Who Are The Ad Clickers?

The coolest part about the internet to me is the amount of “””free””” stuff available simply by virtue of advertising being a lucrative business. Isn’t it fascinating that you can watch and share videos and content from anyone anywhere, see the lyrics for almost any song, and play entire games on the net, all in exchange for a little bit of your attention? I think it is.

There’s also the mass data collection side of things, but that’s not the crux here.

It would only be fair to disclose that I use adblockers, sparingly-ish enough. To elaborate: Safari is my “main browser” because I like the UI of it, but I haven’t been able to find any good adblockers for it. So I just consume the raw, unfiltered internet on my MacBook. Firefox and Microsoft Edge are also installed with uBlock Origin for when I find the odd site that doesn’t support Safari well enough.

I’ve got the same browsers+blockers installed on my dad and brother’s PCs, because I quite frankly don’t think they have the sense to not click on random junk and often enough ads on some sites are misleading or downright harmful, especially to people who don’t really know what they’re doing. It’s like giving the most incapable ones training wheels, that’s how I see it. It works well enough; there’re rarely any malware/data incidents I have to address.

But is my situation mirrored for everyone else in the world? I doubt it. I’d wager that the only reason the net as we know it today is available because the majority are eating raw internet just like me most of the time.

For this raw majority, though, I have nothing but questions: Who are the ad clickers among us? I just can’t envision them, at all: The person who actively seeks out and utilizes the info provided by advertisements seems mythical to me.

It may just be a generational thing, as while I could easily imagine my dad (internet clueless) and brother (young and clueless) following ads, I can’t imagine my sister or I doing the same. Neither can I imagine most other members of my age group doing so either, since they should be somewhat savvy to these matters, no?

For the more technically capable, there’re entire undertakings dedicated to people who just don’t like ads and have some know-how in installing things. The aforementioned uBlock Origin, the defunct Youtube Vanced and its derivatives, The PI-Hole, etc etc etc, are all dedicated works to removing the butter from the internet’s bread. Those, and the natural human inclination to skip ads to get whatever the monkey brain wants at a faster rate.

So, who are they, those who click the attention-grabbers? The elderly? The young? The clueless? If we’re in a future where they exist on the lock screen, who are they meant to serve?

I’m the Ad Clicker

I’ve always found TikTok’s advertising model quite interesting: Ads are integrated into the feed like regular videos, but you can just scroll right past. No time gating like Snapchat’s publishing platform or YouTube ads. The same model is replicated to Reels.

It’s created a sort of sphere where ads have to capture interest rather than just be there and take up time or screen space. So I have, from time to time, clicked on a TikTok ad for something I find particularly funny. Have I ever bought a product from an ad? No, but sometimes the ads are well-crafted enough for me to spare a glance at the catalogue.

Nevertheless, I’m certain the people who purchase advertised products exist, they’re just outside of the realm of my imagination. What else could possibly be holding the internet up?

There was also a long period of time where Snapchat ads in Stories had a banner display at the bottom of the screen that would showcase the products from the ad. It took up somewhere between a third and a quarter of the screen, which was the perfect size for me to accidentally tap while trying to go through my friends’ stories, even with my longish thumb. Very annoying, led to me rarely checking Snapchat.