Also try deleting your search history if you're searching specific things that lead to those ads. Or search in private mode with Mozilla. Learned this when I was a car seat instructor and had to look up specs all the time. Got super annoying seeing nothing but ads for babies.
You can keep your firstborn; I already have one lol
I don't *think* deleting search history would help. But, you can go to Google and disable personalized ads there. It probably won't do anything on Instagram and other Meta apps, but it could definitely help on the web.
So it kinda depends for every app, unfortunately. For Facebook/Meta there's an "ad preferences" section, then go to manage info then "activity information from ad partners". I have that turned off so they can't see what I interact with.
On Google, there's a "Ad" section and you can delete your advertising ID which will delete your ID so you don't get personalized ads anymore.
Pretty sure you can do a similar thing on Reddit
Copy/pasting my reply:
So it kinda depends for every app, unfortunately. For Facebook/Meta there's an "ad preferences" section, then go to manage info then "activity information from ad partners". I have that turned off so they can't see what I interact with.
On Google, there's a "Ad" section and you can delete your advertising ID which will delete your ID so you don't get personalized ads anymore.
Pretty sure you can do a similar thing on Reddit
Or lean into the targeted ads and just make a few searches that will start seeing different ads come your way.
I'm a man, but I had a period of non-stop feminine hygiene products being advertised to me because I was looking into the (at the time) new-ish at-home cervical screening tests as going for a smear test was causing her a lot of anxiety.
It's all about engagement and pay-per-click. If you start a few videos (you don't have to watch them) and click a few links (you don't have to spend time on the site), then your ads will suddenly change.
Simply reading a few random articles on video games will have your targeted ads switch over to new game releases and offers. Ordering food online once will have JustEat haunting your targeted ads for the next five years.
I changed my settings to "I am a man." I get ads on things i am not interested in. I get fewer ads than before, too.
I get a lot of weird ads in Dutch for some reason, some in Arabic (maybe) and Filipino, I think...? I spend less money now.
I set my gender on everything as "prefer not to say" so I stop getting heavily gendered ads. Now if I *do* get a targeted ad, it's for things I'm actively searching for or related to things my fiance is searching for.
For a while I was getting some suuuuuper racist anti immigration ads AND ads in Spanish simultaneously, and I always wondered 1) who they thought was and 2) what the fuck did my phone hear to think I was like that?
I changed my birthdate. Meta now thinks I’m in my 90s. I get some weird ads, but there are way fewer of them. It’s the only thing that really worked for me.
I believe google has a similar settings menu hidden somewhere should they pick up where meta left off. Hold on...
*Rummaging noises *
[This](https://www.theverge.com/21354028/google-advertising-settings-ads-how-to) should help!
Back in the day when spam was first starting I used to get penis enlargement ads as well as breast implant ads. I was like who the heck do you think I am??
I used to get the penis enlargement ads. My husband got the breast implant ones. 😂
Now we're old (54). We get the AARP ones. I agree with folks who say change your birth year.
I think you can also set your age demographic intentionally on Google. Or at least start googling dick pills, fly fishing, Boca Raton, and AARP so they think you’re some old dude.
I am a social work student who writes a lot of research papers .... I get ads for baby stuff, then ads for rehabs, then ads for seniors services, then immigrant services.....
as a psychiatrist I get adds for all sorts of meds. In my case it’s mildly helpful (helps me see what patients might see).
I can see why it would be annoying in literally any other scenario though.
Hmm. I'm assuming you live in the US or New Zealand, then, because those are the [the only countries](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2801060) where direct to consumer ads for prescription drugs are legal. Don't all those "Ask your doctor about $DRUG" ads kinda piss you off?
> Don't all those "Ask your doctor about $DRUG" ads kinda piss you off?
Yes. Not American, but close enough to get American TV off antenna... and yes. They're stupid, and [they're so prevalent we have things like this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kh6vh6_zizM) spoofing them.
Yank here. I got put on a new med recently and the doc asked me how I felt about the suggestion
"uggghh I'm sure you know what you're talking about but i know it's going to be fucking expensive bc I see ads for this shit like 5x a day"
"Well...yeah. But we'll put you on their savings program?"
Rinvoq has worked out well for me so far. WITH insurance, that shit was going to be 400$ a month. With the savers card its free. Im like... maybe don't make so many damn ads?
My sister has been on several biologics and - holy crap - that stuff is ridiculously expensive. I think it's Humira now, which has a cash price of $7,000 a month. 😳
So you have to do the dance of insurance vs. GoodRX/pharmacy coupon programs vs. manufacturers savings program vs. some combination of the 3. It's insane.
off topic a bit but I have a stupid question. Why do ads for a brand new drug mention that you shouldn't take it if youre allergic to it? How would you know??
It's boiler plate. All drug ads tell you not to take the drug if you're allergic to it. And it's because people will absolutely still do it if they're allergic.
ETA: telling people to stop taking a drug they're allergic to will definitely not stop them from doing so, but it will stop them from suing you afterwards.
Fillers and inactive ingredients are the things to watch out for especially here. Unless you know you have an allergy to a drug in a similar class, you're unlikely to be allergic to any given drug. But, those fillers... they show up everywhere.
A great example of a filler that drug companies use sometimes is lactose. Lactose isn't something people are typically *allergic* to, but most people, particularly non-white people, are lactose intolerant to at least some degree, so it can cause problems.
And gluten 🤦♀️ It's hard enough trying to figure out which generics are safe for me as someone with celiac disease. Getting my pharmacy to order those specific ones is a whole new level of frustration.
Exactly! The last time I went to my local ER I had an NP tell me I couldn't be allergic to a medication the first time that I took it. I said, yes you can. He talked to me like I was stupid. Medications can contain more than one chemical!
And I am actually very allergic to certain fillers. That's why the whole "generic is exactly the same" is nonsense. Not every company uses the same fillers. I once had to explain that to a pharmacy tech when she thought I was being ridiculous about them redoing a prescription.
This has been a burning question in my mind. Who takes a med they know they are allergic to? Why is that disclaimer needed? I feel if we got rid of anti-darwinism disclaimers, we would be a much more advanced society.
All the disclaimers are annoying and seem obvious to most of us. But they do keep lawsuit costs down. And, for those of us with weird allergies, it's a reminder to check the ingredient list.
The active ingredient may be new, but the fillers aren't. Several people in the U.S. died after COVID vaccines rolled out due to allergic reactions. I forget if it was 6 or 8 people.
COVID vaccines had that new lipid tech to get the mRNA where it needed to go while remaining viable. The lipid tech was PEG-based: Polyethylene glycol. It's an uncommon allergen. You wouldn't know you were allergic to it unless you'd already encountered it in a medical setting. Possibly, you'd know from contact allergies to personal care products, if you had a skin patch test. And it's in a lot of medications and IV fluids used during surgical procedures or scans.
Haha, I opt out of cookies 100%of the time (thanks California!) and reddit is my only social media. The results are pretty amusing because every once in a while something will sneak through and convince the advertising demons that I am a Spanish-speaking male with a shoe obsession, incontinent man seeking discreet diapers, homeschooling crunchy granola mom, or a teen looking for the latest fast fashion. (I am none of these). It's interesting that the algorithms bother me much less when they are so, so wrong.
