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Comment by dan353hehe | Hacker News Reader

Is it also unethical to not read the ads in a newspaper? Or to not watch the commercials on TV?

If it was automated and you still consumed the other resources (paid largely or entirely by ad impressions) then that case could be made.

Why does it matter whether it's automatic?

Because if you have to manually notice, recognize, then look away, then arguably you've already paid with your attention. If someone or something is doing it for you (and others) automatically then it eliminates the 'payment' and undermines producers ability to produce.

For the record, a lot of ads in newspapers are in separate inserts which easily be separated and tossed out. Grocery store bundles for example.

True but that still requires the would-be reader to take action, and likely read something printed on them

> If someone or something is doing it for you (and others) automatically then it eliminates the 'payment' and undermines producers ability to produce.

Doesn't it also undermine producers ability to produce if you just get really good at quickly looking away?

It seems from your argument the "case could be made" that it's at least a little unethical to not spend at least a little while paying attention to each ad when reading a newspaper.

Like there's some scale where the left side has "0 attention spent, 0 ethical" and the right side has "maximum attention spent, maximally ethical".

Fair point. I think advertisers understand people will learn to gloss over and mentally filter yet the impression is still something. And in aggregate that's enough. I don't think anyone expects people to feel like consumers must give their full, undivided attention, with eyelids taped open and hands bound.

One way to figure out if a case could be made, or if something is “arguably” true, is to try and make a case or argument and see if it works. Just speculating that it might be possible to make a case is kind of weasel-wordy.

I actively avoid ads in print and other media where it's not possible to just block them, and skip through paid for posts in Telegram channels without reading a single word from them. Once you get used to doing this, it becomes second nature — pretty much automatic behavior.

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