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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.
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.
Agreed.
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.
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.
It's the targeting itself that is bad. Very, very bad. It's a blueprint for mind control and singling out opposition. In the current political climate, this spells bloody trouble.
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.
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.
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.
I am avoiding nearly all ads.
I don't see ads
UBlock Origin and NoScript are both very useful
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.
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
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.
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. π€
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.
Over a decade ago I did some volunteer work with disabled children for a few months. Basically assist them, organize a summer camp for people with and without disabilities, teaching other volunteers how to approach and effectively help them, etc.
I also did some workshops showing non-disabled people what certain disabilities are like, how they affect you in ways they wouldnβt even expect, how to improve things to make them more accessible and so on.
Even today, I get constantly shown ads for clinics, medical treatments, wheel chairs, prosthetics,β¦ ugh
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 live an ad-free life since about 2010. But I do wonder what it's like to see targeted ads.
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 love it when, rarely as it may be since I block ads as much as possible, I get a completely unrelated-to-me ad⦠it just means they have no clue who I am
Every once in a while, it glitches out on me and starts showing me adds for born-again Jesus seminars.
Or it's trying to tell me something. One of those two.
I'm pretty sure mine are based on my physical location and not me. Walking sticks, supplements, glucose monitors.
I hate when someone asks me about some random thing, I quickly Google it for some quick info about something I don't care about at all, and then I have to deal with pop up ads on that product for weeks afterwards.