I've been on the anti-bullshit path for a while now. Made this post a while back talking specifically about online bullshit and how I've been getting out. It's a peaceful life. I'm happy to see...
I've been on the anti-bullshit path for a while now. Made this post a while back talking specifically about online bullshit and how I've been getting out. It's a peaceful life. I'm happy to see that opting out of this stuff is becoming more and more of a mainstream opinion rather than something restricted to a niche within nerdy tech circles.
Ultimately I think the most important part of it is being able to stick by your principles. It's real easy to just scroll even when you know it's bad. I'm still not off Reddit. I'm working on it, I've cut my use time down by a lot, but I'm still there, and I don't want to be anymore. But I've switched over mostly to FOSS (excluding some work software I really can't get off unfortunately), have nuked 90% of my social media presence for good. I've honestly been surprised at how many of my friends and family have done the same or have at least understood my reasonings for doing so - My metric for when a trend has become mainstream is when my mom is thinking about doing it; we hit that point about 2 months ago. It's not easy to fully get out of the tech bullshit ecosystem, but I think it's a lot less painful than one might initially expect. Personally I find it enjoyable researching this stuff and actively working toward building a better tech workspace, though I know most people would be bored senseless by it. But if the day ever comes when office desktops start shipping with Alpine or Mint preinstalled I think that's the tipping point where even the normies will realise it's not all that bad over here in Freesoftwareland.
So true. lol I nuked my Reddit account, by the way. It was a bit painful to lose all of that karma that I worked up to, but I haven’t really missed it.
My metric for when a trend has become mainstream is when my mom is thinking about doing it
So true. lol
I nuked my Reddit account, by the way. It was a bit painful to lose all of that karma that I worked up to, but I haven’t really missed it.
I didn't nuke my account or my comments, I just don't participate anymore. I figure that was the stuff they wanted in exchange for giving me a place to jabber at people, and while it remained a...
I didn't nuke my account or my comments, I just don't participate anymore. I figure that was the stuff they wanted in exchange for giving me a place to jabber at people, and while it remained a place I wanted to do that in, I guess the deal was fair enough.
Makes sense. I nuked mine because after almost ten years (believe it or not, I only jumped on Reddit in 2016) I felt that the overall quality of posts and comments had basically hit rock bottom in...
Makes sense. I nuked mine because after almost ten years (believe it or not, I only jumped on Reddit in 2016) I felt that the overall quality of posts and comments had basically hit rock bottom in all of the subs that I cared to follow.
The only reason I've not nuked mine is that I used to do a ton of moderation stuff along with long-form posts/comments about interesting topics, and while I don't necessarily care about my Reddit...
The only reason I've not nuked mine is that I used to do a ton of moderation stuff along with long-form posts/comments about interesting topics, and while I don't necessarily care about my Reddit presence anymore I'd like to keep them up just so they're not lost to time on the off chance someone ever wants to read them again. I've done a few passes with Power Delete Suite to get rid of the least important stuff, but some day I'll probably need to just sit down and go through the whole account manually.
I have a bullshit allergy. Whenever I come into contact with it I lose all of my patience. This is why I’m not on the big social media platforms. I’m tired of the bad faith. This is why I ad...
I have a bullshit allergy. Whenever I come into contact with it I lose all of my patience.
This is why I’m not on the big social media platforms. I’m tired of the bad faith.
This is why I ad block. Every ad is bullshit, regardless of what it is for. I’ll maybe exempt PSAs, but everything telling you to buy something is inherently insincere. Here in the US we have advertising for pharmaceuticals because of our inept and corrupt government not having enough sense to ban them, and almost all of them have bullshit like “I have problems with my moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis”, a thing literally nobody would say if not forced to by a team of marketers and lawyers. Why would I subject myself to hours worth of advertisements for things like new cars and lawyers, things that are so expensive and rarely needed I would otherwise never even think of. And even if I did need them, I can’t possibly imagine making my choice based on who had the best sounding bullshit at the time.
I have worked in sales and marketing. You do not need to tell people bullshit to sell them things. If anything, the more bullshit I have given people, the less likely they were to buy things. You can market the product on its strengths without having to pretend it’s something it is not. But that’s assuming that the product is good to begin with.
Even the food we buy is bullshit. Go to the grocery store and practically anything with a package or label on it is making health claims to make them seem healthy even as they are stuffed to the gills with salt, sugar, and oil. We have entire aisles dedicated to breakfast cereals with positive health claims while being between 1/3 and 1/4 sugar by weight.
Even news outlets spread bullshit. Tech journalism is almost never to be trusted because they are always telling you that company x is going to change your way of life. They are advertisements and gossip masquerading as news more often than they are accurate reporting. Tech or not, some news outlets are so lax with their requirement for factual reporting that I actively avoid them.
