Advertisements have been a staple inconvenience for users across the internet. Recently, advertisements have become smarter, more intrusive and more exasperating than ever.
Nine out of ten online users report feeling that online advertisements have become more intrusive and far more invasive than ever before. Advertisements usually include pop-ups, banners or background audio advertisements forcing consumers to look or listen to what’s being advertised.
A well-known solution to these invasive advertisements have been ad-blockers. However, websites are cracking down on the use of ad-blockers, especially YouTube. YouTube has been disabling users from accessing the website if they detect a user is using an ad-blocker. This being coupled with longer unskippable ads has become an irritation for users.
Students have been experiencing frustrations towards these policy changes that have been interfering with day-to-day life, “YouTube is a big part of my life, I use it for entertainment and educational purposes. However, it’s become a problem trying to navigate the platform and avoid long unskippable ads, and my ad blocker being disabled does not help me at all,” shares senior Andrew Erickson.
Additionally, advertisements are how websites make money. A problem advertisers are facing is advertisements not appealing to the new generation.
80% of advertisements fail to make an impact on a brand as almost 99% of Gen Z tends to skip ads that are interrupting their experience. “Ads have become increasingly annoying and get in the way of my online experience. As a matter of fact, I’ll go out of my way to not buy products if the ads are invasive,” stated junior Dax Law.
These advertisements are definitely not going away anytime soon, as digital advertising spending is expected to grow 6% in 2025. So most likely, consumers will be seeing more frequent or intrusive advertisements that will continue to ruin the online experience for users.
Websites are also weaponizing advertisements as a way to earn more money. Hulu, a streaming service that offers users a subscription fee to access their content with ads, is one of them. With numerous ad breaks lasting up to 30 seconds being added throughout movies or shows, it can frustrate users with the service they already pay for, leading people to upgrade to the more expensive Hulu subscription.
“Some services I use such as Hulu will show me dozens of ads despite already paying for their service. It feels very discouraging to keep paying monthly to just see more and more ads every time I want to watch my favorite shows or movies,” stated senior Grant Jaques.
Furthermore, advertisements could be malicious. Some pop-up ads are difficult to get rid of and could result in users accidentally clicking on advertisements they didn’t mean to. Despite most ads being harmless, for every 100 advertisements seen on the internet, at least one is expected to be malicious and contain computer malware that can damage equipment or take personal information.
Navigating the internet is becoming increasingly challenging, to the point where it often feels impossible, as advertisements become more prevalent and ad blockers are being restricted. While ads are crucial for content creators to generate income, ads are becoming far more predatory.