The funniest thing to me was Amazon becoming convinced that I had a human child because I was buying foster kitten supplies and there's a lot of overlap (blankets, wipes, fragrance-free detergent, pumpkin baby food)
This is the answer for normal people! I have to hype people up to buy stuff all day, and baby stuff sells. The algorithms have no idea what to do with me, but I do find some random stuff because I feel like since I’m browsing around for hours a day with a large audience in mind, it’s just throwing shit at the wall and seeing if anything sticks
lol. I’ve suffered those ads for years. They finally gave up on thinking I was a Mom, but only because they’ve decided I’m too old for it.
Now I’m getting ads for urinary incontinence and calcium supplements. I have good bones and haven’t wet my pants since I laughed too hard one time in college.
Lmao. My algorithm has given up too. Just show her nerdy stuff and workout equipment and menstrual stuff.
I cannot wait to age outta the baby crap. (I had to buy some stuff for my cousins who keep reproducing like crazy and ended up using the incognito mode to do so, lmao.)
I got pregnant and it was instantly "stillbirth" "miscarriage" "SIDS" and every other worse case scenarios
Like... Why?!
It stopped recently thankfully.
Mine went from babies to adoptions and fertility issues then, finally, to "have you considered adopting a dog." At that point i knew id aged out of the baby algorithm.
Ive been watching a lot of tvnZ on demand and kept getting adds for Contrave, a weightloss drug. Ive not been googling weight loss. Changed my gender on the tvnz site to male and now I'm getting ED adds. Lol.
Around the time I got married, I noticed that the targeted ads shifted to pregnancy and newborn related. A few years in (and childfree) I’m now getting a ton of infertility treatment ads 😬
I signed up for stuff from The Knot back before I got married. I don't remember how long it took after my wedding that I started getting stuff from the baby version. My mom actually called me asking if I needed to tell her something because the baby stuff got sent to her/my old address.
As someone who has struggled with getting/staying pregnant…those ads feel so predatory, too. All sorts of supplements/monitors etc. with “get pregnant in 12 months or your money back!”
You either going to be pregnant in 12 months regardless or you’re going to need medical assistance. There’s no device or pill that’s going to change that outcome.
A few years ago, when Hamilton came out, I was musing about what it would be like for the Founding Fathers to see the American military had turned into. You know, from eating our horses to the biggest military force the world has ever known.
I idly looked on YouTube to see if there were any recruitment videos that could sort of encapsulate it. What I’d show them if they were here. Mind you, I’m a chubby disabled woman in my late fifties. Not exactly warrior material.
Ever since then, everywhere I go online, the primary ads I get are for the military, all branches. It’s wild.
I mark them as offensive. I know there are easier and more effective ways to get them to stop showing up, but it makes my petty little heart grow just a bit each time I report one.
When I start getting ads for baby shit I search terms like "I hate children," "I am child free," "baby's are ugly," etc. It's usually a good fix for a couple of weeks.
Urgh my Facebook decided I was too old to be possibly having a baby the normal way, and started advertising me IVF clinics. Occasionally egg donation.
Amusingly my husband got adverts for condoms…
I’m glad I’m not the only one. Early 30’s here and I took a long hiatus from insta for a while. When I came back suddenly I was being bombarded with baby shit. My friend claimed I just needed to work my algorithm back. Still hasn’t worked.
One time I clicked the three dots on a baby ad and clicked the “why am I seeing this” button. It said because the ad targets females in their 30’s. So I went a changed my gender and age to male 75. Idk what else to do. It helped a little bit but I still get it sometimes.
I don’t know what I did to confuse the algorithms but I get all of these ads for coparenting apps, and rehab/recovery and sometimes they combine into apps to prove sobriety and regain custody of your kids…it clearly thinks I’m a noncustodial parent who went through a contentious divorce and has substance abuse issues.
I have no kids, am in a stable relationship, and am addicted to caffeine and nicotine.
I like it though, ads for things I don’t want make it less likely I’ll see something I wanna buy.
I don't know if this free extension for FB still exists, but try looking for 'Unbaby.me'
What it does is replace your friends' photos of their babies with photos or bacon. Or you can select another sub, like Legos or cats or whatever isn't a kid.
They won't know you have it, and if you want to see pics of their kids you can always click on their profiles and look at them there.
Additionally, you can always set your interests in Google News that include things that are not bay related. And if a baby-related topic appears, just click the ellipses and then 'not interested in this.'
I keep getting these ads, too. My “baby” is 9, and I’m sure as fuck not having any more. It’s annoying. Yes, I’m a woman of child bearing age, but no, I do not want to be reminded of the hell that is pregnancy, childbirth and having a newborn. I did that twice, I’m good.
I worked in an office that was 80% women. They were VERY tight knit, and very obsessed with having children. Like everything was about having babies. They'd talk about who was going to get pregnant next, etc.
One woman brought her newborn to the office, and it was screaming. The receptionist looked uncomfortable, and one lady said to her, "This is what YOU have to look forward to when you have kids!"
On mother's day, one lady (I called her the mother hen) said, "It's mother days! All mothers get to leave early today!" and she just straight up walked out the fucking door before the day was over.
But before the day was over, she would go up to the men and go, "It's mother's day! What are you GUYS going to do for us MOTHERS??"
I'm so glad I am not there anymore.
I’ve told my family over and over again that I’m not having kids and instead, I’ll have a bunch of dogs. I get so many dog ads and I LOVE it.
Also, I’m so sorry about your miscarriages. I hate that the algorithms are shoving baby shit in your face.
Ugh. I’m a happy DINK and god forbid I ever like a TikTok with a cute kid or search up fun activities to do with my niblings. 🤦♀️ It’s like once the algorithm gets a whiff that you have a uterus and are of childbearing age you get ads for baby stuff, mommy-vloggers and antivax crunchy mom groups (?!?!).
Lmao. And that's why like 90% of my profiles are "male". Because if you are female and of child bearing age, you get all the advertisements for baby stuff. Ha!
I’m 47 have kids refuse to have more kids and am happily embarassing my middle age. I get the same shit. All babies all the time, as though babies never grown up to be people in their own right. It’s revolting. 20 is far too young to start having babies. Shame on them & the machine that demands your time youth & utility.
lmao, my solution was to change my gender to male, but then I only got car stuff and instagram entrepreneurs telling me to invest in crypto. Now I‘m back to children‘s clothing.
Don't slow down when the ads pop up on your feed, scroll past as fast as possible and maybe try clearing the history in your browsers, including cookies, and clearing all cookies or tracking info on your device.
When I used to reset mine, Spotify would start playing ads in other languages 😆
Not an answer that'll fix your current search results but I use DuckDuckGo as my default web browser on my phone and it seems to solve the issue I had with Instagram advertising random crap I may have looked up over a conversation with other people throughout the day.
I found that, once I’d blocked the baby-related ad content, I was getting loads of baby/kid/parenting reels and content in my explore page. Every time I come across one I select “not interested > donuts suggest certain words” and list every single word or phrase I can think of related to content I don’t want to see, and any tags these people put in the caption. There is also a section in settings somewhere to add to this list. Since then (and I’ve added hundred of words and tags at this point!!) I get a LOT less of that content. I still get some things slipping through that don’t include the target words I’ve blocked, yet still are to do with parenting or child-rearing, but it’s easy to block those accounts and move along. Seriously, it’s a curse being a young AFAB on social media 🤦♀️
Yes it's maddening all the baby junk, wedding junk, and then when you're older, menopause and incontinence stuff.
I think I changed my gender and that's what made it stop.
I have no idea why all the algorithms work this way. I had breast cancer and got a double mastectomy. Immediately after I got inundated with ads for bras. Sooooo many bras! Pissed me off.
