Advertisers are some of my favorite people, or at least they might be, if they weren't some of my least favorite people. Actually, I am not sure about them as people, in fact, I am not even sure they are people. In an age of bots and algorithms and such, advertisers are quickly becoming as faceless as they have always been soulless.
I bring all this up because the latest bothersome intrusion into my otherwise peaceful existence has been coming from the nether regions of the windowless basement dwellings of commercial marketing strategists straight to my computer as I wander aimlessly through the increasingly irrelevant expanse of social media.
Targeted marketing has taken on a whole new dimension now that the basement dwellers can actually use all the data they collect. They have been collecting all sorts of data about us and our preferences for eons, but now they can actually use that data to make relevant ads pop up on our computer screens as we waste our time checking up on everyone else’s lives, while our own lives flitter on by.
I am all for these ads, because it reminds me that someone is always watching and waiting to sneak up and shove a relevant ad in my face. It makes me think twice before I browse unsavory or embarrassing content, which is probably a good thing. No one wants relevant ads popping up when what is relevant is also rather embarrassing and revealing. Wait, I’m not actually all for these ads. Part of me is pretty creeped out.
Another part of me does rather like it when those ads tell me the things for which I have been searching are on sale somewhere. After all, isn’t the complete infiltration of my virtual mind a small price to pay when it comes to saving some cash? It’s not like the people responsible for the people responsible for the ads are trying to control me, right? I’m much too smart for…What the? Snuggies on clearance! That’s just what I’ve been looking for! Sorry, but I can’t miss out on that.
I bring all this up because the latest bothersome intrusion into my otherwise peaceful existence has been coming from the nether regions of the windowless basement dwellings of commercial marketing strategists straight to my computer as I wander aimlessly through the increasingly irrelevant expanse of social media.
Targeted marketing has taken on a whole new dimension now that the basement dwellers can actually use all the data they collect. They have been collecting all sorts of data about us and our preferences for eons, but now they can actually use that data to make relevant ads pop up on our computer screens as we waste our time checking up on everyone else’s lives, while our own lives flitter on by.
I am all for these ads, because it reminds me that someone is always watching and waiting to sneak up and shove a relevant ad in my face. It makes me think twice before I browse unsavory or embarrassing content, which is probably a good thing. No one wants relevant ads popping up when what is relevant is also rather embarrassing and revealing. Wait, I’m not actually all for these ads. Part of me is pretty creeped out.
Another part of me does rather like it when those ads tell me the things for which I have been searching are on sale somewhere. After all, isn’t the complete infiltration of my virtual mind a small price to pay when it comes to saving some cash? It’s not like the people responsible for the people responsible for the ads are trying to control me, right? I’m much too smart for…What the? Snuggies on clearance! That’s just what I’ve been looking for! Sorry, but I can’t miss out on that.
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