i am an only-slightly-ashamed zoomer, and that means that i guiltily enjoy most of the conveniences contemporary technology has given to me, despite the associated costs (losing privacy and anonymity, being corralled into a specific internet bubble, having my attention be capitalized and exploited, etc.). i like to pretend that because i’m aware of these costs, i’m an informed consumer of technology, although in reality there are countless more hidden costs i’m accepting as a result of this arrangement, and it surely cannot be fair to me. but i like when my device is fast and responsive, and i like being able to navigate with GPS, and on occasion i will enjoy the tailored algorithmically determined post. so it goes.
i learned in my art history class that the average usamerican is subject to thousands of adverts a day. the number is boggling. you, as a representative of your market potential, are so valuable that the ads industry has put forth immense effort and established far-reaching infrastructure to beam their marketing directly down your throat at every second of the day.
i mean, the reality is it’s fairly cheap for them to do this because the modern web is set up for ads like the average usamerican city is set up for cars.
i’m just here to vent, to be honest. i’m fortunate enough that the bus systems here haven’t yet caved and plastered advertising on the inside of the vehicle, so i can sit in my comfortable chair and complain on my phone without an annoying video blasting at the far end of the bus or dangling advertisements flapping in the air conditioning. but the fact of the matter is there is an industrial pipeline set up to cram ads down your throat. from sponsored videos to advertising partners to standard commercials to insidious little campaigns that use inflammatory language to bait out big reactions. and because your average usamerican has been totally brainrotted by this power and views consumption of goods as activism and advocacy, it works, without fail.
the whole system in and of itself is dystopian enough already to me. what do you mean these incredible innovations and speedups have been used to serve me garbage at shotgun volume???
so it becomes even more insidious to me when my friends send me ads in the same cadence as when they send me funny videos. oh, haha, look at this cat doing something ridiculous! now here’s a 30-like video of some rando making a low effort ad for some new travel startup. how are you finding these things??? it takes literally one additional click or tap to navigate to this person’s profile and see all her videos are the exact same snake oil sales tactic, with a punchy new caption about the same exact thing. “i could kiss the flight attendant who told me this one travel hack!” “who’s ready to go to paris with me?” “i’m never buying airplane tickets from the airline again!” SHUT UPPPPPP
the level to which ad viewing has been normalized, combined with the encouraged low-effort/no critical thinking way of content consumption has truly killed the modern groupchat. there is no mood so low, so mortifying as when i discover there is a conversation going on about a product marketed in an advertisement. it’s not even metacommentary about the ad itself, it’s just “magic john fan” this, “tiktok shop” that. these kinds of conversations are one echelon below empty small talk, which at the very least serve the purpose of indicating to the other party i like you enough to engage in this ritual. ads-inspired conversation goes nowhere and only encourages money flowing into the hands of these annoying corporations.
i like my friends, despite the impression i may be giving off in this post. but some of them are degree-having, capable-of-critical-thought individuals. so it flabbergasts me when they turn their brains off and send me trash like this. brother… you are doing the ads’ work for them! at the very least let them incur the cost they pay to serve me ads. why are you serving them uncritically to me FOR THE ADVERTISERS????
anyways there is a whole post to be made about how these same people also send me misinformation/fake news articles because they don’t bother to check anything, just see a headline that feels alarming and forward it my way. i am grasping these people. you would fall for the AI bunnies on the trampoline the way you are going. please think before you tap. i’m begging you.