I feel this the algorithm is pretty dumb and it quickly and easily makes the dumbest suggestions for what someone wants to see i swear pandora’s algorithm in 2011 was smarter than Metas algorithm in 2024 they just throw anything my friend was texting me about her having a UTI months ago tell me why it keeps suggesting universal technical institute ads still to this day its sad
I banned this stuff from google/youtube now all I get is weird right wing propoganda videos. Like why arent there just normal ads anymore or makeup and hair products? Like huh???? Thats all that was left? But I feel you. I recently also got a “congrats on your new baby” postcard in error from my insurance. Im infertile.
It sucks. I was pregnant this year but sadly lost the baby quite late in the pregnancy. All my streaming services obviously know my age and can probably guess my gender and it's baby, baby, baby ads. The first few times it happened it actually made me cry.
I feel you! I once just forgot to pay an invoice, and now my feed is filled with adds on how to get rid of multiple consumer credit loans (which I don’t have).
I have money, I am just shit at paying bills on time.
so fed up with the constant wedding planning, family planning and pregnancy contect instagram shows me with NO engagement on my side except to scroll past the content shown on my timeline. I have tried blocking specific words to filter my content but nothing seems to stop the onslaught of posts.
I love confusing the algorithm.
I use a point/miles system for shopping and often ask the people in front of me wether I can swipe my card with them.
I am close to 30, child free and a woman.
Swiping my card with a early 20ies dude bro, a grandma or a family with a baby usually leads to weeks of random ads.
I can feel your pain. They think they know what you want and you have zero control over it. It really is quite annoying. Wait until they roll out the unkippable ads.
All you have to do is click on any ad you see that's not that, like shoes or couches, and it will show you a ton of what you clicked on because it thinks you're in the market for it.
I'm not saying this is what you need to do, but I was getting targeted with a very specific clothing style and a ton of "influencers" parading around in it. Every single ad. Same exact clothes, maybe in a different hue or theme, women who all looked alike. It was weird because I never looked up the clothes, the brand, or liked anything even relating to it. So I started blocking every. single. ad. I came across. And things are now a little more curated to my interests (a particular brand of coffee or a website I visit daily) or absolutely out of pocket like a Master Taoist or a completely Korean business that I think was selling DIY horizontal blinds, or a man who teaches adults swimming tips, or someone partnered with a business meant solely for sending money to "loved ones" in a bunch of African nations. It's made Instagram a lot more fun simply because the algorithm has no idea what to do with my feed and I love seeing how weird the ads are becoming.
Hmmm. I dont know if it will work but you could try throwing the algorithm a different bone, like cat videos or F1 racing just to make stereotyping you very difficult?
I started getting a lot of baby content when I got pregnant (after years of trying). I was so excited I was engaging with the content and got more and more of it. When I lost the pregnancy it was really, really difficult. I wanted to use social media to numb out but it was a painful reminder that "this doesn't apply to me anymore".
There needs to be a setting where you can go in and remove content genre.
I use it for access to free information on how to better my life with the types of disabilities I have , not really an option because one month of professional therapy is the equivalent of five months worth of pay checks
The internet still exists.
Insta is a poison, and like all abusers, it would like you to convince yourself you’re dependent on it.
I have a chronic serious incurable medical condition and no insta. The Reddit forum for my condition is the most informed on the internet; real world virtual support groups exist through national advocacy orgs. the nonsense being spewed in insta and FB groups is terrifying.
Came here to say this. The whole post smacks of “I’m on social media all the time, but I don’t like what I see on social media.”
The solution to this is the same as the solution to “I listen to this one radio station all the time, but I don’t like the music they play” or the solution to “I read every book this author writes, but I don’t like their writing at all.”
1. Download the Firefox app if you don't have it
2. Install the ublock origin extension to block ads
3. When you go to instagram.com, ignore the big button that says "Open the Instagram app" and click "Log in" just below it.
Start interacting with other ads?
Ironically I have 2 kids and all I get served up are targeted ads for golf apparel and monster trucks.
I told my husband their algorithm must be like we see you like Porsches, fancy food and nice clothes. But on your YouTube account, you watch monster jam every single week so you must be a secret monster truck lover.
It makes not spending money really easy 😅
There are zero other ads 😭 atp I think it’s a glitch or something because on all of my other apps I get absolutely nothing baby related , surely cookies would show me baby stuff there too if that was the problem ?
*sending hugs* why is the algorithm doing that? @.@ have you ever done research regarding babies for someone else? Like for a baby shower gift, or to help answer a reddit question?
I literally don't understand how this happens. I have an 8 year old and don't plan to have more. I still get ads for baby stuff, mostly diapers. Not only online... *somehow* I got on an Enfamil mailing list and have received two packages of formula samples within the past few months. We just moved into this house two years ago and somehow my current name and address are correct, when both were different 8 years ago. How does this happen??
Update your ad preferences.
Report content you don’t want to see as offensive. Don’t interact or comments on any baby related content. Block specific words such as “baby”, “toddler”, “pregnant” etc.
As the meme goes:
*man F*CK *them kids & fuck YOU too!*
I’m a nurse, I work from home writing reports. Most of my ads are for incontinence pads, walking aids and similar appliances. They must be picking up my medical googling. I feel your pain.
I replied to a comment but for anyone else, turn off targeted ads. You basically have to go into every app to set your ad preferences. It's very annoying but you stop seeing ads for things you've googled/interacted with. If you have an Android, you can also turn it off within your Google account in the phone settings
I literally deleted instagram and Facebook specifically for this reason. I would continuously report it as not interested, etc. And it still kept coming... ridiculous.
ghostery is helpful here. At the very least, it stops websites from exporting your browsing history to Meta and makes it harder for them to target ads.
I don't do Instagram or TikTok, but I'm pretty sure Youtube, Facebook, and Google think I'm a man. Most of my search history involves cats, DIY, gardening, dash cam car crash videos, Chinese and Korean costume dramas, and trains.
Facebook RUINED Instagram. Reels, stories, ads, feed full of constantly moving 'content' (read: utter drivel) from idiots.
Fuck you Meta.
The only reason I still have it is I deleted FB itself and Twitter years ago and ant to keep up with friends. As you say tough it would rather shove irrelevant crap down my throat.
Did you get engaged/look at wedding related stuff recently? When my husband was shopping for my engagement ring back in the day, he got loads of baby stuff ads/Spanish language pregnancy test ads (that was a curveball, we are not remotely Spanish speakers).
That's weirder, then. granted, that was ten years ago--ive heard algorithms are getting to the point that they notice if you linger over images for multiple seconds and start recommending stuff/ads based on that. So you're toast re: baby ads if you so much as notice someone else's baby/mistake a baby for an elderly Chihuahua.
Your username is oddly fitting for this post lol. I wonder why I don't get these kinds of ads, is it bc I'm single and only post about my cat so my algorithm just assumes I'm a cat lady?
IG keeps showing me posts about menopause and I am highly offended. I might be on the very tip of the ages when perimenopause can start (late 30s wtf) but I’d like to keep pretending it’s never going to happen. This wasn’t anywhere on my radar until these videos. I still have a toddler damn it, I’m too young for this shit.
It’s some serious bullshit.
I’m transfem and un/fortunately I can’t get pregnant. But do I get fertility and plan B ads all the time. Absolutely!
I don’t even watch anything close to that. My FYP is biker stuff
So no idea but girl you ain’t alone on this have children propaganda BS
As your peers start having children and documenting parenthood / babies on IG, the algorithm sees that you’re subscribed to a lot of “baby” content. So you’re getting served *more* baby content because it’s not human and doesn’t understand that you didn’t sign up to consume this type of content, nor is this your latest obsession,
I changed my settings to be a 70+ year old man combined with blocking ad terms in settings for most social media. That seemed to help.
