Alex Schroeder 🐝 is a user on octodon.social. You can follow them or interact with them if you have an account anywhere in the fediverse. If you don't, you can sign up here.

I have a vested interest in ensuring any ads I am exposed to are as irrelevant as possible.

What -- do people LIKE to be tricked into spending money?

Alex Schroeder 🐝 @kensanata

@enkiv2 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 my and I still hate ads!

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@kensanata
In my personal case, I'm not so worried about privacy as much as I'm worried about ad effectiveness.

If advertising ends up being both relevant & effective, that literally takes money out of my pocket. If there's something I want to buy, I would rather I remain blissfully unaware of it!

@enkiv2 Absolutely true. I find it hard enough these days to walk through the main station with all their moving ads distracting me left and right. I hate the noise so wear headphones. I hate the ads so soon I will need ad-blocking glasses! All ads do is add temptation to my life and if I then deny myself the indulgence, it ads misery and unhappiness to my life where just moments ago I was happily ignorant and content.

@kensanata zürich's mainstation is already so hard to navigate with all those people there, I don't really feel like the ads make much of a difference...
@enkiv2
@kensanata @enkiv2 last time I was the it was all covered with "black boots walk over the Swiss flag" SVP advertisements. I'd take commercial ads any time...

@saper @enkiv2 Yeah, given the choice of xenophobic and racist political propaganda I will also prefer consumerist and sexist commercials, but my actual preference is peace of mind. I sometimes feel like I need those panic glasses from the Hitchhiker’s Guide.

@kensanata @enkiv2 what if the overall goal of this adtech-scape is to mold you so that *you* become relevant to the ads

@charlyblack @kensanata
we shape the Spectacle, and thereafter, the Spectacle shapes us