If I could go back in time and un-invent something it would be Pop-Ups.

Joshua Daniels

English 111

May 29, 2014

Pop-Ups: Oh How We Hate Thee

There have been many awful inventions. However only a few were created in my lifetime. For Example, there’s the shake-weight, Peg-Pants, and Spam. TIME Magazine even made a list including fifty terrible inventions. All of them equally annoying, however there is one invention that affects us everyday. It will always delay your progress and it appears in an instant. Every one of us has fallen pray to its wrath.  What was designed to catch someone’s attention and inform him or her on a product quickly became a being of annoyance. This is the Pop-Up Ad.  Since it’s creation it has done nothing but get in the way of Internet users worldwide. Uninventing Pop-up Ads would put an end to the constant interruptions online, force advertisers to create something that appealing and attention grabbing instead of forcing the ad on its viewers, and it would put an end to the spam and viruses when online.

Have you ever surfed the web for something you were interested in only to be interrupted by an ad that has nothing to do with what you’re searching? In order to remove the Ad that popped up you have to either close the entire browser or the tab that you were using. In the worse case scenario, the ad locks the page and every time you click the back button you can’t escape unless you mash the back button only to send you three pages back. Returning to the page that you were viewing before your interruption only brings back the Ad. When this happens you loose the page you were viewing and start over. Pop-up blockers can limit this problem but it rarely helps.

            As a graphic designer these ads are disgusting. When they appear they do little to get your attention. They’re bland and uninteresting. You can tell the designer only took a few minutes to create the ad. The ads that are the most captivating are on the top and sides of the website. These are banners. These Ads do not pop up and the load in the page. They can be colorful or simple depending on the designer or the advertisement agency. These ads use the information of sites you visited to help them find ads that you will want to click. The ads also reflect the theme or topic of the website you are on.

            However even the good ads cant fight this problem. Pop-up windows can hold viruses or fake ads. These ads advertise something that is not real and only used to steal money and personal information. The only way to deal with these is to close them immediately before they grab your information. These pop-ups are very clever. Sometimes they mimic your operating system. The trick is to always check the URL. Use the URL to figure out if this is legitimate. In other cases, Viruses may be stored in these pop-ups and can do a great deal of harm to your computer. Pop-ups make take the form of you OS and say you have a virus. This is a trick and is not the case. Downloading the product to get rid of these fake viruses is the virus itself.

            In conclusion this invention has done more harm than good. Avoid them at all cost. Remember when you surf the web that they’re out there. They sit and wait to ruin you day. They annoy us and get in our way, provide advertisers with an excuse to create awful ads, and even carry viruses. Pop-ups will not be missed and the world is better without them.