Pop-Up and Pop-Downs

 I was at the end of solving a New York Times puzzle. I only had one nine-letter word to solve that began with the letter T. I had never solved a Monday Crossword. After trying to fill in the down words to help me, I only came up with the letter Q in the seventh space. After much thought, I was about to enter "technique" when a pop-up ad appeared.

 It read, "What is your brain age? Fill in the blank with the correct word. "I live in a ______." Followed by the words- rock, tree, home, and sky.

 A creepy hand with bright red nail polish appeared on the screen and proceeded to swirl around the screen, hovering over each word and finally choosing "sky." "Your brain age is ten" popped up on the screen.

 "I love pop-up ads," said nobody…ever. Pop-up ads have to be one of the most universally hated parts of online marketing. They're annoying, interruptive, and distracting. 

 Why do they show clips of the gameplay with the absolute worst gameplay? They show puzzles that fail when a six-year-old could easily beat them. Why not make the right choices? These ads make me want to avoid those games. They can be so stupid as to empower the viewer into thinking I am more intelligent than you. Making people feel smart and confident makes them want to buy. They are priming you to purchase. They're looking for impulsive people. If you see the ad and think, "I can do that better," you will play their game and get your foot in the door. Another annoyance is ads that show a game that is nothing like the real one or try to convince you to think you will make a bundle of money playing the game.

Now, I will admit that I find many stupid little games I download and try through these dumb ads. Advertisements are essential — they make the app revenue and inform people of new games that might interest them. I don't think game developers should remove ads entirely but rather draw them back a lot. If I see an advertisement for a game nonstop, I know I'm not downloading it out of spite.

These forced ads get in the way of my playing a game, and if you are as impatient as I am, they will most likely make you delete it and, therefore, make the developers less money in the long run. If ads are scarce or if the players get to choose when they watch ads, the mobile gaming experience would be so much better.

After watching this ridiculous ad, I returned to my puzzle but had completely forgotten the word to finish my puzzle. I was so mad I wanted to Google the company who advertised, send them an email, and tell them what a bunch of total morons they were. Of course, I didn't do that because I didn't want them to know I existed for apparent reasons.

 

Speaking of ads, I record most of the TV shows I watch so I can skip over the ads that have become so annoying.