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The data has more direct consequences when it comes to machine learning algorithms to keep you on the website and funnel you into a personalized echo chamber.
The epitome of this is TikTok, it's algorithm was the only thing that set it apart from other short video apps. Youtube is a video host with an integrated recommendation algorithm, Tiktok is a recommendation algorithm with integrated video hosting.
It's not about the ads to buy things. That's part of it for sure, but it's more than that.
Google, Meta, Microsoft, etc. want your data, your habits, routines, opinions, etc, so they can influence the way you think and behave and understand the world.
There's a clip I saw recently of Peter Thiel saying they could never get people to vote for the things they want to do, so instead they are using technology to change things.
Even if you block ads, if you still use platforms owned by tech mega-corps, they have your data. Sure you might not see the targeted ads, and so you think you're coming out ahead, but you don't realize that every piece of content you see between the ads you've blocked is being filtered to influence the way you think about the world.
I have friends who don't use adblockers (!) but I have never heard anyone say that they bought something they saw in an ad.
I will admit I have looked into products (not clicked-through) shown in apps where ads were targeted and fed in, and couldn’t be bypassed in a simple way (e.g. instagram). It’s how I eventually found a decent mattress. But this is a 1 in a million instance given how many ads they show.
Do you mean specifically from online advertising? Because unless they live in an impoverished country and never buy commercially purchased products they almost certainly have purchased something they’ve seen in an ad. Many people think they aren’t influenced by advertising, because they haven’t seen an ad for Coca-Cola and then immediately gone out and purchased a bottle of Coke, but advertising can be very influential in subtle ways that many people don’t even notice.
Obviously I mean no one has gone oh I saw x in an ad on Facebook and went to buy it and not I bought a Coca Cola.
That's because you misunderstand the purpose of ads.
The coke ad doesn't expect you to run out and buy a coke, the point is next time you stand in the isle for cola you're "spontaneously" gonna grab some coke and not some other brand you haven't heard of
I am aware of the purpose of ads, but thank you
I mean I think that it does work on most people. I have a few people in my life who just don't block ads. Some of them do not even change their radio frequency when ads play through it. They think that they can choose for it to not affect them, but that's not really how propaganda works.
Just think how many people started making sourdough bread during covid lockdowns. That may not have been intentional advertising, just a few people starting a thing & then it was everywhere, and so many people who'd never cooked a day in their life became obsessed with sourdough bread. Advertising fills in the blank when you say, "Fuck it, let's just _____"
The Tumblr-clone I use for porn has been feeding me the same (rather gross) heterosexual ads for so long I finally added every available list to my PiHole so they're finally gone. Good job morons. Couldn't even figure out how to show a gay guy cock.
Most people don’t use adblockers
Even when I saw ads, I never clicked on them (at least on purpose) and they basicslly just become noise my brain filters out. Like going noseblind to a smell that is constsntly there.
You still were subjected to the constant imaging exposure
You might not have noticed but your brain did
Even still, it was always either
A) Shit I'd absolutely never buy
B) Shit I was planning on buying anyway before the ad
C) The ad reminds me "oh yeah I do need new underwear" (idfk lol), but even then I just mentally log that and go buy underwear later, never "click the add and buy those underwear," not even necessarily the same brand at another retailer, like instead of Hanes™ the ad could say "Underwear^TheConcept" and it'd be the same thing.
The targeting seems to not be worth piss to me imo.
Most advertising isn't trying to convince you to buy product X that's being advertised. It's trying to get you to think about the brand itself. They're saying "Buy this fridge from Brand A" but they're not actually trying to sell you a fridge, what they really want is for you to think of Brand A the next time you're looking for a new appliance or some other product they sell.
But I already know I want a Speed Queen, so when Samsung advertises whatever shit new Samsung AI Washer/Dryer with wifi and bluetooth horse shit, my brain goes "ahh yeah put more money towards that Speed Queen." And then when I go to replace my phone I go "hmmm lets see what can use grapheneOS" and Samsung loses again, then I go to replace my TV and get a used Vizio from 2008 at the flea market, etc..
It just doesn't work along "brand" lines at least for me.
You have to remember we're the minority.
There's already enough effort put into sabotaging AD blockers. If everyone used AD blockers, there wouldn't be enough effort on Earth to keep corporations from destroying them left and right.
Our safe-haven of an AD-free internet only exists precisely because most people just put up with it.
Having said that, I don't like things like Sponsor-block. I'm perfectly fine with the mega-corporation not getting my money, but I absolutely do want to make sure the creators who are putting cool things out there are getting paid.
There was a small window around 2010 when Google's targeted Ads is actually kinda good (which is to say, not annoying and somewhat relevant).
Then everything enshittified.
I think hotwords worked the best on me because I thought it was a link to something in the article. But then the law changed and they had to put "ad" on the links and it killed them. Laws work, some what.
They realized they had to become profitable somehow or else people wouldn't stand for the environmental impact of it, so they made AI.
I still get ads on Youtube on my TV, and it's mindboggling how bad they are. Google literally has years of my search history (before I switched to DDG), and it still doesn't understand that I'm vegan and not interested in any products that are not vegan. Putting on my tinfoil hat, I think it's just a massive data collection ruse masked as "personalized ads".
It's all so stupid. I can't remember the last time I got an ad for anything I was interested in buying. It's all just whoever paid the most to shove their garbage in your face. Why even bother with all the spying at that point?
Before I installed blockers, I only remember one time ever clicking a targeted advertisement and making a purchase (it was for a 'What We Do in the Shadows' t-shirt). That was after browsing the web everyday with no blockers for like 15 years.
Ads direct money.
They aren't using ads anymore to direct your money.
Extrapolate that as you will.
