Is there anyone else out there who refuses to buy something if they first learned about it from an ad?
If I do buy, I buy it from somewhere else after clearing cookies.
Instagram Has Become SkyMall
81–90 of 341 posts
Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall
#82Before I completely dropped social media, I had a f—k the algorithm attitude towards the ads. I made a point of clicking through everything that was completely uninteresting to me. That road led to a non-stop flood of class-action lawyer ads.
I like to read this with the belief that his attitude towards the ads had somehow led to the class-action lawyer ads being 100% relevant.
Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall
#83The app itself can quickly turn into a never-ending scroll of infomercials from ads and accounts if you go beyond your social circle. Even if said accounts are not directly selling a product through the store feature, it's often advertising a desirable lifestyle not your own and general consumerism. How many photos are staged versus candid? This type of content-as-ad imagery is what the app lends itself best to versu…
I really dislike the suggestion "just have better self control". It's you versus an army of machine learning experts all tuning algorithm on personal data about you to learn your weaknesses and bait you into spending more time on the app. Blaming the consumer ignores the adversarial role that the apps play in our lives.
The fact that you use the term "bait" illustrates that it is about self-control and not compulsion.
It's absolutely not adversarial. People voluntarily install these apps. This is opt-in advertising.
Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall
#84"hey, do you ever find it a huge hassle to pour cereal from a box?" Just like the Snuggie, many of these products were invented to help people with various disabilities. See e.g. https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/9/20/17791354/products-pe...
Humm, not exactly
"Some of the most useful products for people with disabilities weren’t developed with them in mind"
Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall
#85OK, the colored acrylic cube looks like a fun desk toy. But not at $23.
I've noticed nearly everything I see on IG is a version of something that can be found elsewhere for less. Sometimes MUCH less. In some cases the IG ad is for a "prestige" brand, so you're paying for the name, but in many cases it's a brand with no recognition but advertising as "artisanal" or hand crafted. Look deeper, though, and discover these just big cheap brands rebadging their stuff.
Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall
#86Is there anyone else out there who refuses to buy something if they first learned about it from an ad?
Depends on the ad, tbh. Some ads just scream low-quality crap. No matter what, that impression will stick with me, even if I see the product in a retail store I trust.
However, I recently bought some Dr. Squatch soap, so ads can work.
Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall
#87Is there anyone else out there who refuses to buy something if they first learned about it from an ad?
Yeah, I do this too. I don't know why or how, but on a subconscious level, my brain registers online ads as something bad / malicious, and so anything I see through an ad is automatically labelled as bad. I even freak out if I accidentally click on an ad on mobile because I feel as if I have downloaded a piece of malware. I don't know where this comes from...possibly due to having been there back when many ads really…
wait so if I showed you an ad for every product in existence you would buy nothing at all?
Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall
#88Before I completely dropped social media, I had a f—k the algorithm attitude towards the ads. I made a point of clicking through everything that was completely uninteresting to me. That road led to a non-stop flood of class-action lawyer ads.
I like to read this with the belief that his attitude towards the ads had somehow led to the class-action lawyer ads being 100% relevant.
It’s a race condition to the bottom.
Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall
#89Ok, so I'm going to hijack this slightly... I'm an elderly (mid-40s) non-USian techie, and I've never done Instagram. On Facebook I mostly follow people I've largely lost touch with in real life (particular these past couple of years), and on Twitter it's news sources and journalists, plus a selection of 'celebs' from various niche interests like tech, sci-fi, winter sports and comedy. Am I likely to be missing anyth…
Maybe. I’m a little younger than you and I both post and consume Instagram Stories. It’s mostly of my kids and my friends kids. I like that the posts only last for 24 hours and there a no likes, etc etc. By contrast my actual Instagram profile and FB profile are very quiet.
Maybe you have friends that are the same (but if you don’t care to watch endless videos of other people’s kids maybe give it a miss!)
Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall
#90Instagram is like a magazine if the magazine was just ads and the ads were written all by the staff writers who you trust.
and there's a reason magazines are mostly irrelevant these days - we found new, better sources of entertainment. i'm not sure emulating magazines is a good goal for the medium that supplanted magazines.
It is if you want to see them supplanted by something else.