Also, I don’t know if I’m the only one, but I never get the “targeted” ads that the data hoarders promised me? Like, this will maybe make some of you question my sanity, but a good while ago, I...
Every ad is bullshit, regardless of what it is for.
Also, I don’t know if I’m the only one, but I never get the “targeted” ads that the data hoarders promised me?
Like, this will maybe make some of you question my sanity, but a good while ago, I gave up on ad blockers, and trying to use a “privacy focused” browser. I fought that fight for years and years and always felt like I had to do so much maintenance, only to get a broken web in return.
So, not too long ago, I decided to just sell my soul to the advertising industry. I let all the ads and pop ups do their thing and I started using Chrome as my main and only browser on all my devices.
And funny enough... I actually like the experience better so far.
Don’t get me wrong, I hate ads. I just don’t visit almost any websites that serve them anymore. That’s it. That’s the solution that I found that works for me. I just became more selective about the websites that I do visit. It’s rarely anything outside of some web tools that I use, some blogs I like to read, Tildes, e-mail, and little else. I’m not a professional who needs to browse a wide range of websites anyway, so why bother?
YouTube is the only website that I still regularly go on that serves ads, and I’m planning on getting Premium someday.
But I digress...
I thought that if I began to accept “all the cookies” and opt into “all the personalized ads” options everywhere (and with all the data that “they” have on me from all the previous years already), then I should start seeing relevant ads, right? Ads for products and services that I care about?
Nope.
I get ads for...
...discounts at local stores (for food products I don’t ever buy).
...mobile games (I don’t play any games, much less on mobile).
...cars (can’t afford, nor need, nor want one).
...new age spirituality courses (I don’t want to join a cult).
...dating coaches (I’ve been happily married for eight years).
...pubic hair trimmers (I like having a bush, thanks).
Among many other irrelevant things.
I don’t know what’s going on. Have I not opted into all the “personalized ads” options yet? Or am just that weird of a person that they can’t figure out what it is that I’m really interested in seeing?
Or maybe I’m actually supposed to buy things that I don’t need. Is that perhaps the message? That normal people buy garbage they’ll probably never use?
Or are the advertisers perhaps just having a good laugh at my expense because they know that I don’t have any disposable income, so I couldn’t afford half of the junk they try to sell to me anyway?
I don’t know.
The reason why I only get served irrelevant ads will forever remain a mystery to me.
You can check. For Google Ads, for instance, there's a setting in your account settings to disable personalization. You can also edit your retention period for how long to store data history....
Have I not opted into all the “personalized ads” options yet? Or am just that weird of a person that they can’t figure out what it is that I’m really interested in seeing?
You can check. For Google Ads, for instance, there's a setting in your account settings to disable personalization. You can also edit your retention period for how long to store data history.
Since you're using Chrome, you can also edit your ads privacy permissions. This will have your browser report ad interests in a more privacy-preserving way than individual ad companies tracking you, though turning it on doesn't guarantee that they won't also do that (until some better legislation comes along).
chrome://settings/adPrivacy
A final setting to check is third-party cookies. These are often used by third-party ad networks for sharing data. Google has been trying to remove this feature for years, but the CMA has prohibited them from doing so. They finally just made it a user toggle in a recent version of Chrome.
chrome://settings/cookies
I wish you the best of luck in improving the accuracy of your ads. And I apologize to everybody else whose faces are curling in disgust at this notion.
Haha. Yes. I should probably apologize too. Sorry folks! I really didn’t mean to make you all feel bad about my carelessness. Thank you for the tips though, @Wes! I hope I get the ads that I deserve!
And I apologize to everybody else whose faces are curling in disgust at this notion.
Haha. Yes. I should probably apologize too.
Sorry folks! I really didn’t mean to make you all feel bad about my carelessness.
Thank you for the tips though, @Wes! I hope I get the ads that I deserve!
Google advertising is opt-out, so unless you specifically opted out at one point (which it sounds like you very well may have), you should be in on the program.
Google advertising is opt-out, so unless you specifically opted out at one point (which it sounds like you very well may have), you should be in on the program.
I try to drive this point home to my 12 year old and its surprisingly difficult. Its having to teach them the painful reality of the world where, yes, trust is a rare commodity.
Every ad is bullshit, regardless of what it is for.
I try to drive this point home to my 12 year old and its surprisingly difficult. Its having to teach them the painful reality of the world where, yes, trust is a rare commodity.
We tell our two kids this: Ads are all lies. We have every ad in our house blocked, so they only see them when they go to their friends houses. They do come home and talk about the ads they've...
We tell our two kids this: Ads are all lies.
We have every ad in our house blocked, so they only see them when they go to their friends houses. They do come home and talk about the ads they've seen on TV, where we then explain to them how it's all lies because it's someone trying to get you to buy something.
