Those INCREDIBLY Annoying Web Sites!

Let me preface this by saying that I love pretty much everything about the web and have been surfing these electronic pathways for 20 years... but sometimes I really do want to stick my head through a brick wall!

Like earlier today when I came across one of those "this is a really cool quiz" posts on a friend's Facebook wall. 

OK, so mistake number one: "I was on Facebook." Mistake number two, assuming that just because I mostly have pretty tightly curated friends, posts coming across my feed would have at least a minimum amount of value.

Wrong, wrong, wrong!

So, you know you click on an otherwise interesting looking link and end up on one of those sites where you are suddenly immersed in a maze of advertising and link sharing, and it takes about five minutes to actually locate the content you supposedly came for? 

That's just the beginning.

Not only is the screen filled with messy graphics and blinking lights... you have to click on a "next" button after reading about seven words, only to be exposed to the same electronic circus all over again. And again. And again.  And God forbid your cursor should actually linger in the wrong spot for even a second... all manners of pop-ups and pop-unders and other garbage fills your world.

Soon, of course, it becomes painfully evident that the "really cool quiz" is only the flimsiest of smoke screens to enable some twat to serve approximately 1,783 ad exposures to anyone determined (or mindless?) enough to sit through all 93 questions. 

At the end of which you'll know "what color unicorn" you are. 

OK, so that last sentence was an exaggeration... but not by much.

So why does this make me so angry? 

Well, because-- at least from where I am sitting-- it contributes nothing of any value to anyone's life. Like someone broadcasting noise, for no purpose other than to hear the sound of their own voice. It also wastes a bunch of time and bandwidth.

Don't get me wrong, I get that the web has to be "commercial" because servers, hosting, bandwidth, support staff and all that la-la costs money and don't create themselves out of thin air, but REALLY? 

Made me sit back and feel doubly grateful for actual quality and original content, created by actual writers and artists because they add genuine value to the web experience, not just more "noise." 

The experience also reminded me to stay committed to my own values.

It did, however, leave me with the philosophical question of whether it is "OK" to create these kinds of things to profit from the innocence/ignorance of those who mindlessly wander through the maze of advertising? Is it a form of exploitation, or does it fit under the heading of "fair game?"

Needless to say, I left the site almost immediately...

What do you think of these sites, be they quizzes or even supposed "news" sites? Nuisance? Unethical? Exploitative? Fair game?

( As always all text and photos are my own, unless otherwise credited... original content created for Steemit)