The Internet Knows Too Much About Me

Advertising is a necessary evil. If I want to get to the entertainment I enjoy, I have to suck it up and tolerate the harassing adverts along the way. Sure, our ancestors had to make their own clothes, plow their fields and die of dysentery but we have to watch that stupid Luke Wilson AT&T commercial, then a Swiffer commercial, and then that fucking Luke Wilson commercial again! They had it soo easy. Luckily for us, the companies that are trying to shovel their products down our throats really do care for us. They want us to be happy and they know we'd rather get back to our VH1 reality show marathon than watch their dumb advertisements. Yahoo's new Ad Interest Manager is an advertiser's dream (and tries to be the internet user's as well). This privacy feature aims to help Yahoo users choose the type of ads they want to see and would be most receptive towards, while at the same time giving advertisers a more targeted consumer. It's a win-win!


Except it isn't, and I hate this. I realize that many media industries are hurting right now and that without advertising we wouldn't have a lot of the entertainment that we do. That hasn't stopped me from avoiding ads at all costs. I skip through them on my DVR, I open up a new tab when an internet ad comes on, and if I had more time and energry I'd probably deface billboards. For me, when it comes down to watching an ad for a product I love and watching an ad for a product I hate the experience is unenjoyable either way. I just don't like the idea of spending minutes, hours, days, months, and years of my life watching ads.* Also, I think it goes without saying that the fact that Yahoo has enough information about each of us to know which ads cater to our personal taste is pretty terrifing.

*This post will be really funny when I wind up settling for a job in advertising one day.