I taught a whole unit on 'bullshit detection' to Grade 7 kids way back in 1990 (with a slightly more polite name, Media Awareness) But it was so easy then. See this ad where the guy holding up...
I taught a whole unit on 'bullshit detection' to Grade 7 kids way back in 1990 (with a slightly more polite name, Media Awareness)
But it was so easy then. See this ad where the guy holding up this pill bottle is wearing a white coat? Is he a scientist? No, but the ad implies that he is just because he's wearing the same coat a researcher wears. Its faking scientific authenticity.
See this lip balm that's got a seal that says its "Endorsed by the Institute of Natural Medicine"? Anyone ever heard of that institute before? No? That's because its created and operated by the advertiser's marketing department.
Print ads weren't too hard to disassemble. But no one was prepared for an era where kids would be inundated with TikToks algorithmically catered to their interests with 3D animation and filters and AI voices to completely overwhelm their bs meter. The fight for their brains is huge, but how the hell does a teacher compete with all of that?
It's actually worse than that. It's a naturopathic cooperative stakeholder group. I.e. An umbrella organization for snake-oil salespeople masquerading as health professionals meant to help them...
See this lip balm that's got a seal that says its "Endorsed by the Institute of Natural Medicine"? Anyone ever heard of that institute before? No? That's because its created and operated by the advertiser's marketing department.
I struggle to understand why pharmacies, staffed by actual pharmacists, countenance having store shelves and prominent end caps stock full of this nonsense. Yeah okay they make money and the...
I struggle to understand why pharmacies, staffed by actual pharmacists, countenance having store shelves and prominent end caps stock full of this nonsense. Yeah okay they make money and the pharmacists don't decide shelves. But surely the store owners are diluting their own brand and erasing their own reason for existence??? Make a whole separate section for wellness, don't place salt spray next to your oxymetazoline hydrochloride.
I had a philosophy course in college and we had a section about fallacies. The professor took some time then and showed how advertisements usually intentionally used fallacies to sell things. The...
I had a philosophy course in college and we had a section about fallacies. The professor took some time then and showed how advertisements usually intentionally used fallacies to sell things. The information from that course has been pretty useful to me since then.
So "Endorsed by" things are usually "appeal to authority" but I guess we could go through the whole List of fallacies and map them to various ads we've seen lately.
I think politics usually appeals to various fallacies, but these are often just to justify choices that are made for emotional reasons, especially when a voter can't admit to the actual reason which may be racism or something else that is generally unacceptable by most of society.
Dude, that must have been helpful to so many kids.....I too wish to go back to a simpler time..... But even today, much of what you taught still applies. I hope my spouse and I have been partially...
Dude, that must have been helpful to so many kids.....I too wish to go back to a simpler time.....
But even today, much of what you taught still applies. I hope my spouse and I have been partially successful: we provide good quality articles and books and media, and we point out manipulation in ads, and we (so far) disallow endless scrolling social media, and we ridicule/critique it when we see dark patterns and hostile design digitally and in meat space. We talk about reading package labels and credible sources of info. We listen to a ton of "Under The Influence" and talk about the creativity, tactics and psychology employed.
But probably the most effective has been the child's willingness to not seek out a scrolling brain rot. Without wiling participation I don't think we'd stand much of a chance
Things have been pretty bad prior to this too. I was doing some research on astroturfing and Samsung was caught doing it at least twice. There's services that companies can pay for that can...
Print ads weren't too hard to disassemble. But no one was prepared for an era where kids would be inundated with TikToks algorithmically catered to their interests with 3D animation and filters and AI voices to completely overwhelm their bs meter.
Things have been pretty bad prior to this too. I was doing some research on astroturfing and Samsung was caught doing it at least twice. There's services that companies can pay for that can organize and execute misinformation campaigns through writing fabricated articles, getting them published in news media, post comments across the internet on Reddit and social media sites, inflate likes/interactions at a rapid rate to get a lot of attention, etc. In Samsung's case, they not only tried to falsely bolster their own goods, but created a narrative that HTC's devices were shit.
Between this, fake reviews on Amazon, and YouTube & Twitch sponsorships, we're being bombarded with bullshit. Sure, the US FTC and similar orgs from other countries are starting to claim this (fake reviews and astroturfing) is illegal, but I'll be interested to see if that truly makes a dent in the process.
It’s gone far beyond ads. An exaggerated, hyperbolic writing style is native to the Internet, so common that it seeps into everything. People think that’s how you have to write to get...
It’s gone far beyond ads. An exaggerated, hyperbolic writing style is native to the Internet, so common that it seeps into everything. People think that’s how you have to write to get “engagement,” and they’re not entirely wrong. This article probably got more attention in part due to its exaggerated style.
