Can you believe how aggressive online ads are getting? The Washington Post has to be one of the worst, or maybe the Huffington Post. Right when you think your page has finished jumping around and reloading (to accommodate all their stupid ads), the page starts jumping around again. It’s getting really bad, with nonstop video ads that you can’t even find to X out of. And even if you stop one, another one starts. It’s digital Whack-a-Mole.
More and more lately, I just click off.
I was trying to read this article about how J.Crew, the clothing retailer, is sucking wind because they haven’t yet figured out that all women customers aren’t prepubescent zero-body-fat clotheshangers, but I got discouraged.
Maybe you’re thinking a paid subscription would protect you. You would be wrong.
I subscribe to the New York Times and Washington Post. If they get any worse, I’ll cancel my subscriptions. I still read an actual paper paper every morning and I can live with that. My local paper, the Riverside County Press Enterprise, is for the most part doing a good job. And I can always use the editorial page to pick up dog droppings.
I know, it’s high-class worries, right? Guilty. But still.
Re the J. Crew article, I hit the mute button and read the article. Enjoyed it. Even shared it on Twitter. And in my tweet, I added this in all caps: MUTE TO THWART ADS. I totally recommend you do the same. Pretty soon, it’ll be standard practice to surf the internet with the sound off. Maybe everybody already is and I’m the last to figure it out. True with you?
Again you are standing up and speaking my same feelings and truths!! Hate it — what good is knowledge if you have meander through so much debris? and even though i am learning this game of online travel — i choose not to “play” the game and click the X tab. i am tired of being manipulated by the “sell, sell, sell.”
Heather, sometimes you can’t even find the X tab, as in the case of some of the videos. So keeping the sound muted is a good strategy. I don’t object so much if I am reading for free but these “in your face” ads also happen on sites I pay actual money to subscribe to. Grrr.
I agree100%, Lynne. And it’s not just the ads on the site, it’s the way they follow you around, too. A few months ago I visited some online home furnishings site. For weeks thereafter on almost any site I went to an ad for that retailer would appear on the page. I drove me nuts.
Good post!
Oh, Martin, you are so right. Anything you look for, on Google or Amazon or whatever, follows you all over the place. I wonder if they filter that in some cases. Like what if you were looking for something intensely personal – would they flash it all over everywhere? PS Great to hear from you.
Good post Lynne. I hate ads…all of them.
Yup, I set my speakers to mute on all my devices a long time ago. If I come across a video or other link I want to listen to I turn speakers on, listen, and they go right back off. Agree that, to some extent, the advertising supports some of the information we go to the web for but there is a point where it becomes counterproductive as the annoyance factor surpasses any possibility that readers will pay attention to the annoying ads.
Linda, we lament the degradation of attention spans these days, but if you’re trying to read an article and you have to deal with 2 popups and 3 automatic / hard-to-find-and-kill videos, degradation of attention is a survival adaptation. And not a good one, I think.
I agree these Ads are annoying but I was reminded by a younger friend that Ads make the Internet free! So I guess it’s a trade off!
Lynda, that’s a good thing to think of when I get steamed. Thanks. Also, sometimes I’ll marvel at what we have the luxury of complaining about these days!