had. A kind of PTSD.
Ok maybe now he’s on to something. Did you just like get home and start pacing around with your backpack on? At that point why would you still have your backpack on lol
You’re supposed to take the backpack off, casually slide it out from under your trenchcoat, and offer it to m’lady to sit on while you hold her hostage converse with her.
@pizzaiolo@epicspongee I used to use Twitter all the time before it got to a point where I couldn’t stand it anymore, and I felt like a weight had been lifted off of me after I deleted the app.
It is forbidden to block the ball by jamming it with the feet, legs, etc., if this prevents an opponent from playing the ball (in accordance with the rules). The addition of the rule conformity is important, because it is a variant of dangerous play.
For a more values-based interpretation - players have to keep the ball 'in play' in a way that the other team can interact with, without posing a danger to the player(s) on your team.
As in this case the play is either unstoppable, or requires the other team to somehow extract the ball from between two players' chests, it's a fun theoretical loophole - but is not a fun or safe way of playing football if it became a commonplace strategy. In most cases, this would be seen as daring dangerous play - either the other team needs to kick it free, or jostle the players until they drop the ball, both of which are taking pretty significant risks of injury.
To me it seems like the 2000s and 2010s when all those companies got massive and laid off middle management. Then those short sighted assholes got jobs elsewhere and poisoned those ponds.
Or if you just actually take the time to have your programmers optimize the game, knowing the hardware is nice but sooooo much of modern games are just generally unoptimized.
Sad truth of IT. Being ordered around by tech illiterate bosses who refuse to listen. And they often don’t even seem to value their employees, thinking they’re easily replaced (they aren’t)
I once called police about a car theft on a property I managed. We had had footage of the theft, the thieves, their getaway car, their license plates, their entry and exit, their faces visible on every camera. It took the cops two weeks to drop by to collect the footage and take a report, and they looked so annoyed, and didn’t even pretend to care. They straight up told me nothing would come of it.
But if you’re a corporation, they’re all over that shit. Minor shop lifting? Cops are there in minutes. It’s become clear over the last few years who the police work for, and it’s not us, the little people who pay taxes.
Not to be a devil’s advocate but the little people aren’t paying taxes. The top 20% pay the taxes for the most part, the problem is the money in the first place giving too small of a group of people too much say in how everyone lives.
You do realize there are states where there is NO income tax, and everything is funded by regressive sales taxes that hit the poor and lower income brackets MUCH harder?
TX and WA for example.
The ‘little people’ as you so eloquently fucking put it, are paying WAY more taxes than they should, and the ‘fat greedy bastard’ people have accounting teams to prevent that for themselves. What an ignorant take. Fucking christ man stop licking boots and educate yourself.
This is why I use Linux at home, along with TOR and a VPN. I’m not doing anything other than looking up woodworking and camping stuff, but fuck all ya’ll for being nosy.
A VPN just makes it look like you’re somewhere else, but it doesn’t really add any amount of anonymity. You’ll still get tracked around the Internet like you normally would, but sites will just think you’re somewhere else.
Tor is an anonymizing network, so your traffic gets mixed with a bunch of other people’s traffic so websites get really confused about where you are. It’s almost impossible to track someone using Tor because Tor will change how your packets are routed from request to request.
So if you just want to get access to different Netflix shows, a VPN is probably what you want. If you want to truly be anonymous, you need Tor. Just know that anonymity through Tor comes at a price, a lot of sites block Tor traffic, and performance is nothing to write home about because your traffic is routed through a bunch of other people’s machines.
igg-games has been caught bundling malware and miners before, 1337x isn’t moderated for shit, torrentfreak is a news site, jesus christ don’t use pirate bay what the fuck is wrong with you, but otherwise solid points.
Games would be fine too if they are Scene/Topsite cracks. You should be able to verify the files integrity with the hash, referenced to a Pre site like scnsrc.net
I don’t know exactly how defederation works, but the megathread is currently hosted on Rentry in case you cannot view the piracy community link in app/website while signed in.
rentry(dot)com(slash)negathread
Be warned, though, that it could change if any government or corporation or whatever decides to go after it just because there are links to piracy sites.
People who have a large following and magic emojis next to their name will keep using it because it gives them their validation. Twitter celebs are really in a sad state of existence
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