If you’re not careful, you start writing that way yourself, becoming part of the problem.
I worry about kids raised on this stuff. Sometimes they see through it, but they also imitate it. Writing carefully is rare.
What a wild take! Absolute brain rot! Sorry, just kidding. In all seriousness, I agree with you completely. And as a side note, I really do appreciate the consideration you put into your comments...
An exaggerated, hyperbolic writing style is native to the Internet, so common that it seeps into everything.
What a wild take! Absolute brain rot!
Sorry, just kidding. In all seriousness, I agree with you completely. And as a side note, I really do appreciate the consideration you put into your comments here on Tildes.
I find the issue often goes beyond just hyperbole, but also shows up in how we understand and discuss topics online. It’s so much easier to simplify things into a black and white view, and to ignore anything that doesn’t fit. That’s just how we’re wired. I spent a lot of my early years learning about the scientific method and how to overcome human biases, but still it takes mental energy to look at something from all sides, or to interrogate myself about why I've come to believe something.
Along that line, I think it’s easy to forget that not everyone has had that experience, or even recognizes the need for it. Many people grew up in a world where the goal wasn't to learn from the argument, but to win it. Sometimes that means shouting louder than the other person. Sometimes that means attacking or discrediting them.
For this reason, it feels like every online debate has been turned up to 11, no matter the subject. Even mildly-contentious topics become impossible to discuss with nuance. I find this is true even when two people largely agree on a topic, but still come down on opposite sides.
Take oil pipelines - are they a bad thing? On the one hand, they reduce the number of trucks and ships needed to transport oil, which will get moved either way. In the short term, they reduce pollutants. However, there's also market forces to consider. Pipelines make oil more affordable and thus more economical for consumers. In the longer term, this disincentivizes a migration to greener sources of energy. On this issue, two like-minded people may come to completely different conclusions based on their knowledge and priorities.
It seems so often that when this occurs, there’s an instinct to assume bad faith on the other participant. Instead of trying to understand why someone sees an issue the way they do, they treat disagreement as a proof of moral failure. The battle lines have already been drawn, and don't you dare step over them.
Unfortunately, social media has really acted to amplify this problem. Online voices are louder than ever, and forming insular groups is even easier. Can you imagine stepping into a Facebook group devoted to combating pipelines and trying to discuss the pros and cons of their construction? That's just not how the internet works today. There's no room for it.
What I find especially sad is that even attempting to explore the gray area between black and white - to understand what your opponent is saying, is often enough to get you expelled from your own tribe. You have failed the purity test. The Republican who votes for a progressive issue is marked a RINO forever.
If you're nodding along, it's worth acknowledging that this is also something we're especially guilty of on the political left. We are quick to pass judgement, and to use morality as a cudgel against those whose views do not completely align with our own. I have the strong impression this approach can be more alienating than persuasive.
Whether we're debating with our own kin or trying to cross party lines, though, I still believe that people are not as far apart as they seem. Even when they vehemently disagree on an issue, it's often for more subtle reasons that either party recognizes. They're just not given the time to explore the argument and understand where those differences come from.
I definitely agree that online communication is not in a good place right now. If more discussions were approached with curiosity rather than hostility, I expect we'd all be having more positive and productive exchanges.
This. Also, I like to tell people that the important thing is to “listen to understand, not to reply” when having any discussion. That is, unfortunately, what almost nobody does.
What I find especially sad is that even attempting to explore the gray area between black and white - to understand what your opponent is saying, is often enough to get you expelled from your own tribe.
This.
Also, I like to tell people that the important thing is to “listen to understand, not to reply” when having any discussion. That is, unfortunately, what almost nobody does.
I've had a post sitting in my blog's draft queue for a while that I haven't pulled the trigger on publishing yet. I couldn't quite figure out why though. After reading this article and your post,...
I've had a post sitting in my blog's draft queue for a while that I haven't pulled the trigger on publishing yet. I couldn't quite figure out why though. After reading this article and your post, it's because it doesn't sound like me and I don't like it. I've almost completely rewritten it to be less "engage"-y and now I like it a lot better. It still needs work, but you're spot-on that it's easy to slip into that style.
Spot on. It’s not just media literacy, it’s literacy in general that helps with seeing through it. Writing and reading. So in an age of digital bombardment of the senses with hyperbole/outright...
Spot on. It’s not just media literacy, it’s literacy in general that helps with seeing through it. Writing and reading.
So in an age of digital bombardment of the senses with hyperbole/outright bullshit, we’d need more education, not less.
Resonated a lot with this post. Here’s an excerpt that stood out to me: To be honest, I don’t think that anything can be done about this. It would require all of humanity to agree that the status...
