There are very few sites you can visit without being assaulted by pop-up notifications and a sea of ads an clickbait. This seems to be getting worse all the time. Everything is so repetitive and dated. I don’t care to see what “Maria Brady looks like now”, But I’ve been asked to explore this for at least three years!
There is no telling the effects of all this. I hear of people who have trouble reading. Their attention span and ability to focus is shot!
I also recall when subliminal advertising was banned (in the United States). I’m not sure when this changed or became a gray area but it’s sure interesting. See Shocking History of Subliminal Advertising.
The other day, I came across this, by “John Rivers”.
“One way to think of News is as a DDOS attack.
The News overwhelms your ability to think about Important Things by flooding your brain with bullshit.
The New York Times actually uses the term Flood The Zone for when they want to push a Narrative hard – they write hundreds of articles about it, in the news, in the style section, in the sports section, in the gossip section – they’re trying to deny people’s brains the ability to think about anything else.”
I have Libra so I’m swinging in the other direction to balance. I’m removing ads and bells and whistles so this site is more of an oasis.
How do you feel about all this? Have you noticed the volume of the “distractions” increasing?
Also, are you trying to address it or it’s ability to affect you?
Thanks for this topic. I always have issues with this. I also have trouble reading. Any book recommendations or ways to deal with this are welcome..
I am seeing it.
I work in digital marketing myself, and I get sick of seeing my profession being media whores for these things. Spend X amount of money to get exposure – and polite people’s online experience.
It has made me seriously questioning my own path and profession even!
Personally I find myself detach. I don’t watch the news. If I want to read about a topic I find a site without too much noise (cue to elsaelsa.com – your site is much appreciated :-)) or a podcast. But even the podcasts are becoming more and more polluted with this sh*t ….
I have Libra and Aquarius. I will go to the other side for balance and I refuse to follow mainstream. I have Uranus in sextile to my Ascendant. I always end up with something interesting when I go against the mob….
*polute
I disconnected most media a few years ago; no television, instagram, Snapchat, etc.
Also, the internet has its 1st return in 2020/2021 … interesting times ahead.
https://elsaelsa.com/forum/astrology/the-internet-has-its-1st-saturn-return-in-2020-2021/
Definitely seen the increase in ads, and suggested sites, and cookies. My regular use is limited to three sites on a regular basis, but google is everywhere, and I gmail. I’m researching how to change this. Anyone using Duckduckgo as an alternative to google?
Elsaelsa IS an oasis, no small thing, Elsa!
I use Duckduckgo instead of Google now. Some websites don’t like this, and inform me that I have “gone incognito”.
Well, yeah!! That’s the whole point! ?
Duck duck is bing, from what I’ve heard.
Try qwant. It’s decent and getting better all the time.
Thanks
I am a book person, this and the weather channel
Are my desserts or my get up and go to work start
Yes your site a calm little,”cruising the drag”is how my sisters used to say go for ride and clear my brain,trying to get thru the rainstorm of hormones roughing up my almost 16 grandson’s emotional trip.
Thank you Elsa for quietening things down here – tho for some reason seeing ads here didn’t bother me like it does everywhere else. Could you create a couple of ad pages we could visit on purpose to generate some revenue? Probably a silly idea. Or Patreon maybe?
I often feel battered and bruised when I get sucked down the internet rabbit hole, even if I’m following an interesting idea. It’s just draining. It takes will and self respect and sometimes creativity (charging devices just a little bit so they go dead fast!) to pull yourself back home. It is hard! But so worth it. Gardens are a great substitute, and cooking, and books, and walking and dancing!
You’re welcome!
The ad idea won’t work and I am not planning to use Patreon but there is a tip jar! Thanks!
Yes, overloading of senses. It’s us against the bots. I’ve recently started using Brave browser. Check that out! (I don’t work for them :)Besides encrypted and privacy part, they are shifting advertising paradigm into a consensual agreement. You decide if you’re going to watch an ad and you even “get paid” to watch an ad.
Regarding subliminality of the ads, I think it is there, just evolved. I’ll observe this.
p.s.Elsa, check out that Tipping section. If you get onto this, as I understood, if I watch an ad, and get their token rewards, I can tip you as my favourite “content creator”.
I use Brave (and other browsers). I believe I am a content creator with them! Thank you!
OMG, I’m HYPER concerned with what Maria Brady looks like now (who is she?)
Excellent post and set of questions. Marshal McLuhan, the 70s professor and guru of all things big media, outlined this years ago with his famous bromide: “The medium is the message.”
It no longer matters WHAT is being dispersed and reported on but HOW it is inundating and reformating our brain, ala “Flood the zone”.
The more dazed a stupor we remain in the more easily manipulated we are by corporate efforts to increase sales.
Amazingly, and decades before the Internet was even thought of, he wrote: “The more the data banks record about each one of us, the less we exist.”
And the greater our sense of nonexistence the more time we devote to carving a place for ourselves in the electronic world. A vicious cycle as this just ups our frustration level which then generates more and more content for big media, in our hopes of being ‘seen’.
Our identities have LITERALLY become the commodity that is traded in.
