Informing you of changes in value or quality that may be desirable.
Reminding you that a product exists.
Making you view a product more favorably.
Encouraging you to make impulse buys.
Putting a tracker in the ads for data collection.
Deceiving you (for example those ads on software download sites that look like download buttons).
As a vector for malware.
1-3 can be considered benevolent. 7-8 are always malevolent, and 6 is arguably malevolent because it's one thing collecting data for a site/product people are using, but the person collecting data may well be a company you want nothing to do with. 4 depends on if the company is trying to make their reputation better than it should be, or if the ad viewer has an unreasonably low opinion of the company. 5 might increase short term happiness but is probably unwise in the long term.
I block ads because the negatives outweigh the positives. I don't care if I am not aware of a product that could benefit me. If I wasn't motivated enough to look for it it probably wasn't important. By blocking ads I protect myself from 7-8. I hate data collection because companies are always dodgy about what exact data they collect, they rarely let you curate it, and you have no control over what they do with it or who they sell it to. The more data a company collects, the more effective it can potentially be at encouraging me to make poor purchasing decisions. Also ads are more effective when they are distracting.
So no, I do not want ads. If I must have ads, I want them to know as little about me as possible because I see ads on the whole as oppositional to my interests (exercising good financial judgment) rather than aligned.
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but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens
this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for
the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired
propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."
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Notes -
What ads are:
-Ads are a tool to increase revenue by a company.
Ads can serve one or more purposes:
Informing you that a product exists.
Informing you of changes in value or quality that may be desirable.
Reminding you that a product exists.
Making you view a product more favorably.
Encouraging you to make impulse buys.
Putting a tracker in the ads for data collection.
Deceiving you (for example those ads on software download sites that look like download buttons).
As a vector for malware.
1-3 can be considered benevolent. 7-8 are always malevolent, and 6 is arguably malevolent because it's one thing collecting data for a site/product people are using, but the person collecting data may well be a company you want nothing to do with. 4 depends on if the company is trying to make their reputation better than it should be, or if the ad viewer has an unreasonably low opinion of the company. 5 might increase short term happiness but is probably unwise in the long term.
I block ads because the negatives outweigh the positives. I don't care if I am not aware of a product that could benefit me. If I wasn't motivated enough to look for it it probably wasn't important. By blocking ads I protect myself from 7-8. I hate data collection because companies are always dodgy about what exact data they collect, they rarely let you curate it, and you have no control over what they do with it or who they sell it to. The more data a company collects, the more effective it can potentially be at encouraging me to make poor purchasing decisions. Also ads are more effective when they are distracting.
So no, I do not want ads. If I must have ads, I want them to know as little about me as possible because I see ads on the whole as oppositional to my interests (exercising good financial judgment) rather than aligned.
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