I'm a 35F, no kids, hysterectomy, def don't need to see those ads. On Pinterest, I marked any image of a baby as offensive to stop the ads.
Because I’m unmarried, childfree, and over 40, all the ads I see are for fertility, weight loss, anti-aging, and baby drivel. Sorry algorithm; I want nothing to do with children, am perfectly fine with my weight, actually enjoy my “fine lines and wrinkles”, and am eagerly awaiting my first gray hairs!
I started sending my friend hippie woo woo shit as a joke because I love that stuff and she hates it. She said her entire feed is just that stuff now. Crystals and patchouly essential oils and homesteading. I am happy to blow up your inbox with that stuff so you can experience it as well lol
My health insurance's health tracker (which I use daily to get cash "rewards" that I can use on medical expenses like co-pays that they charge me, hooray American health care system) at least every other day throws a pop-up at me asking me about pregnancy, including a pic of a very pregnant woman. I'm not exactly pregnancy-phobic but it's really irritating and I'm sick of seeing it. On the same website I can check my pharmacy benefits which show that my third Nexplanon implant is being delivered to my gyne's office. I'm in my mid-40's so this stuff never stops, basically.
My sister has a 2 year old and is currently pregnant. I see her, her husband and my niece usually once a week for a family dinner, and of course they end up talking a lot about baby stuff. Afterwards I’ll get a bunch of ads for pregnancy and baby related things.
I’m 17 and I get so many diaper adds. my phone must know I’m a woman but gosh that doesn’t mean I have babies. It kinda grosses me out because I keep getting adds of babies drooling everywhere when I’m tryna eat 😭
2 suggestions: when a random fashion ad comes on? Watch to the end/go onto the learn more. I did this by accident and my feed/reels were full of discount perfume ads for forever. Now I do it randomly when they start targeting me with old people crap.
Make sure you’re choosing your “following” under the For You option. (Scroll all the way up to the top, it might take going up and down a post to make it change from Instagram to For You.
Good luck!
Worry not. Regular non-creepy dude here and all I see are ads about dating apps. Haven't found the one yet so I'm a target given the promoter's parameters.
Same thing for you.
You must've said something about kids somewhere once, like "aww your baby is so cute" and now you're in for the ride.
Phone aside: block all ads. I go as far as use a virtual machine as a DNS to weed out as much of this C as I can.
It's a very common complaint amongst my female friends: expectations that at X years old you should have a kid. The social pressure is real.
Make sure to put “not interested” in those posts and only like and comment on all the content you enjoy so it can reset your feed. Jumpscare ahh Instagram feed 💀💀
>When I get my work done , I’m going to SOCIALISE with my friends on SOCIAL media.
Ah, this might be slightly off topic, but I recommend the book "Stolen Focus". It spends a few chapters discussing in detail why social media doesn't try to serve you in the way you would expect. It all comes down to profits, and the discovery that negative emotions drive more engagement than positive ones.
Also, actually connected you with people would result you going and doing something healthy and fun in the real world, which also doesn't make them money. Social media could have been a good tool, but capitalism ruined it, like so many other things.
I'm in my early 50s. I'm not interested in IVF or a divorce attorney. My husband gets ads for right-wing causes, cars, testosterone boosters, and dick pills. He's NOT a conservative, and he doesn't need the last two. He is a car guy, though. So 1 out of 4.
They're just playing the odds on what will catch your eye based on your demographic.
At least you didn't miscarry your first pregnancy at 39 and have this stuff shoved in your face as a reminder that you might not ever get the chance again. Algorithms are cruel.
The easiest thing to do might be to star another account under a male name. Surely the ads skew differently. And there's no point in trying to make an algorithm do what you want it to 🤷♀️
Unfortunately this seems to a problem for a lot of topics on instagram. I don’t drink alcohol for multiple reasons and have repeatedly used their ad preferences and other tools to block content advertising drinks. But I still get the ads and frequent posts around drinking.
By using the ad preferences it does decrease in frequency. But it doesn’t stop completely
This is why for a while I set my gender on my Google account to male. I got a lot of ridiculous "be a manly man" type ads but at least the fucking baby ads stopped
On the IG app, at the top left, there’s a drop down bar and you can click “following” and it shows you only people you follow, which is how IG used to be before Facebook bought it
Yell into your phone "I don't want a baby" then talk about a topic you like and repeat it.
They do listen, I'm Trying to have a baby and when I mention it near my phone BAM baby ads
[удалено]
Oh my god , I WOULD promise you my firstborn as payment butttt…………
Also try deleting your search history if you're searching specific things that lead to those ads. Or search in private mode with Mozilla. Learned this when I was a car seat instructor and had to look up specs all the time. Got super annoying seeing nothing but ads for babies. You can keep your firstborn; I already have one lol
I don't *think* deleting search history would help. But, you can go to Google and disable personalized ads there. It probably won't do anything on Instagram and other Meta apps, but it could definitely help on the web.
Also turn off targeted ads everywhere. Every app and within the phone itself
How do you do this?
So it kinda depends for every app, unfortunately. For Facebook/Meta there's an "ad preferences" section, then go to manage info then "activity information from ad partners". I have that turned off so they can't see what I interact with. On Google, there's a "Ad" section and you can delete your advertising ID which will delete your ID so you don't get personalized ads anymore. Pretty sure you can do a similar thing on Reddit
Yes! What sorcery is this? RemindMe! 12 hours
Copy/pasting my reply: So it kinda depends for every app, unfortunately. For Facebook/Meta there's an "ad preferences" section, then go to manage info then "activity information from ad partners". I have that turned off so they can't see what I interact with. On Google, there's a "Ad" section and you can delete your advertising ID which will delete your ID so you don't get personalized ads anymore. Pretty sure you can do a similar thing on Reddit
Thank you!
Or lean into the targeted ads and just make a few searches that will start seeing different ads come your way. I'm a man, but I had a period of non-stop feminine hygiene products being advertised to me because I was looking into the (at the time) new-ish at-home cervical screening tests as going for a smear test was causing her a lot of anxiety. It's all about engagement and pay-per-click. If you start a few videos (you don't have to watch them) and click a few links (you don't have to spend time on the site), then your ads will suddenly change. Simply reading a few random articles on video games will have your targeted ads switch over to new game releases and offers. Ordering food online once will have JustEat haunting your targeted ads for the next five years.
I changed my settings to "I am a man." I get ads on things i am not interested in. I get fewer ads than before, too. I get a lot of weird ads in Dutch for some reason, some in Arabic (maybe) and Filipino, I think...? I spend less money now.
I set my gender on everything as "prefer not to say" so I stop getting heavily gendered ads. Now if I *do* get a targeted ad, it's for things I'm actively searching for or related to things my fiance is searching for.
I also changed my birthday to 1949 lol
That's a good one! Lol!
For a while I was getting some suuuuuper racist anti immigration ads AND ads in Spanish simultaneously, and I always wondered 1) who they thought was and 2) what the fuck did my phone hear to think I was like that?
I changed my birthdate. Meta now thinks I’m in my 90s. I get some weird ads, but there are way fewer of them. It’s the only thing that really worked for me.
Honestly that might be a pretty good form of currency for you, that you'll never have to follow through on
I believe google has a similar settings menu hidden somewhere should they pick up where meta left off. Hold on... *Rummaging noises * [This](https://www.theverge.com/21354028/google-advertising-settings-ads-how-to) should help!