My own biggest pet peeve as a researcher is that despite KNOWING there is tons of serious, meaningful information online, I can no longer access most of it.
Why? Because you need a SEARCH engine to FIND things. The original search engines did a better job in the early days of the Internet. This has nothing to do with the quantity of info available then vs now.
This has to do with the fact that “search” engines no longer exist. The original (true) search engines have been transmogrified into PUSH engines.
They don’t care what YOU are LOOKING for. They want to deliver (PUSH) to you what they want to deliver to you.
Case in point: Last night and today I have been trying to answer a (serious and meaningful) question Elsa asked in the forums.
But, no matter what word or phrase I typed in the Google search, it delivered to me “matches” that had NOTHING to do with what I was looking for. (Other search engines do the same.)
Try it: type anything at all in the search box and what you will get back are at the top 1) commercial ads PUSHING some product or service then 2) websites, links to movies, games, etc. anything COMMERCIAL basically.
If you are NOT looking to BUY something (or be SOLD something) but to LEARN, you’re sh-t out of luck. Good luck LEARNING about anything meaningful that does not have a dollar sign attached to it.
The stupider you are, the easier it is to control (and sell) to you. So there is no sense hooking you up with anything useful!
All the “fix your broken widget” videos we all appreciate, will become paid content. If you want to know anything USEFUL, then pay!
Agreed. That’s what I sense is going to happen, too. We are all being slowly pushed toward having to pay for anything useful–that is, if we can afford it.
This is already happening with newspapers, TV, radio. Newspapers are putting up paywalls. We have to purchase cable, satellite, Roku, Apple Fire Stick, etc. to watch TV. Remember when we were all forced to switch to digital TV a decade ago? Don’t recall having a say in that.
Radio–in my area it’s nothing but Top 40 songs on every station. The only radio talk shows are conservative. They offer ONE SIDE because that’s what the locals want here. I usually switch to Sirius XM mode because they have a much broader range of music styles and political or other opinions. Shows that are banned from the airwaves (corporate/advertiser decisions) migrate to Sirius XM. But again, I have to pay.
In future, those who can’t afford to pay will be very limited on what information they have access to. Like you said, the stupider you are, the easier to control and sell to.
Do you all remove the Gmail app from your phone? Or the Google app? Or use an alternative to Google play store?
Does anyone use an email service that is more private than Gmail?
I have an issue where a lot of personal information is available when they Google my name because I registered to vote and someone used that information. Is there any way to erase this stuff when people search my name?
I have a separate gmail phone account. Protonmail is what a lot of people use.
I got rid of all the apps on my phone… and on my kindle too. Firefox was using permission on kindle fire to keep me offline in my own home! Seriously.
I live in the country and all the sudden, these other networks started appearing, some at regular times and some not. I called my provider, blah, blah.
Bottom line, I saw that FF had permission to do such things. Once I deleted it, the problem ended.
They’ve gone too far. People are rebelling. The cashier in Aldi mentioned this to me today.
Turn it off while you still have the choice…
I do bring my phone (to town) but have taken to leaving it in my car when I shop. I am done answering calls in Kroger! I would leave my phone at home but this is my business and there are times I have to respond.
I also have most notifications turned off. I am in the process of weaning myself off so I can have some peace.
News is now AN ALERT that someone tweeted and someone tweeted back. Okay, Marcia Brady. Be right there, not!
I do consider this site as a much welcome oasis 🙂
I’ve realized recently that my phone is too much of a distraction to my focus so I’ve deleted all social media apps (or disabled because The Man deems them necessary stock). My ad block extensions have been disabled/nullified on my computer I’ve realized so time for a new browser/extension and possibly a VPN. I’ve even noticed myself becoming rather irritable lately with friends on messaging services that have a read/seen function who feel the need to check up on a response from me after 15 min because I haven’t replied. I’m at work! Hold your horses! Communicating this has not fixed the issue for me so I am considering getting rid of these apps too and just moving to text/sms only. Aquarius wants to clear the mental clutter.
I wonder if this stuff is peaking, right as it thinks it is going to take over 🙂
Oh I hope so!!
I’ve noticed a lot of the same things people above have. I’ve also deleted most apps from my phone. I get zero notifications except text messages. I was very addicted to screens before this. My most recent deletion was instagram, three weeks ago now. I learned so much on there but it was taking so much time out of my day. I need limits.
My conundrum is that I want to make sure I hear necessary information and can continue to learn (I need information like people need water) but I don’t want the means to find it (i.e. a smart phone etc.) because I find it detrimental. Then again, how do I know what’s necessary when so much of it is propaganda anyway? How do I know when I’ve found true information or the opposite? Sometimes it’s hard to discern. And I know I can’t just count on my doctor, for example, to know what I need to find out. So I hold onto my computer, and my phone, and impose these limits, and trust my own experience more. But wow it’s hard sometimes.
“I can gather all the news I need from the weather report.” -Simon and Garfunkel
I’ve learned to tune them out but feel the distractive energy when I’m on those sites. Kinda like a buzz. I appreciate sites like this, a respite from the buzz.