Hidden in Plain Sight

Made by Lucy Tan

A day spent chronicling the unnoticed signage by my path.

Created: September 8th, 2015

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Haha, just kidding. There is no end to overlooked media. 

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Normally, I'd immediately x-out the popup. In fact, I did that several times during the day without a second thought. It was difficult to stop myself so I could take a screenshot. Pretty benign, although I'll never want to sign up for their newsletter. I suppose they're catering to the lowest denomination here -- that is, the people who don't know how to sign up for a newsletter. Thankfully, this kind of popup is the most obnoxious popup I'll ever get on desktop (thanks, AdBlock!).

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Unfortunately for my phone, I don't have AdBlock for it. Thus, I am treated to sponsored posts and friend endorsements. No thanks, Facebook. Comcast, instead of spending money on advertisements, should really improve their PR. I've never heard a good word about them from anyone I know personally. 

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It's truly amazing how unrelated these links to other "articles" are and how little I actually pay attention to them. In fact, I've only just now read the titles in order to make such a conclusion. Also, an honorable mention to the toasts (notifications) I get on my phone for various applications that I've been too lazy to mute, and the few newsletters I accidentally subscribed to and never got around to unsubscribing from. 

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SUMMARY

I'm not exposed often to a large variety of media, since I spend most of my free time playing video games (Dragon Age: Inquisition this weekend. Very thought provoking and had some emotionally powerful scenes. I could write a lengthy paper about video games as a communication method or a form of art, or how its affected society or me specifically, but for this assignment I'm looking at lower profile media). The most ubiquitous were the logos on the objects around my apartment. After that were banner ads, suggested content, and the rare popup while I was browsing the internet. AdBlock and Chrome's built in popup blocker keeps things clean and comfortable for the most part. Even if they didn't, it's fairly easy to ignore advertisements. I've had so much experience purposely not seeing unrelated media that it was actually somewhat difficult to document anything at all, since I would simply pass it by or skip it before I had a chance to take note of it. The most positive reaction I give to an advertisement or logo is a "that's neat," or "oh hey I've heard of them before." Strong negative emotions are reserved almost exclusively for phone popups these days. I actually made an internal blacklist of apps that have used the redirect popups. They will never get a download from me. I'm aware that advertisements are usually handled by an advertisement company, not the company whose products are being advertised, but if everyone was rational, there wouldn't be a market for advertisements, now would there? If only advertising companies could figure out how to not annoy people while pushing a product.

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A day spent chronicling the unnoticed signage by my path.