Resonated a lot with this post. Here’s an excerpt that stood out to me:
Bullshit comes in many flavors. Marketing bullshit hypes products as “disruptive” and “revolutionary” when really they’re just a slightly faster way to get a burrito. Social media bullshit turns sincerity into an algorithmic performance — eye-rolling hot takes masquerading as expertise and "authenticity" staged with professional lighting. Corporate bullshit insists employees are “like family” right up until the layoffs hit or your "work anniversary" gift is an exit package. Tech bullshit promises a "seamless user experience" but delivers glitchy updates that break half the features and leave you rage-searching how to roll back to the previous version. Content bullshit floods the internet with clickbait that overpromises, listicles that underdeliver, "life hacks" that don't work, and motivational posts that say absolutely nothing. And then there's self-help bullshit which insists that the secret to happiness is 5 AM wake-ups, cold showers, and "manifesting" your dreams — when in reality, it's just having economic stability, a support system, and people who actually give a damn about you.
To be honest, I don’t think that anything can be done about this. It would require all of humanity to agree that the status quo is not sustainable, and that just won’t ever happen.
Edit:
Much in the same vein, I just read this list about why we shouldn’t trust new social media alternatives. Here’s an excerpt that stood out to me:
Only having an app and insisting on it just tells me you desperately want my data. Logging in via browser on the phone or PC with whatever browser settings, extensions and more can really limit what data is extracted and even attain subscription features like themes or no ads, so services everywhere try to put a stop to that or don't even make it possible in the first place. I don't want any more apps. People are tired of apps. Their car and supermarket and bank and university and work and tennis club require apps or have their own, and it's enough. At this point, I don't think it's a given that people just blindly install apps and view that as convenient. It's another icon cluttering up the home screen or App Drawer. Now you have to compete for app space and prove why installing it has any upsides.
Bullshit isn't just bad for our individual health, it's been raised to an art form by a dangerous person who rode bullshit into the White House twice. The bullshit surrounding that guy has...
Bullshit isn't just bad for our individual health, it's been raised to an art form by a dangerous person who rode bullshit into the White House twice. The bullshit surrounding that guy has dominated the news every day for over 10 years. It's a specific strategy to use outrage to stay in the daily news. And he'll continue to dominate until his political opponents learn how to lead instead of react, and everyone else learns how to hone their bullshit detectors.
I’m skeptical that we’ve reached peak bullshit. People have surely been lying and exaggerating since before history. The article reminds me of “Catcher in the Rye” except fake outputs instead of...
I’m skeptical that we’ve reached peak bullshit. People have surely been lying and exaggerating since before history. The article reminds me of “Catcher in the Rye” except fake outputs instead of fake people.
But the message is spot-on. The way to solve a specific type of bullshit is by seeing throughcounteracting* on it; if enough people do, it loses effectiveness and dies out. Although as the article points out, bullshit in general never dies, it just evolves as new types are invented.
* Even if you try to ignore bullshit you may be subliminally impacted. You may think to yourself “I’m not affected by shiny branding” but buy the products with shiny logos over the bland ones anyways. So when choosing between options you must weigh bullshit advertising as slightly negative.
I've been on the anti-bullshit path for a while now. Made this post a while back talking specifically about online bullshit and how I've been getting out. It's a peaceful life. I'm happy to see that opting out of this stuff is becoming more and more of a mainstream opinion rather than something restricted to a niche within nerdy tech circles.
Ultimately I think the most important part of it is being able to stick by your principles. It's real easy to just scroll even when you know it's bad. I'm still not off Reddit. I'm working on it, I've cut my use time down by a lot, but I'm still there, and I don't want to be anymore. But I've switched over mostly to FOSS (excluding some work software I really can't get off unfortunately), have nuked 90% of my social media presence for good. I've honestly been surprised at how many of my friends and family have done the same or have at least understood my reasonings for doing so - My metric for when a trend has become mainstream is when my mom is thinking about doing it; we hit that point about 2 months ago. It's not easy to fully get out of the tech bullshit ecosystem, but I think it's a lot less painful than one might initially expect. Personally I find it enjoyable researching this stuff and actively working toward building a better tech workspace, though I know most people would be bored senseless by it. But if the day ever comes when office desktops start shipping with Alpine or Mint preinstalled I think that's the tipping point where even the normies will realise it's not all that bad over here in Freesoftwareland.
So true. lol
I nuked my Reddit account, by the way. It was a bit painful to lose all of that karma that I worked up to, but I haven’t really missed it.
I haven't nuked mine, but I quit it cold turkey after the API fiasco. Moved over here to tildes and have loved it so far.
I still have my account but I deleted all my posts and comments during the API thing. I still read Reddit sometimes but I never comment or even vote.
