In three minutes on YouTube, I counted seven advertisements. In 15 minutes of television, I counted six commercials. Is this really a bad thing? I'm not sure. Television commercials,as well as radio and newspaper ads, have existed or as long as the media has. There is a simple reason for this, in order for the media to exist, it must be able to survive as a business. That means that the business must make money. Viewers and listeners didn't historically pay to listen or view, and how could a newspaper survive when the cost of the newspaper to the consumer is less than the actual cost of printing each paper. There is only one way for the necessary revenue to be generated, advertisements. In exchange for being entertained, informed and enlightened we materially agree to participate in the process by watching, listening and reading advertisements.
In the age of the internet, the targeting of advertisements to the consumer has reached dizzying accuracy because of the ability to track a consumers online history. It's unnerving to go on to Facebook and see ads about paintball gear and wrestling shoes, while my mom sees ads about Home Depot and Pottery Barn.. It feels like you are being watched. While this seems frightening, intuitive advertisements can actually help you find what you need online. So at what point do we say that the benefit of the advertisement outweighs the invasion of privacy? In my opinion, as long as a consumer is capable of making an informed purchase decision, there is limited danger.
Of the seven advertisements, I was able to skip four of them and opted not to click the other three. I was on YouTube to watch specific videos and that's what I did. The proliferation of online ads and even targeted ones, makes them less powerful. They're everywhere, therefore they are easy to tune out. Also we each have our own mind and the freedom to use it. There may be advertisements for every product imaginable but the internet also gives us the power to research our purchases. Its equally as simple to find an honest product review online as it is to find the presence of advertisement for the same product.
Advertisements are a fact of life in the information and media age like death and taxes. We have a choice, be irresponsibly influenced by them, or use them. An informed consumer can use the targeted ads as a shortcut to our purchasing needs and make an educated choice or we can become mindless buying machines. I choose to be the informed consumer.
Keith, you kill me with this post. Here's why. You write probably the most sophisticated response to ads that I have read yet. Your conclusion about making informed decisions and being aware of the pervasive ads was the one I was hoping more students would come to. You nailed it, "like death and taxes," ads are a reality. The real question is how we deal with them. In this respect your answer is great.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, this post is also marred by numerous technical and stylistic mistakes, and in a class like this, these mistakes are unacceptable. For the most part, they are simple proof-reading mistakes (i.e. some run-on sentences, some misspelled words). The biggest issue that I want you to look at is in your second paragraph. You start two sentences with an ambiguous "it," and then you jumble a bunch of different pronouns. In just this paragraph, you from numerous different narrative perspectives. You are writing about yourself ("my mom") and then in the next sentence, you write "It feels like you are being watched." While this is grammatically correct, it is stylistically weak. Use pronouns consistently.
Otherwise, I really appreciate the thinking and insight that you offer in this post. This is what I was hoping more people would come to. In the end, all we can do is try to be a more well-informed audience.