Ads: Necessary Evil?

Today, some studies show that Americans are exposed to as many as 5,000 or more ads in a single day. Many of those are found on the Internet, television, and physical media. Are these ads necessary in daily life? A lot of us have Adblock or have cut the cord on our cable subscriptions, but is this hurting the industries that we really want to support?

Firstly, I'd like to give my opinion on Adblock. I support it in most cases. I wish there wasn't a need for it, but the way the Internet is now, I don't see a way around it. Flash advertisements that carry malware, random ads playing audio and video, and extremely distracting and ugly advertisements make the whole site look worse. Now, I realize this may seem hypocritical because I have advertisements on this site. A 4:3 ad on the sidebar. But hey, if you don't want to see it, use an adblocker. I don't mind.

I believe that we, the consumers, should be the ones to decide how advertisements reach us in the Internet age. Personally, the only ads I can tolerate are ones such as Twitter's ad tweets. Advertisements that blend seamlessly into the content, while at the same time not masquerading as content. On sites like this, I'll disable my adblocking software. I realize that this is how sites get revenue, and I want to support that. But I refuse to support sites whose pages are littered with advertisements.

I think it's extremely interesting what Spotify and YouTube have done in terms of advertising. Both companies offer a free version of the service which is ad-supported, and have an option to cheaply get rid of those ads while also unlocking new features. I think this is a great way for sites to gain reputation. People don't like ads, and if they see that they can still support the site without viewing them, they will. I have YouTube Red, which I talked about in this post, that does just that.

I don't think it is the user's responsibility to provide funding for the service. If they really want the service, it will receive funding from either people willing to view ads or donations or other means. If a service is covered in ads, turn adblock on and let them come up with another solution. Or die. Thus is capitalism.

As for television, I think it's ridiculous that people are paying to be able to watch things other people pick for you, with 1/4 of the time watching ads. Solutions such as Netflix are a much better alternative, with people directly paying Netflix to host the content and even create new content.

Nobody likes ads, and if you don't want to support a site, don't view the ads. If you do and still don't want to view the ads, think of other ways to support them. Donations, purchases, things like that. Ads are an evil, but they aren't necessary. There's always other ways of funding and support. 

Sources: CBS