I didn't nuke my account or my comments, I just don't participate anymore. I figure that was the stuff they wanted in exchange for giving me a place to jabber at people, and while it remained a place I wanted to do that in, I guess the deal was fair enough.
Makes sense. I nuked mine because I didn't want to contribute to the mining of data by AI bots.
Makes sense. I nuked mine because after almost ten years (believe it or not, I only jumped on Reddit in 2016) I felt that the overall quality of posts and comments had basically hit rock bottom in all of the subs that I cared to follow.
The only reason I've not nuked mine is that I used to do a ton of moderation stuff along with long-form posts/comments about interesting topics, and while I don't necessarily care about my Reddit presence anymore I'd like to keep them up just so they're not lost to time on the off chance someone ever wants to read them again. I've done a few passes with Power Delete Suite to get rid of the least important stuff, but some day I'll probably need to just sit down and go through the whole account manually.
I have a bullshit allergy. Whenever I come into contact with it I lose all of my patience.
This is why I’m not on the big social media platforms. I’m tired of the bad faith.
This is why I ad block. Every ad is bullshit, regardless of what it is for. I’ll maybe exempt PSAs, but everything telling you to buy something is inherently insincere. Here in the US we have advertising for pharmaceuticals because of our inept and corrupt government not having enough sense to ban them, and almost all of them have bullshit like “I have problems with my moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis”, a thing literally nobody would say if not forced to by a team of marketers and lawyers. Why would I subject myself to hours worth of advertisements for things like new cars and lawyers, things that are so expensive and rarely needed I would otherwise never even think of. And even if I did need them, I can’t possibly imagine making my choice based on who had the best sounding bullshit at the time.
I have worked in sales and marketing. You do not need to tell people bullshit to sell them things. If anything, the more bullshit I have given people, the less likely they were to buy things. You can market the product on its strengths without having to pretend it’s something it is not. But that’s assuming that the product is good to begin with.
Even the food we buy is bullshit. Go to the grocery store and practically anything with a package or label on it is making health claims to make them seem healthy even as they are stuffed to the gills with salt, sugar, and oil. We have entire aisles dedicated to breakfast cereals with positive health claims while being between 1/3 and 1/4 sugar by weight.
Even news outlets spread bullshit. Tech journalism is almost never to be trusted because they are always telling you that company x is going to change your way of life. They are advertisements and gossip masquerading as news more often than they are accurate reporting. Tech or not, some news outlets are so lax with their requirement for factual reporting that I actively avoid them.
Also, I don’t know if I’m the only one, but I never get the “targeted” ads that the data hoarders promised me?
Like, this will maybe make some of you question my sanity, but a good while ago, I gave up on ad blockers, and trying to use a “privacy focused” browser. I fought that fight for years and years and always felt like I had to do so much maintenance, only to get a broken web in return.
So, not too long ago, I decided to just sell my soul to the advertising industry. I let all the ads and pop ups do their thing and I started using Chrome as my main and only browser on all my devices.
And funny enough... I actually like the experience better so far.
Don’t get me wrong, I hate ads. I just don’t visit almost any websites that serve them anymore. That’s it. That’s the solution that I found that works for me. I just became more selective about the websites that I do visit. It’s rarely anything outside of some web tools that I use, some blogs I like to read, Tildes, e-mail, and little else. I’m not a professional who needs to browse a wide range of websites anyway, so why bother?
YouTube is the only website that I still regularly go on that serves ads, and I’m planning on getting Premium someday.
But I digress...
I thought that if I began to accept “all the cookies” and opt into “all the personalized ads” options everywhere (and with all the data that “they” have on me from all the previous years already), then I should start seeing relevant ads, right? Ads for products and services that I care about?
Nope.
I get ads for...
Among many other irrelevant things.
I don’t know what’s going on. Have I not opted into all the “personalized ads” options yet? Or am just that weird of a person that they can’t figure out what it is that I’m really interested in seeing?
Or maybe I’m actually supposed to buy things that I don’t need. Is that perhaps the message? That normal people buy garbage they’ll probably never use?
Or are the advertisers perhaps just having a good laugh at my expense because they know that I don’t have any disposable income, so I couldn’t afford half of the junk they try to sell to me anyway?
I don’t know.
The reason why I only get served irrelevant ads will forever remain a mystery to me.
You can check. For Google Ads, for instance, there's a setting in your account settings to disable personalization. You can also edit your retention period for how long to store data history.
Since you're using Chrome, you can also edit your ads privacy permissions. This will have your browser report ad interests in a more privacy-preserving way than individual ad companies tracking you, though turning it on doesn't guarantee that they won't also do that (until some better legislation comes along).
chrome://settings/adPrivacyA final setting to check is third-party cookies. These are often used by third-party ad networks for sharing data. Google has been trying to remove this feature for years, but the CMA has prohibited them from doing so. They finally just made it a user toggle in a recent version of Chrome.
chrome://settings/cookiesI wish you the best of luck in improving the accuracy of your ads. And I apologize to everybody else whose faces are curling in disgust at this notion.
