if online popup ads and other advertising seems to be getting more intrusive, it may be the result of advertiser desperation. “Industry data clearly indicates that online advertising is increasingly ignored—or actively resisted—by the public at large,” said Tim Hwang in “Ad Nauseam” article, Nov. 2020 issue of Harper’s Magazine. “Second, the attention ads do receive is increasingly garbage—the product of a massive, fraudulent economy of click farms designed to extract money from advertisers,” he added. While Hwang predicts this bubble will burst, he doesn’t speculate on what will follow. Will we face more pay walls if advertising revenue takes a nosedive? Will editorial quality on news sites decline when there is even less money to hire competent journalists?
