No Clicks For You!
So last week I was looking at the headlines on my Yahoo Messenger login page.
Item #2 was “Minor Celebrity Loses XX Pounds! — Learn the Simple Way She Did it!”
I do tend to read these things and, most of the time, it’s just to piss myself off at how the article is written or how they portray the celeb’s pre-weight-loss sadness or how they define the “simple” act of weight loss as — yeah, you need a chef and a personal trainer and YOU TOO CAN EASILY LOSE WEIGHT!!”
But last week I made a decision.
I’m not clicking on those links anymore.
If news outlets want to tout celebrity weight loss, they are going to be doing it without me looking at it… without me providing a click through and a page view that they can report to the marketers who will then want to place their ads on that page because of the traffic it gets… without me contributing to the idea that people want to read about celebrities and their on-again/off-again weight cycling.
I refuse to participate.
After making that decision last week, there have been several articles that I have willfully decided “I am not clicking on that.”
It feels pretty good.
I’m always deleting ads on facebook that I find ‘offensive’ and ‘uninteresting’ like Weight Watchers and acai berry crap. Isn’t it freeing to say, even if it’s just to yourself, “I’m not participating in X anymore!” ?
I totally support what you’re doing, but I still can’t bring myself to not click. I’m right there with you… I want to grumble and grouse about the inherent dishonesty of such articles. For instance, the other day I had to click on an article titled “10 Ways to Eat Like a Dietitian” (and sent a copy to Michelle Allison for shits and giggles). I can’t help it. It’s like fat schadenfreude. Maybe someday I’ll give it up, but for now, I’m addicted to the angst.
Peace,
Shannon
Hee Hee… That is one of the articles that I specifically said “I AM NOT CLICKING ON YOU!”
just remember clicks = money to those ad people..if you dont click you are voting with your fingers and they lose money..STICK IT TO THE MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Damn, I wish I could remember now who blogged about the Idol winner (Jennifer Hudson) who said her life was all “Can’t” until she lost weight on Jenny Craig. This in spite of having won a Grammy and an Oscar and some other awards while fat. I know Manolo blogged about it, but someone else did as well (I’m suffering from CRS, if I don’t write things down, I don’t remember them very well anymore). No way would I click through to the original article, but I read the blog posts about it. Sad really, that she thinks all her achievements made while fat mean nothing, and only what she achieves when she’s thin is worthwhile (and really, what has she done since she’s gotten thin?)…………not that I follow what goes on in television, movies, and music all that much, so if she’s done anything since she’s gotten thin, I wouldn’t necessarily know about it unless it was trumpeted from the front page of Yahoo…lol!
That is so sad about Jennifer Hudson. I believe Oprah does that to. All the wonderful stuff she’s done while fat, all the good works she’s done and awards she’s gotten are all worthless as the only worthwhile things she’s done was lose weight (time after time after time!). It doesn’t help that society keeps telling women they are only worthy if they are the ideal size and shape (and skin color and hair color and age).
I’ve stopped clicking on those links myself and using things like Adblock don’t get the diet ad crap on Facebook or anywhere else (for the most part, there are some sites that manage to post ads that get past Adblock grrrrrrrr!)
on facebook and other sites that let me “report” ads i ALWAYS click on the link and lable any diet or weightloss ads as offensive. I bet if we all started doing that facebook would notice…or at the very least i dont have to deal with weight loss ads anyore on my facebook and twitter.
Me too!
Statistical Freak, can I just say one more time how much I am enjoying having you back???
* Blush *
Firstly, “fat schadenfreude” - bang on, Shannon.
Secondly, keep in mind that Yahoo is owned by a media group with a decidedly conservative bent. The idea that fat people are people too is likely a foreign concept to most of them. It’s just another reason, at least for me with my bleeding-heart-liberal views, to refuse to click on their crap and empower them.
Ever since I’ve been on Facebook, every diet ad or supplement ad that purports to help you lose weight/inches, I click on the X and when it asks my why, I always click “Misleading” or “Offensive”, depending on the ad (diets are both, supplements are misleading).
I totally agree with my son, though, that Facebook should also have a dislike (or even a hate) tab to click on under stuff people post on Facebook. That way, when people post crap about their games, or their diets, or other stuff with which I don’t agree, I can click “Dislike” or “Hate” and let my feelings be known, along with my comment.