They’re ruining mine! I’m sick of screen harassment. I get stopped every time I’m searching for online content, confronted with a selection of these:
“Do You Agree to These Terms?”‘
“Subscribe Now!”
“Deactivate Ad Blocker”
“Only 4 More Free Articles To Go”
And that doesn’t explain the incessant advertisements embedded on each web page within a site.
“Samsung Phones 40% Off!”
“Dairy Queen – 4 Exciting New Flavors!”
“Celebrities Without Makeup. Last One Is Shocking!”
“Stop the Casino Wheel and Claim Your Prize!”
“Do This One Thing To Stop Migraines!”
Sometimes, there are more advertisements than the content I’m looking for!
Some ads float on the page while others are in it. We mustn’t forget the late-scrolling pop-ups and the auto-playing videos. The page is full of so much extraneous commercial nonsense that it takes me a few minutes to locate the content, only to find out that there are only three paragraphs of it!
It’s ridiculous! I feel like I’m being accosted at every turn. I want to take a shower before continuing!
Most phone screens are just four or five inches, right? That’s not a lot of space when the content is straightforward. Instead, those five inches have become a free-for-all for everything else. Often, the junk code arrives first, and the content comes last. It’s getting beyond a joke; I’ve had enough.
Websites don’t have to be written with so much promo-code. They can be thinned, trimmed, backed off, and tidied up. I say, find another way.
When I wrote my website, I kept ads out of it. Knowing how I felt about browsing clutter on other sites, I refrained from adding unnecessary code so readers could experience the pages how I expected to read them. There are no pop-ups, paywalls, ads or *cookie proclamations (*see below) on it. You get in, read without interruption and get out without being manhandled. I only include a link to my book, which is why the site exists. It appears at the bottom of each page. It’s a civil and sensible place to put it, just the way I believe the Internet should be.
What do you think? Is the Internet getting out of hand?
Do you feel someone is accosting your online experience at every turn? Does the internet need to turn down its junk mail code to reduce the number of ads we see?
Should code writers take stock of what’s happening and back off?
*Cookies have been around since forever. Most are harmless and serve the browsing individual. If you’re afraid of cookies, staying off the Internet is best.
Discover more from Michael Forman – Author of Dark Fiction & Drama
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