You're onto something, and I can say that I still haven't found a way to define this group of people.
I'm a marketer, with some technical background, and as a consumer, I fit into the bucket OP talks. And clearly, I'm not an engineer. The only thing is that I'm more self-aware of emotional purchases disguised as logical ones, and I recognize that no one is immune to being influenced, but that came with the trade.
I guess that maybe more software engineers fit into this bucket, or more software engineers care to voice their stance making them a "loud minority" because they witnessed what the internet became and they care about it.
But certainly isn't exclusive to them.
I tend to think it is more related to people who experienced several instances of a communication channel without advertising, which ended up having their user experience ruined by advertising.
For example, in Television for many decades advertising was part of the medium. No program airs without ad breaks, product placement, etc. In a way, for many of us, it was always there and is part of the medium. Heck as a kid TV Christmas ads were a form of entertainment.
While on the internet, it is true that advertising has also been present for decades - but throughout the years you had many communities, products, and platforms that at some point didn't have ads, and many lived long enough to have ads ruined the experience -> I think this is where antibodies started to arise, and the feeling was validated by others who shared their bad experiences and concerns because, you know, its the internet :)
This is a complete anecdote based on personal experience - but I agree with you, there are more out there, and it isn't just engineers.
I'd say they're curious people (pioneers/early adopters) who value their experience but were defrauded several times by having companies trade their trust for many variations of ads. This can be anyone, it isn't limited to tech-savvy people, nerds, engineers, gamers...
Like people who started to search "reddit product name" +5 years ago (before Google picked up on it) in their decision-making process when buying something. How do you define that?
I'm a marketer, with some technical background, and as a consumer, I fit into the bucket OP talks. And clearly, I'm not an engineer. The only thing is that I'm more self-aware of emotional purchases disguised as logical ones, and I recognize that no one is immune to being influenced, but that came with the trade.
I guess that maybe more software engineers fit into this bucket, or more software engineers care to voice their stance making them a "loud minority" because they witnessed what the internet became and they care about it.
But certainly isn't exclusive to them.
I tend to think it is more related to people who experienced several instances of a communication channel without advertising, which ended up having their user experience ruined by advertising.
For example, in Television for many decades advertising was part of the medium. No program airs without ad breaks, product placement, etc. In a way, for many of us, it was always there and is part of the medium. Heck as a kid TV Christmas ads were a form of entertainment.
While on the internet, it is true that advertising has also been present for decades - but throughout the years you had many communities, products, and platforms that at some point didn't have ads, and many lived long enough to have ads ruined the experience -> I think this is where antibodies started to arise, and the feeling was validated by others who shared their bad experiences and concerns because, you know, its the internet :)
This is a complete anecdote based on personal experience - but I agree with you, there are more out there, and it isn't just engineers.
I'd say they're curious people (pioneers/early adopters) who value their experience but were defrauded several times by having companies trade their trust for many variations of ads. This can be anyone, it isn't limited to tech-savvy people, nerds, engineers, gamers...
Like people who started to search "reddit product name" +5 years ago (before Google picked up on it) in their decision-making process when buying something. How do you define that?