Experts predict political social media ads will get worse

ATLANTA - It's no secret Georgia is a key battleground state in this presidential election, which is why many of us who call the Peach State home are being inundated with political ads and messages online, much more than other states.  

"I see an ad like every other Instagram post or YouTube clip, I think YouTube is worse because they have ads that you can’t skip…I just want to get back to my video. So yes I am overwhelmed by the amount of political ads," said Atlanta resident Tiffani Davis.

She’s expressing a frustration many of us are feeling every time we log on to our social media accounts. 

With just a little over 60 days left until election day, both campaigns are pouring millions into buying ads online as well as every other form of media. 

"We're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars. And unlike Home Depot or other retailers, they're not allocating that hundred of millions of dollars over an entire year. They're out there allocating that budget over the course of a couple of months," said Chair of Business Technology at Emory’s Goizeuta Business School David Schweidel. 

He says that campaign spending on digital ads goes double for a battleground state like Georgia versus reliably red or blue states. 

"It's not worth it for the campaigns to spend a dime in those states… they've got a lot of budget to spend on trying to persuade those people who are truly still on the fence. The rest of us, unfortunately, are just going to be collateral damage in the meantime," Schweidel said. 

And it’s not just political ads. 

Schweidel says social media algorithms are programmed to show you controversial political content.

"Even if you might consider yourself to be the most detached person from politics, just given our networks and how these algorithms work, we're all going to start to see that content pumped into our news feeds. Whether it's the organic content or the paid content. But it's not going to be easy to avoid this stuff," Schweidel said. "If any one of those people in your network starts engaging with posts or sharing things, it's going to find its way to you."

If you do want to try and avoid the political tsunami online, no matter how futile it may be, Schweidel has a couple ideas for you. 

"If you want to take that action and actually report this ad as being irrelevant to you, that might get that signal into the algorithm…but the social media fast is probably the safest way to go about it," he said. 

Davis is politically active, but she says that doesn’t mean she just wants to see political ads constantly. 

"I follow politics, I listen to political podcasts…so I care about these things, I just care about them when I want to. Not when I’m trying to relax and watch a funny youtube video," she said.