Another Ad Rant

The past few weeks in class, all we've been talking about is advertisements. The results of this topic is that I'm noticing ads around me a lot more. But, I think this makes me more annoyed at many ads. As I've said before, most commercials have no positive effect on me. This is no different. This time, I'm talking about the commercials that are now involved with Youtube.

Youtube is a form of social media that revolves around videos. People create accounts and start channels--I'm sure everyone knows about it. However, the most recent additions to this site are the ads that play before and during videos. I didn't have much of a problem with these commercials at first; obviously Youtube needs these to make more money. But eventually they got worse.

First, the ads before the videos can really make me angry. I would be fine with them, but they can get lengthy. I don't need a thirty-second ad to watch a two-minute video. Sometimes the ads even push to a minute long (but sometimes they give you the option to skip them). Not only that, but there is no variety in the ads. I've seen one for shampoo and one for cable, and that's about it. They don't really get me excited to watch the video that I wanted to watch.

Next, the commercials the appear in the middle of long videos aren't any better. These ads only use one technique that gets my attention: sound. I'll be calmly watching my video, when suddenly the video doubles in volume, and there are unfamiliar people practically shouting into my headphones. This scares me all the time; I've never gotten used to it. Other than the sound, there's no real technique within these ads that are worth noting.

I used to love Youtube, because they had no ads that disrupted my viewing experience. But now, it seems that even Youtube has surrendered to the annoying commercials that nobody really wants to see. At least we don't have to pay for the original Youtube (yet).