The sad reality: All that means is that the corporations don't care about you. But the ad sellers can still use you to pad views.
this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2026
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
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- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
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I hate ads so much that I even blocked ads back in the day on NetZero to get free internet ad free. I have been blocking since Internet 1.0.
they just want you to look at it
They don't care, they get paid to show you the ads. And the people spending to get the ads delivered aren't given very good demographics or proof that the people seeing them are good candidates, all they know is that people are watching them and that some of those people click through.
I have always wanted to meet somebody that's clicked a targeted ad and bought the product. Even if I got an ad for something I wanted and it was a good price, I'd find a way to navigate around clicking it directly.
What you can, or cannot afford is irrelevant. You're a pair of eyeballs and they're paid for eyeballs.
All I ever see are political ads and geriatric pharmaceutical ads.
They don't need you to buy anything right now. They want you to see the ads, remember them. Think of them when you hear the brand name. Know that their products exist. Maybe even mention one of those products to your friends in conversation some day, or just nod in recognition if someone else mentions it. They're buying space in your mind.
You're not the target audience.
Ads make people believe that you need the product and not wish to have it. They show it so much that the brain literally thinks that it is a need and has to be bought even if it takess you go in debt.
It is a way to enshittify the free version, as an ad for the premium version of the same.
A percentage of viewers will need the product or service, and when that times comes they are far more likely to remember the advertised one.
Don't have money? Time to increase your debt!!
Do you buy anything, ever? Then you have money, and can be swayed by advertising in terms of what you spend it on.
I did this exercise a few days ago. It turns out I'm so out of the broad reach of advertisements, that most of the brands and products I buy, I know them from in-shop ads or from early and mid childhood, when I watched way too much TV. I absolutely buy several brands and products for which I've never, in my entire life, ever seen an ad on the internet or TV. There, the main selling point is how atrociously evil the parent corporation is, and where does the product itself comes from. I can't avoid them entirely, but I can choose the lesser evils.
Now I'm very anti advertisement and aggressively prune that shit from my life, more than the average person. But it makes me hopeful that a less exploitative life is possible in this cursed timeline.
You see ads?
Because while a lot of ads that we see are targeted in some fashion to us specifically most are just sprayed out into the world relatively haphazardly. They know that 99% of people who see that specific ad aren't going to go and buy their product right then but if you see that ad over and over its the first thing you'll think of when you think about any given good or sevice
On the other hand, when the "product" is a F2P mobile game that also sustains itself through ads that are mostly F2P mobile games that sustain themselves through ads...
like, who is paying for all this?!?
(Turns out some of the games in ads are actually P2W. I've also decided to never play another F2P mobile game and start buying some again instead.)
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They think you are stupid.
Enough people are.
the advertisement doesnt suppose to be some out of reach thing. more than likely targeted. also if you cant block ads or use modded apps you might be on apple, which means you probably will buy it.
People who make financial decisions also tend to be poor. It's worse than that, those types of ads prey on the vulnerable.
if its on a browser, you can just block it with adblockers.
What makes you think advertisers are selling to you? They are selling YOU to the next advertisers. As in, they are selling your data!