The idea feels like sci-fi because you’re so used to it, imagining ads gone feels like asking to outlaw gravity. But humanity had been free of current forms of advertising for 99.9% of its existence. Word-of-mouth and community networks worked just fine. First-party websites and online communities would now improve on that.

The traditional argument pro-advertising—that it provides consumers with necessary information—hasn’t been valid for decades.

    • CarbonatedPastaSauce@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      What’s wrong with making a societal shift where people learn to go out and look for what they want? It’s not like you can’t have a website with a schedule of all the activities for your ________. And if people want to see or do ________ they can come find out when and where instead of the constant barrage of shit they aren’t interested in anyway.

      There are better ways.

      • RowRowRowYourBot@sh.itjust.works
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        And you know about this website how exactly?

        Seriously advertisements have been used for thousands of years because they solve a very real problem namely how do you get people interested in the extra stuff you have?

        • xigoi@lemmy.sdf.org
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          1 day ago

          Advertising is when they’re getting paid for it. Otherwise it’s called recommending.

          • RowRowRowYourBot@sh.itjust.works
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            And paying people to suggest they buy something off the guy who has more stuff than they can sell by word of mouth has been our way of efficiently distributing goods for thousands of years. It’s almost as if it is solving an actual dilemma.

              • RowRowRowYourBot@sh.itjust.works
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                “The idea feels like sci-fi because you’re so used to it, imagining ads gone feels like asking to outlaw gravity. But humanity had been free of current forms of advertising for 99.9% of its existence. Word-of-mouth and community networks worked just fine. First-party websites and online communities would now improve on that.”

                The article itself contradicts that notion. I added italics to the bit that highlights this fact. They are literally talking about all ads.