Haha. Yes. I should probably apologize too.
Sorry folks! I really didn’t mean to make you all feel bad about my carelessness.
Thank you for the tips though, @Wes! I hope I get the ads that I deserve!
Google advertising is opt-out, so unless you specifically opted out at one point (which it sounds like you very well may have), you should be in on the program.
Ads are sold to the highest bidder and not all bidders are trying to target specific people.
I try to drive this point home to my 12 year old and its surprisingly difficult. Its having to teach them the painful reality of the world where, yes, trust is a rare commodity.
We tell our two kids this: Ads are all lies.
We have every ad in our house blocked, so they only see them when they go to their friends houses. They do come home and talk about the ads they've seen on TV, where we then explain to them how it's all lies because it's someone trying to get you to buy something.
I taught a whole unit on 'bullshit detection' to Grade 7 kids way back in 1990 (with a slightly more polite name, Media Awareness)
But it was so easy then. See this ad where the guy holding up this pill bottle is wearing a white coat? Is he a scientist? No, but the ad implies that he is just because he's wearing the same coat a researcher wears. Its faking scientific authenticity.
See this lip balm that's got a seal that says its "Endorsed by the Institute of Natural Medicine"? Anyone ever heard of that institute before? No? That's because its created and operated by the advertiser's marketing department.
Print ads weren't too hard to disassemble. But no one was prepared for an era where kids would be inundated with TikToks algorithmically catered to their interests with 3D animation and filters and AI voices to completely overwhelm their bs meter. The fight for their brains is huge, but how the hell does a teacher compete with all of that?
It's actually worse than that. It's a naturopathic cooperative stakeholder group. I.e. An umbrella organization for snake-oil salespeople masquerading as health professionals meant to help them further promote their quackery and dangerously misleading "health" products and "treatments".
I struggle to understand why pharmacies, staffed by actual pharmacists, countenance having store shelves and prominent end caps stock full of this nonsense. Yeah okay they make money and the pharmacists don't decide shelves. But surely the store owners are diluting their own brand and erasing their own reason for existence??? Make a whole separate section for wellness, don't place salt spray next to your oxymetazoline hydrochloride.
I had a philosophy course in college and we had a section about fallacies. The professor took some time then and showed how advertisements usually intentionally used fallacies to sell things. The information from that course has been pretty useful to me since then.
So "Endorsed by" things are usually "appeal to authority" but I guess we could go through the whole List of fallacies and map them to various ads we've seen lately.
I think politics usually appeals to various fallacies, but these are often just to justify choices that are made for emotional reasons, especially when a voter can't admit to the actual reason which may be racism or something else that is generally unacceptable by most of society.
Dude, that must have been helpful to so many kids.....I too wish to go back to a simpler time.....
But even today, much of what you taught still applies. I hope my spouse and I have been partially successful: we provide good quality articles and books and media, and we point out manipulation in ads, and we (so far) disallow endless scrolling social media, and we ridicule/critique it when we see dark patterns and hostile design digitally and in meat space. We talk about reading package labels and credible sources of info. We listen to a ton of "Under The Influence" and talk about the creativity, tactics and psychology employed.
But probably the most effective has been the child's willingness to not seek out a scrolling brain rot. Without wiling participation I don't think we'd stand much of a chance
Things have been pretty bad prior to this too. I was doing some research on astroturfing and Samsung was caught doing it at least twice. There's services that companies can pay for that can organize and execute misinformation campaigns through writing fabricated articles, getting them published in news media, post comments across the internet on Reddit and social media sites, inflate likes/interactions at a rapid rate to get a lot of attention, etc. In Samsung's case, they not only tried to falsely bolster their own goods, but created a narrative that HTC's devices were shit.
Between this, fake reviews on Amazon, and YouTube & Twitch sponsorships, we're being bombarded with bullshit. Sure, the US FTC and similar orgs from other countries are starting to claim this (fake reviews and astroturfing) is illegal, but I'll be interested to see if that truly makes a dent in the process.
It’s gone far beyond ads. An exaggerated, hyperbolic writing style is native to the Internet, so common that it seeps into everything. People think that’s how you have to write to get “engagement,” and they’re not entirely wrong. This article probably got more attention in part due to its exaggerated style.
If you’re not careful, you start writing that way yourself, becoming part of the problem.
I worry about kids raised on this stuff. Sometimes they see through it, but they also imitate it. Writing carefully is rare.
What a wild take! Absolute brain rot!
Sorry, just kidding. In all seriousness, I agree with you completely. And as a side note, I really do appreciate the consideration you put into your comments here on Tildes.
