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Instagram Has Become SkyMall

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Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall

#141

Post by dannyw »

0x38B wrote: post #137
Taek wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Advertising works at a subconscious level. The more you see a product, the more you subconsciously learn to like and trust the product, especially if you are being exposed to that product in a trusted context (popular celebrity posing with it, etc). I wish I had saved the link, but I read a study that showed people consistently underestimated how likely they were to buy a product after seeing an ad. They would buy it…

It’s especially true of me when I’m making a purchase where I don’t already have a favorite brand. I know I gravitate towards the most familiar thing, which may be the deodorant brand I saw a friend using (true story).

I mean, it's a valid signal. The same way you may ask your friends for a dentist recommendation.

Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall

#142

Post by dannyw »

sha256kira wrote: post #119
afavour wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!)

I agree, I like the ephemeral nature of stories in theory at least (Mark Zuckerberg cackles in the distance somewhere).

quite literally - download a data export and see you'll see every story you've ever posted.

Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall

#143

Post by eyelidlessness »

dhosek wrote: post #64

Before 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've done this, and it led to a lot of ads for shoes.

Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall

#144

Post by avalys »

I get great ads on Instagram. Generally, they’re niche products related to my interests from small companies I’ve never heard of before.

Yes, there’s a few misses, but it’s way better than the absolute scum-sucking garbage I see elsewhere on the internet from other ad networks. “Doctor shares one weird trick for emptying your bowels every morning”, “Alan Greenspan tells you what to buy instead of Litecoin”, and similar.

However, I don’t really use Instagram to connect with people I know. I follow a bunch of accounts related to my hobbies and interests. That probably primes the ad-targeting pump a lot better than if I was just following my friends and family on there.

Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall

#146

Post by quickthrower2 »

neilv wrote: post #98
endisneigh wrote: post #17

Is there anyone else out there who refuses to buy something if they first learned about it from an ad?

Whenever someone tells me a video URL that I decide to invest time in looking at, Grammarly or Liberty Mutual will tend to barge in, and interrupt whatever flow that was. Sure, I remember the brand names. And I'm going to be sure to remember that those brands spent a lot of money wasting my time.

We’re fixing a “bug” in our app that it stops Grammarly working properly, such is their hold on things now!

Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall

#147

Post by steve_adams_86 »

endisneigh wrote: post #17

Is there anyone else out there who refuses to buy something if they first learned about it from an ad?

I don’t mind what people are marketing or that they’re marketing and I occasionally buy things I learned about from ads, but I do mind that’s it’s a keystone of the modern internet.

These things are difficult to separate these days. I don’t blame the people who want to sell their goods though. It’s scary to try competing without using online ads in many industries.

Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall

#148

Post by quickthrower2 »

barrkel wrote: post #101

The canonical example of SkyMall equivalence for me is wish.com ads. They're odd enough that they're frequently clipped and commented on - https://www.google.com/search?q=wish+ads

What is wish.com? Comes up in a lot of search’s, shows me an absurdly cheap price for a product and then I can’t buy it, it’s out of stock or something went wrong

Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall

#149

Post by NavinF »

CptFribble wrote: post #110
bscphil wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why can't you block them?

Some time ago YT and other majors started serving ads from the same domains as content, so it's become much more difficult to reliably block them. https://www.reddit.com/r/pihole/comments/88vsz1/youtube_ad_d...

Pihole has been useless on desktop for quite a while now. uBlock Origin still works on YouTube as well as it did 7 years ago

Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall

#150

Post by forgotmypw17 »

My biggest problem with both Facebook and Instagram is that I feel completely out of control over what I see.

There is neither a way to avoid what I don't want, nor a way to ensure I see my friends' posts. The timeline shows me the same handful of people in mystery sort order mixed with ads, and then I later find out I haven't seen months' worth of someone's content when I happen to visit their profile.

The only half-ass solution I've found is to bookmark each profile and check them individually, which is, of course, not very practical past a dozen or two.

All in all, it feels like Facebook thinks I'm an idiot and treats me accordingly.

And maybe I am an idiot, since I've yet to figure out an alternative.

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