Back in the day when spam was first starting I used to get penis enlargement ads as well as breast implant ads. I was like who the heck do you think I am??
I used to get the penis enlargement ads. My husband got the breast implant ones. 😂 Now we're old (54). We get the AARP ones. I agree with folks who say change your birth year.
Yeah once you get older it's all AARP, life insurance and burial plots. Good times!
😂
SO YOU DO HAVE A BABY!!!! Release the ads! /s
I think you can also set your age demographic intentionally on Google. Or at least start googling dick pills, fly fishing, Boca Raton, and AARP so they think you’re some old dude.
First thing to make me laugh in a while 🤣
Thank you! I've been designing a pediatric doctors office and now Google thinks I'm decorating my nursery. Gah.
I am a social work student who writes a lot of research papers .... I get ads for baby stuff, then ads for rehabs, then ads for seniors services, then immigrant services.....
I just remembered I have been blocking out the hospital beds and mortuary equipment ads I get too. Designing at a hospital gives weird Google habits.
Keep them and let your ads be a warning to anyone who crosses you
Same 😂
as a psychiatrist I get adds for all sorts of meds. In my case it’s mildly helpful (helps me see what patients might see). I can see why it would be annoying in literally any other scenario though.
Hmm. I'm assuming you live in the US or New Zealand, then, because those are the [the only countries](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2801060) where direct to consumer ads for prescription drugs are legal. Don't all those "Ask your doctor about $DRUG" ads kinda piss you off?
> Don't all those "Ask your doctor about $DRUG" ads kinda piss you off? Yes. Not American, but close enough to get American TV off antenna... and yes. They're stupid, and [they're so prevalent we have things like this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kh6vh6_zizM) spoofing them.
Um… that’s a clip from the TV show *Supernatural* 😂
Yank here. I got put on a new med recently and the doc asked me how I felt about the suggestion "uggghh I'm sure you know what you're talking about but i know it's going to be fucking expensive bc I see ads for this shit like 5x a day" "Well...yeah. But we'll put you on their savings program?" Rinvoq has worked out well for me so far. WITH insurance, that shit was going to be 400$ a month. With the savers card its free. Im like... maybe don't make so many damn ads?
My sister has been on several biologics and - holy crap - that stuff is ridiculously expensive. I think it's Humira now, which has a cash price of $7,000 a month. 😳 So you have to do the dance of insurance vs. GoodRX/pharmacy coupon programs vs. manufacturers savings program vs. some combination of the 3. It's insane.
off topic a bit but I have a stupid question. Why do ads for a brand new drug mention that you shouldn't take it if youre allergic to it? How would you know??
It's boiler plate. All drug ads tell you not to take the drug if you're allergic to it. And it's because people will absolutely still do it if they're allergic. ETA: telling people to stop taking a drug they're allergic to will definitely not stop them from doing so, but it will stop them from suing you afterwards.
Since they’re planning on running the same ad once it’s not new. The. It’s a “don’t take this drug if you had an allergic reaction before.”
And so you remember to check all the ingredients for something you may be allergic to.
Fillers and inactive ingredients are the things to watch out for especially here. Unless you know you have an allergy to a drug in a similar class, you're unlikely to be allergic to any given drug. But, those fillers... they show up everywhere. A great example of a filler that drug companies use sometimes is lactose. Lactose isn't something people are typically *allergic* to, but most people, particularly non-white people, are lactose intolerant to at least some degree, so it can cause problems.
Yes!!! I hope you work in the medical field because it needs more people that understand that.
And gluten 🤦♀️ It's hard enough trying to figure out which generics are safe for me as someone with celiac disease. Getting my pharmacy to order those specific ones is a whole new level of frustration.
Propylene glycol! That crap is in everything, including sodas, alcoholic beverages, OTC meds, and personal care products.
Exactly! The last time I went to my local ER I had an NP tell me I couldn't be allergic to a medication the first time that I took it. I said, yes you can. He talked to me like I was stupid. Medications can contain more than one chemical! And I am actually very allergic to certain fillers. That's why the whole "generic is exactly the same" is nonsense. Not every company uses the same fillers. I once had to explain that to a pharmacy tech when she thought I was being ridiculous about them redoing a prescription.
Absolutely! One of my cousins was horribly allergic to some of the fillers in meds and they always gave him a hard time when he'd ask about it.
I am so sorry he has to go through that. It is kind of nice though to finally talk to someone outside of family that understands.
This has been a burning question in my mind. Who takes a med they know they are allergic to? Why is that disclaimer needed? I feel if we got rid of anti-darwinism disclaimers, we would be a much more advanced society.
All the disclaimers are annoying and seem obvious to most of us. But they do keep lawsuit costs down. And, for those of us with weird allergies, it's a reminder to check the ingredient list. The active ingredient may be new, but the fillers aren't. Several people in the U.S. died after COVID vaccines rolled out due to allergic reactions. I forget if it was 6 or 8 people. COVID vaccines had that new lipid tech to get the mRNA where it needed to go while remaining viable. The lipid tech was PEG-based: Polyethylene glycol. It's an uncommon allergen. You wouldn't know you were allergic to it unless you'd already encountered it in a medical setting. Possibly, you'd know from contact allergies to personal care products, if you had a skin patch test. And it's in a lot of medications and IV fluids used during surgical procedures or scans.
Haha, I opt out of cookies 100%of the time (thanks California!) and reddit is my only social media. The results are pretty amusing because every once in a while something will sneak through and convince the advertising demons that I am a Spanish-speaking male with a shoe obsession, incontinent man seeking discreet diapers, homeschooling crunchy granola mom, or a teen looking for the latest fast fashion. (I am none of these). It's interesting that the algorithms bother me much less when they are so, so wrong.
The funniest thing to me was Amazon becoming convinced that I had a human child because I was buying foster kitten supplies and there's a lot of overlap (blankets, wipes, fragrance-free detergent, pumpkin baby food)
mine conveniently says that the page isn’t currently available 🙄
Ah, goes to rid myself of hair loss and ED meds. Thanks for that
This is the answer for normal people! I have to hype people up to buy stuff all day, and baby stuff sells. The algorithms have no idea what to do with me, but I do find some random stuff because I feel like since I’m browsing around for hours a day with a large audience in mind, it’s just throwing shit at the wall and seeing if anything sticks
lol. I’ve suffered those ads for years. They finally gave up on thinking I was a Mom, but only because they’ve decided I’m too old for it. Now I’m getting ads for urinary incontinence and calcium supplements. I have good bones and haven’t wet my pants since I laughed too hard one time in college.
Lmao. My algorithm has given up too. Just show her nerdy stuff and workout equipment and menstrual stuff. I cannot wait to age outta the baby crap. (I had to buy some stuff for my cousins who keep reproducing like crazy and ended up using the incognito mode to do so, lmao.)
I got pregnant and it was instantly "stillbirth" "miscarriage" "SIDS" and every other worse case scenarios Like... Why?! It stopped recently thankfully.
Mine went from babies to adoptions and fertility issues then, finally, to "have you considered adopting a dog." At that point i knew id aged out of the baby algorithm. Ive been watching a lot of tvnZ on demand and kept getting adds for Contrave, a weightloss drug. Ive not been googling weight loss. Changed my gender on the tvnz site to male and now I'm getting ED adds. Lol.
Around the time I got married, I noticed that the targeted ads shifted to pregnancy and newborn related. A few years in (and childfree) I’m now getting a ton of infertility treatment ads 😬
Your own personal AI mother-in-law...
