Pop up here! There! Everywhere!

I want to know, how many of you, really? How many of you absolutely hate popups?  You know those little demons that litter your phone and computer asking everything from, “do you except our policy”? “How are we doing?”, “please give us 5 stars”.  What got me thinking was a recent visit to Sam's Club. I wanted to start using their app feature to scan different items so I don’t have to wait in line to check out. (neat feature check it out) I opened the Sam's Club app and before I can hit any button, I get a “pop up”. “Give us five stars, give us four stars, give us three stars, give us your first born”. I click out of that, and I get ready to click into the scanning portion of the app and another “pop up”, “Tell us how you're enjoying your experience”. At this point I'm livid, I’m swearing in public and the first lady is laughing, “what’s wrong”? “I just want to scan the damn items” (I didn’t say damn, I really think I was swearing out loud at this point).  I don’t want to take a personal survey about dog treats and dietary items” ...  A couple of minutes later and some clicking of tiny little “XX’s and I finally got to the correct screen. I can report the rest of the shopping trip was “smooth sailing” until I used my daughters credit card at checkout instead of mine. Whoops!

This episode got me thinking about who the hell invented this nuisance screen, which is not in the least bit, taxing, annoying, a complete hassle, and let’s not forget a finger torturer providing an all-around general pain in the neck experience for just about anyone using a device or computer.  Everywhere you visit online, you get “pop ups”.  “Enjoying your experience”? “Please except our terms of business” “Please rate us”. “Has your dog been spayed or neutered”? Everywhere you click, there’s some sort of “pop up”.  Who invented this archaic system of collecting data? I want to know!! Well, with a little research I found his name… it is Ethan Zuckerman! A code writer that was tasked to solve a specific problem. Here is what he stated in an article in the Atlantic.

“It was a way to associate an ad with a user’s page without putting it directly on the page, which advertisers worried would imply an association between their brand and the page’s content. Specifically, we came up with it when a major car company freaked out that they’d bought a banner ad on a page that celebrated anal sex. I wrote the code to launch the window and run an ad on it. I’m sorry. Our intentions were good.”

So, before you riot and burn him at the stake! He was just a guy that had a job to do and he apologized publicly. I don’t think he was trying to “single handedly learned how to piss off every person in the world”, (maybe that is too strong), annoy! He was just doing his job, which has now led to an out-of-control society taking advantage of these little “demons”. (Let’s think about this, ladies and gentlemen). The guy who invented the “pop up” was motivated by an “anal sex ad”. Oh, the joy of letting this little nugget rest in my brain till the next time I see a little devil come rising to the top of the screen. If thinking about “Anal Sex” helps me endure the next barrage of small window closings, you might see me laughing before the anger sets back in. For better or worse, we are at least in the “Know”, and thank God these little pests are not asking your about your car warranty!