mnanand
Contributor
Disclosure: Everything written here is personal opinion and not directed towards any individual or institution. No offence or hurt of any kind intended. The mods can delete it if they find it flame baiting.
I don’t usually do such posts, but I wanted to put this one out just to hear other people’s views. I didn’t have an exact description for the topic when I first thought of this, it’s more of a combination of things working in tandem. Allow me to describe my side of the picture:
The Gist:
I’m 30 yrs old and I miss the early 2000s when my eyes where not bombarded with ads from every direction, be it TV, phone, internet or general shop billboards at public places even. Now we are roaming around with screens In our pocket flashing an ad in some form with every 5 mins of its use. And it’s not just ads but data / information in general. I say data because most of it is just raw useless stuff that we will not gain anything by viewing and information which is actually useful in some way, but with a purpose of preying on our insecurities and whims. There are countless offenders, but I’ll just talk about the first 3 I can think of right now, in no particular order:
YouTube:
It’s literally a tube you get sucked into if you let it. The suggested vids section on the right, can keep you clicking next for hours on end. I’ve been on a few rides like that before, got a little wiser now, lol. Then there’s the ads, earlier it was just one ad right at the start, now its double ads at start and ads at all yellow seek points in the vid if the uploader so chooses (now even prompting to vote whether you like the ad or not smh). Speaking of uploaders, all of them begging for like, subscribe, share, bell, ghanta: before / middle / at the end of the video with sponsor ads in the middle. I understand Its entirely their prerogative but hearing it in every single one is just annoying. Annoyance which is further amplified by the content in question.
I go there only for tech videos. Linus for instance, his product reviews and tech expo coverage are all fine, but rest of the time in his own words he creates news by posting ‘data’ content. Stuff like: How many chrome tabs you can open with 2TB of RAM, we built a PC blindfolded and other outrageous products like 8TB m.2s, 100 TB SSDs. Stuff that we know we can neither afford nor have any use for but we still feel like clicking and watching them, wasting our time in the process. And that’s just the tech videos, notwithstanding all the suggested videos titled: must watch, befitting reply, shocking news; filled with cringe inducing sketches and totally useless facts that will not be of any real use to anybody. I’ve pretty much disabled the app on my phone with all notifications off and just go watch any product review via browser. Forgive my ignorance if theres a way to disable suggested vids section in the app completely (i heard of it mentioned before, but don't know if they made it a feature.
Social media:
The unholy trinity of Facebook, twitter and Instagram. (spl. mention of unholy homunculus tiktok)
I deleted my fb account back in 2015, have an empty Instagram profile just in case and a twitter account from where I DM Indian bank to know the status of my failed ATM transactions every 2 months lol. Every tom dick and harry wants to become an Instagram influencer by posing in wannabe cool looking poses and endorsing products held in their hands like clowns. The last time I was inside Facebook in 2015, my timeline was filled with posts of people eating at dominos, posing at airports, showcasing their newly purchased phones and dispensing pithy quote pictures they stole from another guy on the same site. Really? I just ate a pizza? I just bought this overpriced gizmo? I just farted in the toilet? I couldn’t give a lesser rat’s arse about any of that and deleted it for good. The only thing that site has given people is an exaggerated sense of narcissism. And finally twitter: keyboard warriors murdering English and any other language for that matter posting absurd hashtags in support of some celebrity, event or political thing idk. I see all the arguments and abuse exchange conversations going on in them and I think to myself: did the initial poster want to willingly create all this drama? Now I have minimal contact with these sites but still I am forced to revisit them in some form or the other, for instance; some sites offer a new account creation or login thru fb option only etc. And I get shown ads in the browser after every visit to these sites. Ads that are completely irrelevant that too (and ad blockers don’t help, ive tried them). If anything some sites are now refusing to load unless ad blocker is turned off.
Television:
We have far more control over the content we can watch at our own convenience now with smart TVs, dongles and OTT stuff, but the regular stuff still has its appeal among elders. I don’t watch it personally, but get to see snippets occasionally when other family members are watching. I just have one question, since when did this become a thing: “welcome back to ‘show name’ brought to you by ---, presented by ---, powered by ---, co presented by ---, in association with ---, media partner, --- special partner --- and for f*** sake one more sponsor” *facepalm* like the presenter will waste 5 mins before and after the break with this routine itself thereby reducing the suffering caused by the rest of the content: stuff like cringe comedy shows, self-righteous public debates and reality shows (a.k.a people making a fool of themselves in front of national television).
Anyway, you get the idea: loads of useless data / information (data being the majority) bombarding our senses every day and tempting us to waste our time on them. We can block them temporarily but it still comes back into play one way or the other. To the point that I’ve become a total cynic in this last 1 year coupled with all the covid anxiety. How do you folks tolerate and deal with all this.
