I’ve had several interesting conversations recently about whether or not to run google ads on a site. I don’t think there is one right answer to that question, and there are many reasons why ads might or might not contribute positively to the overall goals of any given site. Anyhow, last night I was talking to a friend about how our minds work to filter information. I think the two topics are closely connected.

Ads make it harder for me to appreciate some websites. When my subconscious is trying to filter noise, I have less mental energy to invest in the message. Sometimes the message is important, and it’s a shame if those important messages are lost.

The idea that our minds act as filters is not a new idea. Platonic idealism probably isn’t the first school of thought to differentiate between reality, the ideal reality, and our perceptions of reality. I’m convinced the three are tied together. Kant was happy to reduce them to two: the noumenon and the phenomenon – the former being the real or objective, and the latter being our subjective observation of the real.

How we experience information on the web reminds me less of Plato, or Kant, and more of Aldous Huxley’s Doors of Perception.

“In this book, Huxley explores the idea that the human mind filters reality, partly because handling the details of all of the impressions and images coming in would be unbearable, partly because it has been taught to do so.”

I use my attention to filter out google ads and especially animated banner ads. I’m sure they register, but hardly, and in the interim they annoy me. They interfere with my ability to subconsciously connect with the information I’m seeking. For some sites, the benefits of advertising far outweigh the costs. For others the case is not so clear. Either way, I’m convinced that ads negatively impact a site’s ability to manage peoples’ valuable attention.[tags]attention, social media, filtering online information, Huxley[/tags]