Day in and day out, I find myself asking, ‘When is this going to change?’ Perhaps my view of the web can be a bit amplified because my job involves being immersed in it all day long.

Since I’ve started my new job as a trainee social media planner, my daily intake of social networking profiles, Youtube videos, Flickr photos, forums, and blogs has increased dramatically. I thought I was addicted to the Internet before. I had no idea it could be this bad.

I sometimes find myself coming home from a long day at the office and choosing to avoid the computer. But sometimes, like right now, the first thing I do when I get home after getting something to eat, is sit down in front of my laptop.

So, the big question that haunts me is

What ever happened to treating other people the way you want to be treated?

Why the web makes me ask this question:

1. Pop-up ads – Thanks to the makers of Internet browsers, these stay hidden nowadays. I have no idea if the number has actually decreased or if it’s just the power of the browser. But every now and then, one pops up. Why? Everyone hates pop-up ads. There’s a reason we block them. Why would you even bother to make them? Let alone purchase the media space. Or sell the media space. Or choose to have it on your site. Who are these people that are still trying to get us with pop-ups?

2. Excessive banner ads – Truth be told, sometimes I like banner ads. I don’t often click on them, but there’s sometimes the occasion where the ad is relevant, or I’ve actually been looking for what it’s selling, or I’m really curious. And there are plenty of times when I don’t click, but that information goes into my head, and it’s valuable to me. A good example is ads for new movies coming out. I don’t have to find out when Harry Potter will be in theaters. I know it’s July 15th because of the ads I see everywhere – online, on television, outdoors. But some sites have so many banner ads that you can’t find the content. I think the actual physical area used by the screen ought to have a sensible ratio of content to ad. Like 5:1 seems reasonable. No more than that.

3. Spam – Why oh why oh why oh why does spam still exist?! Everyone hates it. It most likely doesn’t have text that makes any sense, especially if it’s email. Email filters it out. On sites, it’s annoying. Who is still sending me all this junk mail? It hasn’t changed over time, just the same amount. It’s like one guy out there spends his day spamming me for the sheer joy of it. I don’t see the business benefit. And someone out there made the decision for it to happen and keep on happening. Who in their right mind does that?

4. Applications that force you to invite people before you can get the full benefit – This is the main reason why I almost never use applications on social networking sites. I absolutely hate receiving invites. If a friend tells me I should try it, I might. If I get an automated invite, I definitely won’t. If you want me to play a game with you, ask me. Or at least customize the invite. Otherwise, I don’t care. And usually, these invites don’t come from my close friends, they come from people I haven’t talked to in years, which convinces me even more that they just do it to get extra functionality. It’s spam. I know there’s a business behind it, but it’s spam. And everyone hates spam. This is the key reason I have stopped using applications that I like. I don’t want to spam my friends because I don’t want them to hate me.

5. Unethical business practices – Believe or not, companies still tell their employees to go online and pretend to be satisfied customers. Unethical. Illegal. It leaves the company worse off. No decent employer ever makes a business move that would make liars out if its employees. If I were an employee there, I would absolutely refuse to do the work, quit, and call the local news station. Unfortunately, in this economy, I’m sure the employees didn’t want to lose their jobs, so they did it anyway. Or maybe they’re just shitty people. But I’d like to think that the majority of people aren’t bad, that it’s just a few bad seeds that end up in charge of the apple. I’d also like to believe that if enough people had the balls and the intelligence to go to the boss and say ‘That’s a bad idea and it could really hurt the company. How about we try this instead,’ it might have saved the company. By the way, another example is Habitat, the UK furniture store that piggybacked promotional messages on Twitter trending topics. Not illegal, but in my opinion, unethical.

It’s my personal belief that it’s more important to create something of high value to a small number of people than to create something of low value to a large number of people. And no matter what you do, keep the golden rule in mind.

A shoutout to Mary Hausch for teaching media ethics at UNLV, where I got my bachelor’s in journalism and media studies. I personally think ethics should be a required course for any degree.