The Reality of Visual Chaos in Digital Advertising from the Perspective of Students at the Faculty of Arts, University of Sirte: A Field Study

Abstract

The current study aimed to explore the reality of the visual pollution phenomenon in electronic advertisements, and to assess the level of awareness among students of the Faculty of Arts at Sirte University regarding its manifestations (e.g., advertising clutter, glaring colors, and pop-up windows). Furthermore, it sought to monitor the psychological, cognitive, and behavioral impacts resulting from students' exposure to these advertisements while browsing the internet. To achieve the study's objectives, the descriptive approach was adopted due to its suitability to the nature of the research, and a questionnaire was utilized as the primary tool for data collection. The study was administered to a random sample of (100) male and female students from various academic disciplines within the Faculty of Arts at Sirte University.

The findings revealed that digital visual pollution has become a genuine obstacle, negatively affecting students' mental health and their ability to concentrate. The majority of respondents confirmed that "advertising clutter" is the primary source of annoyance. Moreover, a positive correlation was found between poor advertising design (such as the use of clashing colors and rapid flashing) and the adoption of defensive behaviors, represented by utilizing ad-blocking software or immediately leaving the website. The results also demonstrated that forced and pop-up advertisements yield counterproductive outcomes, notably distorting the brand's mental image among users. Additionally, students intuitively prefer designs characterized by simplicity and the effective use of white space for visual comfort.