I remember when the internet was a lot cooler than it is now. It wasn’t that long ago. It started to go downhill sometime around the mid 00’s and has gotten progressively worse ever since. Intrusive advertisements, privacy violations, and corporate mergers have taken something once wonderful and smeared it with fecal matter. Maybe it was inevitable. The government and most major corporations have done what they do best: buying the rights to original ideas from talented, passionate individuals and turning them into soulless cash cows. Blaming the corporate government has become a cliché, and I realize how looney I probably seem by writing this rant, but sometimes clichés are true, at least to an extent. Still, I could forgive the ads and even the lack of privacy if the commercials were interesting and not so constantly shoved my throat. When I see a “blocker” style advertisement that completely obstructs a webpage I’m currently in the middle of reading, I vow to never buy that product if at all possible. Don’t the experts in marketing realize this, or am I just an exception? Do these methods of promotion really increase sales or do they simply create consumer resentment towards the company?  I’m not sure how this affects others, but it annoys the dog shit out of me.