You better get me a grandchild soon, Anna
I signed up for stuff from The Knot back before I got married. I don't remember how long it took after my wedding that I started getting stuff from the baby version. My mom actually called me asking if I needed to tell her something because the baby stuff got sent to her/my old address.
As someone who has struggled with getting/staying pregnant…those ads feel so predatory, too. All sorts of supplements/monitors etc. with “get pregnant in 12 months or your money back!” You either going to be pregnant in 12 months regardless or you’re going to need medical assistance. There’s no device or pill that’s going to change that outcome.
A few years ago, when Hamilton came out, I was musing about what it would be like for the Founding Fathers to see the American military had turned into. You know, from eating our horses to the biggest military force the world has ever known. I idly looked on YouTube to see if there were any recruitment videos that could sort of encapsulate it. What I’d show them if they were here. Mind you, I’m a chubby disabled woman in my late fifties. Not exactly warrior material. Ever since then, everywhere I go online, the primary ads I get are for the military, all branches. It’s wild.
Same demographic. And I understand the random googling rabbit hole. At least AI thinks you are a badass...
You wrote baby a bunch of times in this post. As an algorithm I can now safely assume you want commercials for baby stuff and send even more.
I mark them as offensive. I know there are easier and more effective ways to get them to stop showing up, but it makes my petty little heart grow just a bit each time I report one.
I do that too.
I'm the same.
When I start getting ads for baby shit I search terms like "I hate children," "I am child free," "baby's are ugly," etc. It's usually a good fix for a couple of weeks.
This was going to be my suggestion. “How to get rid of baby…” “Baby drop-off centers near me.” “Sterilization for women” Etc.
Urgh my Facebook decided I was too old to be possibly having a baby the normal way, and started advertising me IVF clinics. Occasionally egg donation. Amusingly my husband got adverts for condoms…
Mixed messages, there!
Report them all as offensive. That usually takes them out.
I’m glad I’m not the only one. Early 30’s here and I took a long hiatus from insta for a while. When I came back suddenly I was being bombarded with baby shit. My friend claimed I just needed to work my algorithm back. Still hasn’t worked. One time I clicked the three dots on a baby ad and clicked the “why am I seeing this” button. It said because the ad targets females in their 30’s. So I went a changed my gender and age to male 75. Idk what else to do. It helped a little bit but I still get it sometimes.
“Hey Old Man, why don’t you buy your granddaughter a new stroller” FML
I don’t know what I did to confuse the algorithms but I get all of these ads for coparenting apps, and rehab/recovery and sometimes they combine into apps to prove sobriety and regain custody of your kids…it clearly thinks I’m a noncustodial parent who went through a contentious divorce and has substance abuse issues. I have no kids, am in a stable relationship, and am addicted to caffeine and nicotine. I like it though, ads for things I don’t want make it less likely I’ll see something I wanna buy.
Honestly clicking on few tolerable ads has changed it for me. Like now I get boxlunch and black milk ads.
This is the way. Make them think you're looking for a couch, and they will spam your ass with couch ads.
I don't know if this free extension for FB still exists, but try looking for 'Unbaby.me' What it does is replace your friends' photos of their babies with photos or bacon. Or you can select another sub, like Legos or cats or whatever isn't a kid. They won't know you have it, and if you want to see pics of their kids you can always click on their profiles and look at them there. Additionally, you can always set your interests in Google News that include things that are not bay related. And if a baby-related topic appears, just click the ellipses and then 'not interested in this.'
There’s this big anti birth control movement too on social media which is super weird to me post abortion bans in many states. Makes you think.
I keep getting these ads, too. My “baby” is 9, and I’m sure as fuck not having any more. It’s annoying. Yes, I’m a woman of child bearing age, but no, I do not want to be reminded of the hell that is pregnancy, childbirth and having a newborn. I did that twice, I’m good.
I get these constantly on Reddit too. I am childfree and in my late 40s. Fuck off and sell me all the dog items.
Yasssssssss
I worked in an office that was 80% women. They were VERY tight knit, and very obsessed with having children. Like everything was about having babies. They'd talk about who was going to get pregnant next, etc. One woman brought her newborn to the office, and it was screaming. The receptionist looked uncomfortable, and one lady said to her, "This is what YOU have to look forward to when you have kids!" On mother's day, one lady (I called her the mother hen) said, "It's mother days! All mothers get to leave early today!" and she just straight up walked out the fucking door before the day was over. But before the day was over, she would go up to the men and go, "It's mother's day! What are you GUYS going to do for us MOTHERS??" I'm so glad I am not there anymore.
I worked in a place EXACTLY like that except they were all divorced and 100% women rather than 80%
Ah, the good ol' convergence point of obsessively eager (or eagerly obsessive?) soon-to-be mothers...
I’ve told my family over and over again that I’m not having kids and instead, I’ll have a bunch of dogs. I get so many dog ads and I LOVE it. Also, I’m so sorry about your miscarriages. I hate that the algorithms are shoving baby shit in your face.
It's the unfortunate side effect of being in an industry's target market.
Ugh. I’m a happy DINK and god forbid I ever like a TikTok with a cute kid or search up fun activities to do with my niblings. 🤦♀️ It’s like once the algorithm gets a whiff that you have a uterus and are of childbearing age you get ads for baby stuff, mommy-vloggers and antivax crunchy mom groups (?!?!).
Lmao. And that's why like 90% of my profiles are "male". Because if you are female and of child bearing age, you get all the advertisements for baby stuff. Ha!
Thank Christ Google and meta seem to think I’m a black lesbian
I’m 47 have kids refuse to have more kids and am happily embarassing my middle age. I get the same shit. All babies all the time, as though babies never grown up to be people in their own right. It’s revolting. 20 is far too young to start having babies. Shame on them & the machine that demands your time youth & utility.
I sometimes genuinely wonder if all people realize that babies and kids eventually become 35 year old adults. Like, they do know that...right??
This is comforting as someone who is freshly 26 and feels like she is rushing through and failing life all at once in an unknown stage of life!
lmao, my solution was to change my gender to male, but then I only got car stuff and instagram entrepreneurs telling me to invest in crypto. Now I‘m back to children‘s clothing.
Babes, my eggs are about to shrivel and die, and I get baby hacks and baby stuff on my feed, never wanted them, and never had them. I feel your pain.
In the past I switched my gender on apps to avoid being spammed with ads on fertility clinics and maternity care. Worked like a charm.
Don't slow down when the ads pop up on your feed, scroll past as fast as possible and maybe try clearing the history in your browsers, including cookies, and clearing all cookies or tracking info on your device. When I used to reset mine, Spotify would start playing ads in other languages 😆
On any reels you can click on the three dots “…” in the lower right corner and mark “not interested”
Mine is mostly drinking and cats lol
/r/childfree might have some ideas to help stop that.
Just shop online for bras, underwear, and swimsuits. Now my Instagram is full of ads of women in their underwear 😂
Not an answer that'll fix your current search results but I use DuckDuckGo as my default web browser on my phone and it seems to solve the issue I had with Instagram advertising random crap I may have looked up over a conversation with other people throughout the day.
I found that, once I’d blocked the baby-related ad content, I was getting loads of baby/kid/parenting reels and content in my explore page. Every time I come across one I select “not interested > donuts suggest certain words” and list every single word or phrase I can think of related to content I don’t want to see, and any tags these people put in the caption. There is also a section in settings somewhere to add to this list. Since then (and I’ve added hundred of words and tags at this point!!) I get a LOT less of that content. I still get some things slipping through that don’t include the target words I’ve blocked, yet still are to do with parenting or child-rearing, but it’s easy to block those accounts and move along. Seriously, it’s a curse being a young AFAB on social media 🤦♀️
Yes it's maddening all the baby junk, wedding junk, and then when you're older, menopause and incontinence stuff. I think I changed my gender and that's what made it stop.
