If you are one of the many who open several tabs, at one point you must have heard some music playing or someone talking but you aren’t sure from where. That’s an example of the automatically playing videos that some sites have adopted, mostly ads. If there is one thing these automatically playing video ads have in common, is the annoyance they give surfers.

Facebook being what it is, has finalized the algorithm for auto playing its video ads and soon you’ll start being confronted by the videos playing by themselves in your Facebook news feed. Should you be worried?

As someone who dislikes these ads, I join the thousands who have expressed reservations on these ads. I don’t like the idea that some videos would just play themselves without warning. I find auto playing videos not any different from the flashy amateur ads that jump in/out or all over the screen seeking attention. Videos in particular should only play when I give them the ok of doing so.

That aside, Robert Hof of Forbes has outlined some reasons that should make the ads be cool. One reason he provides is that after all there is no where we’ll go that’s safe; not Twitter, not YouTube, not snaptchat, not TV.

So now that everyone is probably doing what I hate means everyone should the bandwagon?

Then there is the consolation that the ads will only auto play when we are on Wi-Fi. Good consolation. If there is any data consuming item on Internet they are the videos especially the HD videos that everyone seem to be posting nowadays. You don’t want to wake up one to day to the realization that your data bundle that normally took 2 weeks to run out now takes only 2 days to dry up thanks to Facebook’s auto ads, most of which you wouldn’t bother watching if you had the discretion of making that choice.

I thought that the decision to only play the videos only when on Wi-Fi is great, but not until I read this comment by one Garrigan;

Facebook auto video ads “will affect internet users – all the ones who have satellite service. The satellite companies limit the amount of data to each of their customers. The allowance is made worse by the satellite companies reformulating the plans so that now, data comes through the pipes in 2013 at 3 times the rate of 2012. Any video uses more data than text. HD uses more than Regular Def.
What all this means is that now, the data is gone after 20 days instead of 30 and you are left with dial-up speed. Have you tried to do anything on the internet at dial-up speed?
Facebook is joining a long list of companies that have added many more bits to each web page displayed which, when compounded adds up to “over the limit” rather quickly.
At the very least, there should be a setting, either on the users’ chosen device or the companies’ website that allows users to TURN IT THE HELL OFF.
Thanks for listening. By the way, there are many satellite communications users out here.”

So dear Facebook user, brace yourself for some irritations in Facebook auto video ads coming your way soon.