(god, I sound way too bitter, I spent too much time writing this, lol
)
I don’t usually do such posts, but I wanted to put this one out just to hear other people’s views. I didn’t have an exact description for the topic when I first thought of this, it’s more of a combination of things working in tandem. Allow me to describe my side of the picture:
The Gist:
I’m 30 yrs old and I miss the early 2000s when my eyes where not bombarded with ads from every direction, be it TV, phone, internet or general shop billboards at public places even. Now we are roaming around with screens In our pocket flashing an ad in some form with every 5 mins of its use. And it’s not just ads but data / information in general. I say data because most of it is just raw useless stuff that we will not gain anything by viewing and information which is actually useful in some way, but with a purpose of preying on our insecurities and whims. There are countless offenders, but I’ll just talk about the first 3 I can think of right now, in no particular order:
YouTube:
It’s literally a tube you get sucked into if you let it. The suggested vids section on the right, can keep you clicking next for hours on end. I’ve been on a few rides like that before, got a little wiser now, lol. Then there’s the ads, earlier it was just one ad right at the start, now its double ads at start and ads at all yellow seek points in the vid if the uploader so chooses (now even prompting to vote whether you like the ad or not smh). Speaking of uploaders, all of them begging for like, subscribe, share, bell, ghanta: before / middle / at the end of the video with sponsor ads in the middle. I understand Its entirely their prerogative but hearing it in every single one is just annoying. Annoyance which is further amplified by the content in question.
I go there only for tech videos. Linus for instance, his product reviews and tech expo coverage are all fine, but rest of the time in his own words he creates news by posting ‘data’ content. Stuff like: How many chrome tabs you can open with 2TB of RAM, we built a PC blindfolded and other outrageous products like 8TB m.2s, 100 TB SSDs. Stuff that we know we can neither afford nor have any use for but we still feel like clicking and watching them, wasting our time in the process. And that’s just the tech videos, notwithstanding all the suggested videos titled: must watch, befitting reply, shocking news; filled with cringe inducing sketches and totally useless facts that will not be of any real use to anybody. I’ve pretty much disabled the app on my phone with all notifications off and just go watch any product review via browser. Forgive my ignorance if theres a way to disable suggested vids section in the app completely (i heard of it mentioned before, but don't know if they made it a feature.
Social media:
The unholy trinity of Facebook, twitter and Instagram. (spl. mention of unholy homunculus tiktok)
I deleted my fb account back in 2015, have an empty Instagram profile just in case and a twitter account from where I DM Indian bank to know the status of my failed ATM transactions every 2 months lol. Every tom dick and harry wants to become an Instagram influencer by posing in wannabe cool looking poses and endorsing products held in their hands like clowns. The last time I was inside Facebook in 2015, my timeline was filled with posts of people eating at dominos, posing at airports, showcasing their newly purchased phones and dispensing pithy quote pictures they stole from another guy on the same site. Really? I just ate a pizza? I just bought this overpriced gizmo? I just farted in the toilet? I couldn’t give a lesser rat’s arse about any of that and deleted it for good. The only thing that site has given people is an exaggerated sense of narcissism. And finally twitter: keyboard warriors murdering English and any other language for that matter posting absurd hashtags in support of some celebrity, event or political thing idk. I see all the arguments and abuse exchange conversations going on in them and I think to myself: did the initial poster want to willingly create all this drama? Now I have minimal contact with these sites but still I am forced to revisit them in some form or the other, for instance; some sites offer a new account creation or login thru fb option only etc. And I get shown ads in the browser after every visit to these sites. Ads that are completely irrelevant that too (and ad blockers don’t help, ive tried them). If anything some sites are now refusing to load unless ad blocker is turned off.
Television:
We have far more control over the content we can watch at our own convenience now with smart TVs, dongles and OTT stuff, but the regular stuff still has its appeal among elders. I don’t watch it personally, but get to see snippets occasionally when other family members are watching. I just have one question, since when did this become a thing: “welcome back to ‘show name’ brought to you by ---, presented by ---, powered by ---, co presented by ---, in association with ---, media partner, --- special partner --- and for f*** sake one more sponsor” *facepalm* like the presenter will waste 5 mins before and after the break with this routine itself thereby reducing the suffering caused by the rest of the content: stuff like cringe comedy shows, self-righteous public debates and reality shows (a.k.a people making a fool of themselves in front of national television).
Anyway, you get the idea: loads of useless data / information (data being the majority) bombarding our senses every day and tempting us to waste our time on them. We can block them temporarily but it still comes back into play one way or the other. To the point that I’ve become a total cynic in this last 1 year coupled with all the covid anxiety. How do you folks tolerate and deal with all this.
(god, I sound way too bitter, I spent too much time writing this, lol
)
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