>Without a way of getting those things in front of people, nothing new could come to light.
If my environment was not inundated with advertisement, I'd only be seeing more things that I'd be willing to pay for, not less.
>I agree that some sites make advertisements a massive eyesore, but that's a problem that can be solved in other ways.
Ads are not simply a way of getting your product in front of people. Ever wonder why ads are the fig leaf for mass surveillance? It's because they constitute some primitive, mild, poorly understood, but completely socially acceptable form of *non-consensual behavior modification*.
That this has been tolerated up to now is a historical contigency. Much like other civilizational essentials like tobacco products and leaded gas, as soon as someone prices in the externalities - whether through regulation or through disruption - the societal attitudes to them will quickly change from "unavoidable" towards "inexcusable".
If my environment was not inundated with advertisement, I'd only be seeing more things that I'd be willing to pay for, not less.
>I agree that some sites make advertisements a massive eyesore, but that's a problem that can be solved in other ways.
Ads are not simply a way of getting your product in front of people. Ever wonder why ads are the fig leaf for mass surveillance? It's because they constitute some primitive, mild, poorly understood, but completely socially acceptable form of *non-consensual behavior modification*.
That this has been tolerated up to now is a historical contigency. Much like other civilizational essentials like tobacco products and leaded gas, as soon as someone prices in the externalities - whether through regulation or through disruption - the societal attitudes to them will quickly change from "unavoidable" towards "inexcusable".