I find the issue often goes beyond just hyperbole, but also shows up in how we understand and discuss topics online. It’s so much easier to simplify things into a black and white view, and to ignore anything that doesn’t fit. That’s just how we’re wired. I spent a lot of my early years learning about the scientific method and how to overcome human biases, but still it takes mental energy to look at something from all sides, or to interrogate myself about why I've come to believe something.
Along that line, I think it’s easy to forget that not everyone has had that experience, or even recognizes the need for it. Many people grew up in a world where the goal wasn't to learn from the argument, but to win it. Sometimes that means shouting louder than the other person. Sometimes that means attacking or discrediting them.
For this reason, it feels like every online debate has been turned up to 11, no matter the subject. Even mildly-contentious topics become impossible to discuss with nuance. I find this is true even when two people largely agree on a topic, but still come down on opposite sides.
Take oil pipelines - are they a bad thing? On the one hand, they reduce the number of trucks and ships needed to transport oil, which will get moved either way. In the short term, they reduce pollutants. However, there's also market forces to consider. Pipelines make oil more affordable and thus more economical for consumers. In the longer term, this disincentivizes a migration to greener sources of energy. On this issue, two like-minded people may come to completely different conclusions based on their knowledge and priorities.
It seems so often that when this occurs, there’s an instinct to assume bad faith on the other participant. Instead of trying to understand why someone sees an issue the way they do, they treat disagreement as a proof of moral failure. The battle lines have already been drawn, and don't you dare step over them.
Unfortunately, social media has really acted to amplify this problem. Online voices are louder than ever, and forming insular groups is even easier. Can you imagine stepping into a Facebook group devoted to combating pipelines and trying to discuss the pros and cons of their construction? That's just not how the internet works today. There's no room for it.
What I find especially sad is that even attempting to explore the gray area between black and white - to understand what your opponent is saying, is often enough to get you expelled from your own tribe. You have failed the purity test. The Republican who votes for a progressive issue is marked a RINO forever.
If you're nodding along, it's worth acknowledging that this is also something we're especially guilty of on the political left. We are quick to pass judgement, and to use morality as a cudgel against those whose views do not completely align with our own. I have the strong impression this approach can be more alienating than persuasive.
Whether we're debating with our own kin or trying to cross party lines, though, I still believe that people are not as far apart as they seem. Even when they vehemently disagree on an issue, it's often for more subtle reasons that either party recognizes. They're just not given the time to explore the argument and understand where those differences come from.
I definitely agree that online communication is not in a good place right now. If more discussions were approached with curiosity rather than hostility, I expect we'd all be having more positive and productive exchanges.
This.
Also, I like to tell people that the important thing is to “listen to understand, not to reply” when having any discussion. That is, unfortunately, what almost nobody does.
I've had a post sitting in my blog's draft queue for a while that I haven't pulled the trigger on publishing yet. I couldn't quite figure out why though. After reading this article and your post, it's because it doesn't sound like me and I don't like it. I've almost completely rewritten it to be less "engage"-y and now I like it a lot better. It still needs work, but you're spot-on that it's easy to slip into that style.
Spot on. It’s not just media literacy, it’s literacy in general that helps with seeing through it. Writing and reading.
So in an age of digital bombardment of the senses with hyperbole/outright bullshit, we’d need more education, not less.
Resonated a lot with this post. Here’s an excerpt that stood out to me:
To be honest, I don’t think that anything can be done about this. It would require all of humanity to agree that the status quo is not sustainable, and that just won’t ever happen.
Edit:
Much in the same vein, I just read this list about why we shouldn’t trust new social media alternatives. Here’s an excerpt that stood out to me:
Bullshit isn't just bad for our individual health, it's been raised to an art form by a dangerous person who rode bullshit into the White House twice. The bullshit surrounding that guy has dominated the news every day for over 10 years. It's a specific strategy to use outrage to stay in the daily news. And he'll continue to dominate until his political opponents learn how to lead instead of react, and everyone else learns how to hone their bullshit detectors.
I'm very proud of my new (for now) prime minister grey rocking him: no visits, no calls, don't talk to him.
I’m skeptical that we’ve reached peak bullshit. People have surely been lying and exaggerating since before history. The article reminds me of “Catcher in the Rye” except fake outputs instead of fake people.
But the message is spot-on. The way to solve a specific type of bullshit is by
seeing throughcounteracting* on it; if enough people do, it loses effectiveness and dies out. Although as the article points out, bullshit in general never dies, it just evolves as new types are invented.* Even if you try to ignore bullshit you may be subliminally impacted. You may think to yourself “I’m not affected by shiny branding” but buy the products with shiny logos over the bland ones anyways. So when choosing between options you must weigh bullshit advertising as slightly negative.