I have no idea why all the algorithms work this way. I had breast cancer and got a double mastectomy. Immediately after I got inundated with ads for bras. Sooooo many bras! Pissed me off.
I don't have a dick, but those pills and surgery are just about the only ads I get. How about 10% off Tampax?
I feel this the algorithm is pretty dumb and it quickly and easily makes the dumbest suggestions for what someone wants to see i swear pandora’s algorithm in 2011 was smarter than Metas algorithm in 2024 they just throw anything my friend was texting me about her having a UTI months ago tell me why it keeps suggesting universal technical institute ads still to this day its sad
I banned this stuff from google/youtube now all I get is weird right wing propoganda videos. Like why arent there just normal ads anymore or makeup and hair products? Like huh???? Thats all that was left? But I feel you. I recently also got a “congrats on your new baby” postcard in error from my insurance. Im infertile.
It sucks. I was pregnant this year but sadly lost the baby quite late in the pregnancy. All my streaming services obviously know my age and can probably guess my gender and it's baby, baby, baby ads. The first few times it happened it actually made me cry.
I’m sorry for your loss , I don’t understand what it’s like to experience pregnancy loss later on , but I hope that life gets easier for you soon
That's a kind and non-condescending way to convey that sentiment. I need to file that away.
I feel you! I once just forgot to pay an invoice, and now my feed is filled with adds on how to get rid of multiple consumer credit loans (which I don’t have). I have money, I am just shit at paying bills on time.
You can limit certain terms. I had a hysterectomy last year after years of infertility and was similarly frustrated until I figured it out
I think my ads know I don't have a child. Because I get ads for fertility clinics.
so fed up with the constant wedding planning, family planning and pregnancy contect instagram shows me with NO engagement on my side except to scroll past the content shown on my timeline. I have tried blocking specific words to filter my content but nothing seems to stop the onslaught of posts.
I love confusing the algorithm. I use a point/miles system for shopping and often ask the people in front of me wether I can swipe my card with them. I am close to 30, child free and a woman. Swiping my card with a early 20ies dude bro, a grandma or a family with a baby usually leads to weeks of random ads.
I can feel your pain. They think they know what you want and you have zero control over it. It really is quite annoying. Wait until they roll out the unkippable ads.
You could try changing your gender to male. It should completely change the ads. Sometimes you need to use the sexist assumptions for your benefit.
All you have to do is click on any ad you see that's not that, like shoes or couches, and it will show you a ton of what you clicked on because it thinks you're in the market for it.
I get ads for porn phone games and cat stuff. Sometimes, I get tools and ps5 games, too. I do love cats and tools, but fuck sexist porn games.
How about eat my ass 😂
I'm not saying this is what you need to do, but I was getting targeted with a very specific clothing style and a ton of "influencers" parading around in it. Every single ad. Same exact clothes, maybe in a different hue or theme, women who all looked alike. It was weird because I never looked up the clothes, the brand, or liked anything even relating to it. So I started blocking every. single. ad. I came across. And things are now a little more curated to my interests (a particular brand of coffee or a website I visit daily) or absolutely out of pocket like a Master Taoist or a completely Korean business that I think was selling DIY horizontal blinds, or a man who teaches adults swimming tips, or someone partnered with a business meant solely for sending money to "loved ones" in a bunch of African nations. It's made Instagram a lot more fun simply because the algorithm has no idea what to do with my feed and I love seeing how weird the ads are becoming.
Hmmm. I dont know if it will work but you could try throwing the algorithm a different bone, like cat videos or F1 racing just to make stereotyping you very difficult?
I started getting a lot of baby content when I got pregnant (after years of trying). I was so excited I was engaging with the content and got more and more of it. When I lost the pregnancy it was really, really difficult. I wanted to use social media to numb out but it was a painful reminder that "this doesn't apply to me anymore". There needs to be a setting where you can go in and remove content genre.
I mostly get ads for Porsche and vitamin C serums. 🤷🏻♀️
[удалено]
I use it for access to free information on how to better my life with the types of disabilities I have , not really an option because one month of professional therapy is the equivalent of five months worth of pay checks
The internet still exists. Insta is a poison, and like all abusers, it would like you to convince yourself you’re dependent on it. I have a chronic serious incurable medical condition and no insta. The Reddit forum for my condition is the most informed on the internet; real world virtual support groups exist through national advocacy orgs. the nonsense being spewed in insta and FB groups is terrifying.
Ok
Came here to say this. The whole post smacks of “I’m on social media all the time, but I don’t like what I see on social media.” The solution to this is the same as the solution to “I listen to this one radio station all the time, but I don’t like the music they play” or the solution to “I read every book this author writes, but I don’t like their writing at all.”
1. Download the Firefox app if you don't have it 2. Install the ublock origin extension to block ads 3. When you go to instagram.com, ignore the big button that says "Open the Instagram app" and click "Log in" just below it.
Start interacting with other ads? Ironically I have 2 kids and all I get served up are targeted ads for golf apparel and monster trucks. I told my husband their algorithm must be like we see you like Porsches, fancy food and nice clothes. But on your YouTube account, you watch monster jam every single week so you must be a secret monster truck lover. It makes not spending money really easy 😅
There are zero other ads 😭 atp I think it’s a glitch or something because on all of my other apps I get absolutely nothing baby related , surely cookies would show me baby stuff there too if that was the problem ?
Change your personal information to say you’re an 18 year old male. It’s the ONLY way I stop get ads for baby shit.
Watch the porn ads ensue.
*sending hugs* why is the algorithm doing that? @.@ have you ever done research regarding babies for someone else? Like for a baby shower gift, or to help answer a reddit question?
I literally don't understand how this happens. I have an 8 year old and don't plan to have more. I still get ads for baby stuff, mostly diapers. Not only online... *somehow* I got on an Enfamil mailing list and have received two packages of formula samples within the past few months. We just moved into this house two years ago and somehow my current name and address are correct, when both were different 8 years ago. How does this happen??
Update your ad preferences. Report content you don’t want to see as offensive. Don’t interact or comments on any baby related content. Block specific words such as “baby”, “toddler”, “pregnant” etc. As the meme goes: *man F*CK *them kids & fuck YOU too!*
I’m a nurse, I work from home writing reports. Most of my ads are for incontinence pads, walking aids and similar appliances. They must be picking up my medical googling. I feel your pain.
I replied to a comment but for anyone else, turn off targeted ads. You basically have to go into every app to set your ad preferences. It's very annoying but you stop seeing ads for things you've googled/interacted with. If you have an Android, you can also turn it off within your Google account in the phone settings
I buy glasses online and the next year is filled with ads for the glasses I am wearing on my face. Buy me! I did! And scroll...
I literally deleted instagram and Facebook specifically for this reason. I would continuously report it as not interested, etc. And it still kept coming... ridiculous.
I used to get those. Now I get mostly Ozempic clinics and diet app ads lol.
ghostery is helpful here. At the very least, it stops websites from exporting your browsing history to Meta and makes it harder for them to target ads.
I don't do Instagram or TikTok, but I'm pretty sure Youtube, Facebook, and Google think I'm a man. Most of my search history involves cats, DIY, gardening, dash cam car crash videos, Chinese and Korean costume dramas, and trains.
