Lying on the internet

I always hated the ads on the internet but Facebook has always been one of the worst offenders. They knew I was a white male aged 18-25 who lives near Edinburgh, they know what I talk about and what links I share to my wall, they know that I liked pages for Hitchikers Guide To The Galaxy, a bunch of bands, and "Tranny Grannies" (thanks frapists), they know where I went to school and my religious views and worst of all, they knew I was single.

Thanks to all of this information that I blindly shared, they tailored the ads for me. It was really annoying to see ads for dating sites all the time, ads for "the best deals in Edinburgh!", and the worst of all "Seduce any woman by asking 3 simple questions!" 

There are a few reasons to click on them

• You're an idiot
• Clicking ironically
• Thinking the ad may well have been placed by a misunderstood genius
• For science

In any case, it's all too tempting to do so and inevitably you feel stupid after even a minute wasted on what turned out to be an obvious gimmick. 

There was an obvious solution that I'm obviously getting at here, so here is my pre-diddly-ictable conclusion.

I'm not condoning lying on the internet. There are too many of old weirdos posing as teenagers, malicious pieces of software under a false guise, and people who reply to lost & found ads on gumtree in the hope of getting a free watch. guilty.

Anyway, there is a victimless (million dollar companies cannot be victims) way of lying on the internet for a small benefit - Lying to Facebook! Lying by omission doesn't even count anyway!

So from simply hiding my relationship status and telling the site I live in Tunisia, the adverts became completely irrelevant to me. Another plus is that they're amusing enough in themselves so as not to demand any further attention.

I wound up with this. Was that predictable?

Thank you, and goodnight.