This has helped fuel the decline in technology shares of late. Nevertheless, such an easy source of cash seems unlikely to disappear in the near future. The more obvious invasions of privacy also contribute to this cacophony. The utility of personal data to a web marketer is obvious. Knowing my age, socioeconomic group, and cola choice allows the corporation to target me more accurately.
More accurate ads are harder to ignore.
Other methods of payment would seem to offer no better solution. I like the idea of a subscription service, like the reconceived Napster, but I wonder if the inability to protect content renders it irrelevant and unprofitable in the face of Gnutella and other P2P programs. I did not begin this essay intending to defend the current copyright system, but as I become more and more frustrated with the flashing, and increasingly distracting, banner advertisements on every site I visit, I dread the idea that soon the Internet will be the only source of recorded music, movies, and the printed word. Our ability to escape the world of advertising will become more and more limited. We already live in a society where every conceivable public space is devoted to an advertisement.