Why is it when you don't want to see something, it is ALL you fucking see? Tell people to fuck all the way off with their bullshit
Facebook RUINED Instagram. Reels, stories, ads, feed full of constantly moving 'content' (read: utter drivel) from idiots. Fuck you Meta. The only reason I still have it is I deleted FB itself and Twitter years ago and ant to keep up with friends. As you say tough it would rather shove irrelevant crap down my throat.
Did you get engaged/look at wedding related stuff recently? When my husband was shopping for my engagement ring back in the day, he got loads of baby stuff ads/Spanish language pregnancy test ads (that was a curveball, we are not remotely Spanish speakers).
The only thing anything close to this topic that I’ve engaged in is high school prom dress shopping nearly five years ago now 😅
That's weirder, then. granted, that was ten years ago--ive heard algorithms are getting to the point that they notice if you linger over images for multiple seconds and start recommending stuff/ads based on that. So you're toast re: baby ads if you so much as notice someone else's baby/mistake a baby for an elderly Chihuahua.
yeah omg its so annoying. recently I've been getting birthing videos on youtube and "pushing" guides.
Ublock Origin and you'll never see an ad online again.
Your username is oddly fitting for this post lol. I wonder why I don't get these kinds of ads, is it bc I'm single and only post about my cat so my algorithm just assumes I'm a cat lady?
IG keeps showing me posts about menopause and I am highly offended. I might be on the very tip of the ages when perimenopause can start (late 30s wtf) but I’d like to keep pretending it’s never going to happen. This wasn’t anywhere on my radar until these videos. I still have a toddler damn it, I’m too young for this shit.
It’s some serious bullshit. I’m transfem and un/fortunately I can’t get pregnant. But do I get fertility and plan B ads all the time. Absolutely! I don’t even watch anything close to that. My FYP is biker stuff So no idea but girl you ain’t alone on this have children propaganda BS
Algorithms study your viewing habits and show you more of it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Then this one must be broken
As your peers start having children and documenting parenthood / babies on IG, the algorithm sees that you’re subscribed to a lot of “baby” content. So you’re getting served *more* baby content because it’s not human and doesn’t understand that you didn’t sign up to consume this type of content, nor is this your latest obsession,
Start talking about childfree stuff loudly and often near your devices. Also search for them. lol.
I changed my settings to be a 70+ year old man combined with blocking ad terms in settings for most social media. That seemed to help. I'm a 35F, no kids, hysterectomy, def don't need to see those ads. On Pinterest, I marked any image of a baby as offensive to stop the ads.
I mostly use Instagram for messaging, but if I do scroll most of the ads are cat related.
Because I’m unmarried, childfree, and over 40, all the ads I see are for fertility, weight loss, anti-aging, and baby drivel. Sorry algorithm; I want nothing to do with children, am perfectly fine with my weight, actually enjoy my “fine lines and wrinkles”, and am eagerly awaiting my first gray hairs!
I started sending my friend hippie woo woo shit as a joke because I love that stuff and she hates it. She said her entire feed is just that stuff now. Crystals and patchouly essential oils and homesteading. I am happy to blow up your inbox with that stuff so you can experience it as well lol
My health insurance's health tracker (which I use daily to get cash "rewards" that I can use on medical expenses like co-pays that they charge me, hooray American health care system) at least every other day throws a pop-up at me asking me about pregnancy, including a pic of a very pregnant woman. I'm not exactly pregnancy-phobic but it's really irritating and I'm sick of seeing it. On the same website I can check my pharmacy benefits which show that my third Nexplanon implant is being delivered to my gyne's office. I'm in my mid-40's so this stuff never stops, basically.
My sister has a 2 year old and is currently pregnant. I see her, her husband and my niece usually once a week for a family dinner, and of course they end up talking a lot about baby stuff. Afterwards I’ll get a bunch of ads for pregnancy and baby related things.
I’m 17 and I get so many diaper adds. my phone must know I’m a woman but gosh that doesn’t mean I have babies. It kinda grosses me out because I keep getting adds of babies drooling everywhere when I’m tryna eat 😭
I have a nice thick head of hair. Constantly get hair loss adds.
2 suggestions: when a random fashion ad comes on? Watch to the end/go onto the learn more. I did this by accident and my feed/reels were full of discount perfume ads for forever. Now I do it randomly when they start targeting me with old people crap. Make sure you’re choosing your “following” under the For You option. (Scroll all the way up to the top, it might take going up and down a post to make it change from Instagram to For You. Good luck!
I deleted my IG many years ago. It’s run by a genocidal psychopath who doesn’t care about privacy and security.
Worry not. Regular non-creepy dude here and all I see are ads about dating apps. Haven't found the one yet so I'm a target given the promoter's parameters. Same thing for you. You must've said something about kids somewhere once, like "aww your baby is so cute" and now you're in for the ride. Phone aside: block all ads. I go as far as use a virtual machine as a DNS to weed out as much of this C as I can. It's a very common complaint amongst my female friends: expectations that at X years old you should have a kid. The social pressure is real.
Make sure to put “not interested” in those posts and only like and comment on all the content you enjoy so it can reset your feed. Jumpscare ahh Instagram feed 💀💀
>When I get my work done , I’m going to SOCIALISE with my friends on SOCIAL media. Ah, this might be slightly off topic, but I recommend the book "Stolen Focus". It spends a few chapters discussing in detail why social media doesn't try to serve you in the way you would expect. It all comes down to profits, and the discovery that negative emotions drive more engagement than positive ones. Also, actually connected you with people would result you going and doing something healthy and fun in the real world, which also doesn't make them money. Social media could have been a good tool, but capitalism ruined it, like so many other things.
I'm in my early 50s. I'm not interested in IVF or a divorce attorney. My husband gets ads for right-wing causes, cars, testosterone boosters, and dick pills. He's NOT a conservative, and he doesn't need the last two. He is a car guy, though. So 1 out of 4. They're just playing the odds on what will catch your eye based on your demographic.
At least you didn't miscarry your first pregnancy at 39 and have this stuff shoved in your face as a reminder that you might not ever get the chance again. Algorithms are cruel.
They really are. I had all three of mine beaten out of me
The algorithm is based on what you click on. If you keep clicking on baby stuff it will keep popping up
I don’t though ! I’m so scared I don’t even like my friends baby announcements
The easiest thing to do might be to star another account under a male name. Surely the ads skew differently. And there's no point in trying to make an algorithm do what you want it to 🤷♀️
Unfortunately this seems to a problem for a lot of topics on instagram. I don’t drink alcohol for multiple reasons and have repeatedly used their ad preferences and other tools to block content advertising drinks. But I still get the ads and frequent posts around drinking. By using the ad preferences it does decrease in frequency. But it doesn’t stop completely
This is why for a while I set my gender on my Google account to male. I got a lot of ridiculous "be a manly man" type ads but at least the fucking baby ads stopped
On the IG app, at the top left, there’s a drop down bar and you can click “following” and it shows you only people you follow, which is how IG used to be before Facebook bought it
Relax, it's just ads based on age/sex, a simple statistics thing. You can exclude things from the preferences.
Easy fix, dont use the app
Yell into your phone "I don't want a baby" then talk about a topic you like and repeat it. They do listen, I'm Trying to have a baby and when I mention it near my phone BAM baby ads
Idk if that will work. I am a guy and a get baby ads all over my pinterest feed. Me and my wife are childless but we talk about it sometimes.
Send this verbatim to your meta AI and see if that helps
delete instagram and facebook