Ad-free

I have had a love-hate relationship with advertisements. A couple of decades ago, I used to dream of becoming an ad-film maker as I thought it was creative. More importantly, I thought I was creative. Lies you tell yourselves! I enrolled for a diploma in advertising that I never finished. Then during the college days, I thought may be I could act in an ad. One thought led to another. After taking some ridiculous photographs and creating a naive portfolio , me and my friend auditioned for an television advertisement and landed an offer. We were two among the few selected extras who were supposed to be blurred in the background. Not a light blur but a deep blur.

I am from an orthodox family that prohibited any kind of vanity other than the one that you get from attending to the temple duties religiously. So, to avoid any unpleasant experience facing the extended family and being labelled an outcast, I decided against being blurred in the background. Looking back now, it was a great decision.

First there was a liking towards advertising. Then, I started my professional career in IT and there was a period of indifference. In the recent times, I have developed an allergy towards advertisements or advertising in general. Ads are ubiquitous. They take various shapes and forms – from flyers to billboards, from television to YouTube, from snail mail to emails, from Facebook posts to LinkedIn posts. Heck, even many of the Netflix series are nothing but a well-scripted long form advertisements that are designed to keep you hooked while selling you dreams and products.

The times have changed from the advertisers paying money to broadcast their ads to the consumers paying a premium to avoid viewing ads. I am not saying none of them are valuable. I am just unhappy that we are constantly bombarded with ads everywhere based on what we have searched for, what we have purchased, or what we have conversed with your friends via email. The omnipresence of advertisements and the feeling of being under constant manipulation is nauseating.

I know that I had earlier evaluated displaying ads as one of the ways of making money on the side. Honestly, it didn’t fetch me much as I am not regular in posting. But, when I am taking a look at my current stance with ads, I felt that I should make my blog ad-free. I purchased a suitable WordPress plan and disabled the ads in my site. I will still be sprinkling some associate links while writing about products or books. But, at least, I do not want my every post to have the advertisements curated and displayed by the service providers that I had no control of.

If you would like to support me in keeping this blog ad-free, please feel free to use the donation button on the side bar. I would appreciate it. No pressure though. You don’t have to if you don’t want to.

I wish you and your family good health! Cheers!