As measured in US currency, it's estimated that over $700 billion was globally spent on advertisements just last year. In a Capitalist world full of Commercials seeking to constantly capture our attention, is it so wrong to attempt to block them out?
In the modern world, it's practically impossible to 100% avoid advertisements. Even if we entirely avoid the poison of watching television and movies, we will still find advertisements many other places. They are on billboards along the road, and they are in just about every public gathering area.
Those public types of advertisements can only attempt to be ignored. Today we will focus on the type of advertisements that can be deleted without us ever seeing them, generic digital advertisements on our own devices.
There are those who would argue for the merits of allowing digital advertisements.
To be fair, the first common argument for advertisements is that blocking digital advertisements hurts the good businesses that give us valuable content. When we block ads from websites that provide us with good content, then it's like we are taking and not giving anything back. How can we expect people to keep producing good content if they aren't able to make revenue? This is a compelling point, and we'll get back to it.
The second common argument is that by viewing advertisements, we can be introduced to better products and services which we didn't know of before. Which in turn could save us money, and make us better consumers.
Well, saving our resources is good, but being a "good consumer" should certainly be something very low on our priority list.
So to counter these points, let's begin by addressing the first issue. Blocking digital ads hurts those who make good content. This can be true, but we mustn't take it to heart. Most of these content creators are not in control of their advertisements, and while the creator may wish to provide something valuable for us, there is no such ambition from their advertisers, and they have no moral obligation. Just about every one of us has seen some advertisement trying to sell us some product to artificially enhance our sex life.
Most often, not only are the creators not in control of their advertisers, but exactly the opposite. The advertisers are in control of the content creators. And if the creators don't follow specific guidelines, then the advertisers cut off their revenue.
Rather than advertisements, there are several other ways producers can, and do make revenue. Perhaps the best example being a subscription or premium model for content access, where consumers can purchase access to early and extra content for a price.
Another alternative to advertisements is selling merchandise or services along with their content. This isn't the same as generic advertising. Merchandising is focused and almost always relevant to the content produced. A great example is the Rob Braxman channel. His channel is about teaching online privacy, and revealing ways that people are being spied upon. He sells Private Network services and Privacy enhancing mobile devices specific to his content.
Another alternative to ads are affiliate linking. Where a creator can bring attention to curated products related to their content, and gain referral income. Last on our list is simply asking for money through donations of cash or digital currency.
Suffice it to say, there are many ways content creators can earn revenue in the absence of advertising, and this list doesn't even exhausted all possiblities.
The second argument for ads was that it can introduce us to better products or services. But that argument can easily be flipped on it's head, as advertisements can, and regularly do, introduce us to worse products and services, like that cheap Chinese wrench set that breaks on the second time you use it. But the most common result is that advertisements introduce us to things we don't need or want at all, like a new flavor of carbonated sugar water. This time it tastes like diabetes.
Instead of saving us money or resources, they are wasting the most precious resource we have, our time. And the waste of our time is a point we will come back to again.
So far we've been dispelling the arguments for advertising, and demonstrating several advertisement revenue alternatives, but there are also the stock arguments for blocking advertisements as well.
- Save time with faster loading of information and content. Our network and devices don't have to waste extra resources delivering and loading advertisements, which speeds up our access to the content we are loading.
- Save data and save money. By reducing the amount of data transmitted, it lowers the network costs, and on mobile plans it can directly lead to cost savings.
But the biggest reason most people block ads is because they can be a pure annoyance. And here we begin to go beyond the stock reasons for blocking ads, and come to the Virtuous reasons for advertisement blocking.
How can advertisement blocking be considered in the realm of morals? The answer to this is simply answered with another question. On average, does the persistence of advertisements influence us toward good actions, or not? Do they lead us toward a healthy connection with nature and greater alignment with our Life Purpose, or not?
With the state of current advanced technological civilization, most commercial advertisements are designed to simply make us into brainless consumer slaves working daily, addicted to pleasure seeking, only to die unhealthy and having lived a stressed and forgettable life.
At best, they are an annoying distraction. At worst, they lure us into becoming addicted to habits that destroy our lives. Some of the worst of these being alcohol, drugs, and gambling.
It's commonly known that advertisers employ all known tricks of psychology to manipulate consumers. There are many books devoted to the subject. Preying on the human emotions of lust, fear, and insecurity.
If you've never read up on some of the ways advertisers use psychology to influence people, we recommend taking some free time to look into it. Look into the methods they use, and think back on times when you've been influenced yourself. These are tools being used against us, and it becomes a lot easier to defend against an attack when you see it coming.
One of the oldest and most common psychological methods still used today is having a popular individual promote a product. Coca-Cola paid Micheal Jackson to endorse their black syrup juice decades ago, and today people are drinking it all across the world. Since then, far more sophisticated methods of influence have been developed, but many of the basics still remain the same.
All of of us like to think we are unaffected by advertisements. That we're just too smart to fall for their tricks, but if their psychological tactics didn't work on us, then they wouldn't use them. Take a bum off the street, clean him up and put a suit on him, and we'll think he's some kind of professional or authority. Put him in doctors robes and we'll assume he knows something about medicines. These tactics work on us consciously and subconsciously.
When someone goes to the store to buy a new product, they are more likely buy a brand that they've seen an advertisement for, even if they have ignored the advertisement for that brand. That's just one way it works on us subconsciously.
But there are other ways ads influence us far more negatively. For example, distracting and disrupting our thoughts. You're not the only person who has noticed how loud and distracting ads can be, not only audibly, but also visually, with oversaturated colors and visual effects. When they interrupt our thoughts and discussions, it's not on accident, it's by design.
This has a negative psychological affect on our ability to focus and concentrate. Even if we see an advertisement for only a split second, it can distract and misguide our thoughts for a long time after. Our most valuable resource, time, again becomes wasted. Rather than be concentrated on things we must do, our thoughts are pulled into some kind of distraction that adds no value to our lives.
Another way ads have a negative psychological affect on us is through creating illusions, or false perceptions of reality. The most classic illusion is that of human appearance. We are constantly delivered visuals of how an ideal human should look. Not only every woman displayed with full facial makeup, but also men with full facial makeup. You know who else wears full face makeup.. a clown. They also give us false perceptions of how people behave together and live together. Subliminally normalizing materialism, promiscuity, homosexuality, and several other forms of degeneracy.
And let us not forget all spying and tracking of advertiser networks. We won't even delve into that topic today, as it would entirely require it's own full recording.
In summary, this recording is primarily about the moral case against advertisements, and why we should attempt to block them whenever possible. That, not all, but the majority of advertisements in the modern world, are overwhelmingly negative to our psychology and state of mind. Advertisers are not obligated to follow a moral code. They will use any psychological tactics they can to manipulate us into consuming machines that slave for the system.
Good digital content creators can and should generate revenue by using the many other alternatives to advertising. None of us are immune to the negative affects of loud advertising. They cause us to lose focus, disturb, and over stimulate our mental state.
Not all distractions and disturbances can be avoided, but we can at least attempt to eliminate those that are created intentionally. For the unavoidable distractions in life, subscribe to this channel. In our next recording, we will discuss ideas on calming meditation, and exercising focus in the mind.
We should strive to stay connected with reality and our Life Purpose. Doing good and promoting good in the world. Work on prioritizing thoughts of excellence.
We send out love and to all our brothers and sisters. Stay blessed.
VidarReturns
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