I see a lot of disagreement about whether ads are “manipulative” or not, and I generally agree with OP’s example in another comment about a contra dance. I have also organized various clubs and activities before, and I don’t really think “ads you see when using a website” and “ads you see when glancing at your university’s activities wall” are all that different, ethically speaking.
I think the “manipulation” aspect has far more to do with the content of an ad than where it’s placed. Concerns of this sort are ones I would level at someone who works in marketing, not someone who works for Google. The most salient example I can think of are beauty product ads, which play a major role in perpetuating toxic beauty standards (even if they’re not guilt-tripping you personally into buying more makeup to fix your face wrinkles). But again, I don’t think this is something the people working for AdSense have control over (unless they do?).
My concerns about ads for someone who works for Google (or any other software or browser company), would be concerns (as OP mentions) about ads making websites unusable, especially on mobile. This includes things like YouTube increasing the number of ads you have to watch before a video starts* as well as pop-up ads and automatic videos that play on articles. If your job involves figuring out how to incorporate ads into the browsing experience without making them break or stall, that’s helpful as far as I’m concerned.
There is probably also something to be said for the harm caused by Google’s monopoly on the AdSense system, but I don’t know enough about tech or internet management to comment on it beyond my vague suspicions.
*ACrackedPot below also mentions the use of ads as a punishment to punish free-version users into paying for a subscription, and while I wouldn’t call this “unethical” or insidious the way that makeup ads are, I think it’s a dick move.
I see a lot of disagreement about whether ads are “manipulative” or not, and I generally agree with OP’s example in another comment about a contra dance. I have also organized various clubs and activities before, and I don’t really think “ads you see when using a website” and “ads you see when glancing at your university’s activities wall” are all that different, ethically speaking.
I think the “manipulation” aspect has far more to do with the content of an ad than where it’s placed. Concerns of this sort are ones I would level at someone who works in marketing, not someone who works for Google. The most salient example I can think of are beauty product ads, which play a major role in perpetuating toxic beauty standards (even if they’re not guilt-tripping you personally into buying more makeup to fix your face wrinkles). But again, I don’t think this is something the people working for AdSense have control over (unless they do?).
My concerns about ads for someone who works for Google (or any other software or browser company), would be concerns (as OP mentions) about ads making websites unusable, especially on mobile. This includes things like YouTube increasing the number of ads you have to watch before a video starts* as well as pop-up ads and automatic videos that play on articles. If your job involves figuring out how to incorporate ads into the browsing experience without making them break or stall, that’s helpful as far as I’m concerned.
There is probably also something to be said for the harm caused by Google’s monopoly on the AdSense system, but I don’t know enough about tech or internet management to comment on it beyond my vague suspicions.
*ACrackedPot below also mentions the use of ads as a punishment to punish free-version users into paying for a subscription, and while I wouldn’t call this “unethical” or insidious the way that makeup ads are, I think it’s a dick move.