Electronic lifestyle: pop-ups

Self-tutoring about computer use: the tutor mentions pop-ups.

Increasingly, when using a web browser or even an office suite, etc, I find I’m peppered with pop-ups. I don’t like to complain, but they can be a bit problematic, especially when one is in a hurry.

Cookie pop-ups at web sites can be very disappointing to me. Sometimes the cookie policy that pops up is quite long to read. My attitude is that I know places are likely tracking me, plus whatever else. That doesn’t mean I owe them permission to do so. I’ve stopped going to some websites I really liked because the cookie policies they want users to agree to are just too vague and/or just too much.

Sync messages – “log in and sync across all devices” – seem to come up often as well. Especially when I’m in a hurry, I don’t have time for that. Syncing isn’t something I’m always big on.

Yesterday a program I was using had an event pop-up, which I had to respond to, covered up by a feature advice pop-up which appeared before I could get to the other. Therefore, I had to read the feature one, not being sure what it was, before clicking it away to get to the one underneath. When one is in a hurry, having to clear a cue of pop-ups is always helpful (not).

These in-app pop-ups, as well of course as the cookie ones, have become much more numerous, it seems to me, over the past couple of years. I feel it’s from a growing desire of companies to control or monitor us.