Pop Up ads on 9Gag

The use of memes or cartoons pertaining to everyday life have exploded onto the social media scene. One of my favorite platforms to view new memes every day is 9gag, a site that shows exactly what its name entails of 9 memes per page.

Usually I opt for viewing memes on 9gags ipad or iphone app rather than their website. It's more convenient when I need to take a break from whatever work I'm doing, and I can just whip out my phone or ipad to engage in some laughs. However, like any social media platform advertising is used for 9gag to make money on their brain child. And if a poor college student such as yourself chooses to use the free 9gag app you will most certainly be subjected to banner ads. There is a 9gag app free of ads, but who actually pays for those?

For the most part 9gags banner ads do not bother me and are not extremely intrusive to actually enjoying 9gag. Recently however, a more extreme version of advertising is being implemented where every 3 minutes a pop up ad occurs and you must exit out of it in order to continue on with 9gag. Due to the frequency of these ads and how much it disrupts my enjoyment of 9gag I am slowly starting to use it less and less. Which leads us to the question, if ads are becoming so prominent within a social media platform will users want to continue using it anymore, therefore wasting your advertising dollars? How much advertising is too much?

From the use of advertising, an app which was considered cool has lost its edge and is sure to become synonym with other failed entertainment sources like MySpace and AOL. Everyone understands money needs to be made in order to grow and stay relevant, and more likely than not this money comes from advertisers. Companies such as 9gag, Facebook, and Pintrest must walk a fine line though between increasing profit and losing dedicated and loyal customers to continuously annoying and intrusive ads.

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