I live an ad-free life since about 2010. But I do wonder what it's like to see targeted ads.
this post was submitted on 08 Dec 2025
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I got advertised bras the other day when I was forced to see ads for the first time in years
Considering I don't use bras, that's probably a good sign
Maybe it predicted your future man boobs.
I haven't seen an ad in ages.
I was gonna say: I have no idea what this is like.
I'm simultaneously living my best life, (mostly) ad free, and at once unaware of how the rest of the world navigates an ad-encrusted digital space.
I've never seen a targeted ad. It's very rare that I see any ads at all. Ublock Origin does a very good job of getting rid of them.
A coworker was showing me something in his phone and I was amazed, how clutered it was with all these ads. I don't know how people can cope with today's internet without an adblocker
I'm really surprised to see so many people talking about ads. The only ones I see are the non-digital ones in the metro.
Agreed.
The more irrelevant the advertising I see, the happier I am about my digital footprint.
Plus, it's funny to me when "the algorithm" tries to sell a moist, pasty red-head lotion and hair relaxer because I matched into that demographic somewhere along the line.
Why are people normalizing targeted ads, let alone being impartial to ads at all?
I'm seeing this the other way around. It's possible the normalization is incidental: the comic exists because it's a common interaction these days.
At the same time, the comic is from the New Yorker. Magazines have a different attitude about advertising in general, so (IMO) this is as anti-ad as a magazine comic can get away with.
There can be good targeted ads eg. For locus businesses. But usually they are not that.
When I did have Instagram I did really like that it told me about local events, the downside that I had to scroll reels to get them. All those events listing websites don't have the type of events I want to see. So there's no places I know about them unless it's from Instagram.
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I don't see ads
UBlock Origin and NoScript are both very useful
You guys are seeing ads? I barely use my phone and on my PC I use Firefox with ublock origin. It's simple really.
fennec with ublock origin works wonders on the phone too.
Or just the default Firefox app, which supports extensions.
Yeah, seriously. This whole "Firefox on mobile doesn't support adblock/extensions" sentinent is very stubborn, yet I've been using them for multiple years without fail at this point.
I love VPNs for this .... I get to see advertising from around the world ... Japanese noodles, Nordic furniture, some weird German food, Turkish real estate, Australian drinks ... and all of it delivered in languages I don't understand.
I do sometimes wonder what the ads say but like you I can't be bothered to learn Australian.
It's not hard .... you just turn the monitor upside down and you can translate everything.
Hey, speaking of VPNs, why does Lemmy not let me post anything or even comments when I'm on my VPN? As soon as I turn off my VPN, Lemmy lets me participate again. 🤔
Because you're on lemmy.world. I don't have that problem with my server unless I'm using a crappy VPN that's really slow
November 2023 I tried getting into a million different instances and dot world is the only one that wouldn't buffer in silence forever and actually sent me a verification email. Radio silence from every other instance. Please tell me everyone's magic secrets for getting into other instances.
You don’t even have to do that to get served foreign ads. If you search on country specific search sites long enough, it’ll eventually bleed over to your native feed.
I don't
I opted out of as many ad trackers as I could ~10 years ago and took every precaution I could.
...it resulted in-- and I shit you not-- really embarrassing-looking ads with words written in capital red letters that read something like "HUGE DISCOUNTS ON HORSE SEMEN BY THE GALLON!" complete with pictures of creamy liquid.
I searched as best I could to make sure I didn't have a virus or something, and I found some user with the same query as myself; it was a legitimate advertisement from their bottom-of-the-barrel advertisers who-- I guess?-- didn't pay to target users and had just put in the bare minimum money for ads.
It was so horrible of an experience I stopped the charade and let them learn about me again-- which I can't help but think was part of the plan.
I am confused, why not just use an ad blocker?
Not me, opted out of everything I can that would target me and with the VPN I use it just randomly picks locations and servers
I absolutely love getting ads in random languages I don't even speak
I can't even read the ads so It's like an extra layer of protection from their marketing due to my own ignorance
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Use ad blocking DNS.
Use VPN.
Never accept all cookies, just the bare minimum.
Use browser extensions to block trackers.
Use security and privacy focused browsers.
I can't remember the last time I saw ads, let alone targeted.
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I see you purchased a washing machine. May I assume you are collecting washing machines? Of course I may. Let me offer you these excellent deals for washing machines!
I like to imagine the life of the person ads think I am. I get ads in Spanish, I get medication ads for illnesses I do not have, and sometimes literally cannot have,I get ads for high end lab equipment. By far my favorite was an ad for deep sea oil rig sand traps, why would that ad even be made, and why send it to a 50 year old man in a landlocked state who is watching minecraft lets plays and pink pony club covers.
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Is the woman on the right Daria all grown up? I didn't realize how bad I want that until now.
I'm pretty sure Google figured out I'm a woman in my 40s living in Finland so my YouTube ads reflect that. Get feminine product ads and toy ads before Christmas.
And sometimes weird B2B adverts like business software and logistics services and industrial equipment.
One time it was straight up "hey, gurl, wanna buy a tractor???" ...probably because I have watched Farming Simulator let's plays. Years ago.
So did you buy the tractor?
Come on, every woman living her 40s in Finland has a tractor already.
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I am avoiding nearly all ads.
I don't get targeted ads.
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