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Comment by gman83 | Hacker News Reader

I was thinking about this the other day, and I was wondering whether the fact that my kids are not exposed at all to commercials might make them more susceptible to advertising when they grow up.

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Anecdata: When I, on occasion, use the internet someone else's computer, who does not have an ad blocker, I'm horrified. "THIS is the internet they live with?!" They typically seem not to notice the ads, or accept them as the status quo.

So, my hypothesis is that exposure to ads does not have any benefits. I would not extend this hypothesis to product placement, however.

Probably not. Children are constitutionally defenseless against advertising so it's doubtful that childhood exposure to advertising is helpful.

Alternatively it might make them less tolerant and therefore less susceptible. I'm wondering the same about my kids, as we cut the cord several years ago.

As a viewer, I get minimal entertainment and no value from them, and having cut the cord long ago, I find them irritating. I'm hoping my kids grow up to be irritated or intolerant of commercials as well.

A friend of mine has two kids <= 5 years old who have grown up using Netflix. They saw cable TV for the first time when visiting a relative for the holidays, and he was worried that they seemed to have a lot of trouble distinguishing ads from content.

I suppose it's a good thing to teach. How else are kids supposed to know? How do kids who grew up with broadcast and cable ads learn to tell them apart?

Anecdotally, 6-yo is only exposed to commercials when we stay in hotels and she finds them insufferable.

Implying that watching more advertisements helps you develop a tolerance for it.

It does in a way. When I watched standard tv programmes years ago, the ads would be a thing you have to go through, and try to ignore. Now they're not tolerable - I'll choose not watching something over watching it with ads. Not sure if it makes me more susceptible to ads I do see (unlikely, I barely but anything anyway), but it limits the exposure a lot.

The communist country I grew up in had TV commercials too, but their commercial blocks came with 'begin' and 'end' jingles and were called 'Economy-propaganda programs.' Calling a spade a spade!

I watched the Monty Python Spam video a bunch with my 4 year old, and since then taught her to yell "Shut up!!!" at all sorts of ads or commercials.

Alternatively, I can envision them being more skeptical about advertisements. It'd be great to see some long-term studies done on this.

A hormesis theory of advertising? I think it’s more likely to be a linear exposure model.

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