I’ve been trying to figure out how I should feel about advertising online. For a long time, I’ve used the AdBlockPlus plugin in my web browser so that I experience the internet without advertising. And I like that.
But, I also want people who provide me with good content or a good service to get paid. I have no qualms about that. The service they’re providing is worth something; I should either be paying for it with my money or paying for it with my attention. I don’t have a whole lot of extra cash, so paying with my attention makes sense to me.
All that to say, a week and a half ago, I turned off Adblock. And the internet is a terrible place with advertising. You can’t find your content on some sites for the sea of ads. They blink, they pop-under, they take your browser captive.
I really don’t like it.
The question I have now is do I go back to my ad blocking ways? (Perhaps while being more careful to create exceptions for sites that I particularly wish to support.) Or do I stop frequenting sites that annoy me with advertising. I think the latter is the legitimate way to do it. One thing is for sure, I’m not going to keep subjecting myself to all of these ads.