alt Hacker NewsI had a friend years ago with laser focus. He was read an article on his laptop and I was behind him. I asked him how he tolerating the flashing chumbox ad. "Why don't you install Adblock Plus (the ad blocker of the day)?". He had to look around his screen for a second to find it. He said he didn't even register it before I told him about it.
Even a single dead pixel would seriously distract me but he didn't even notice the gif of some disgusting medical scam ad showing elbows or knees or whatever.
He could also fall asleep seconds after hitting the bed. I need at least 10 minutes - at least. Sometimes an hour. Maybe it's a related phenomenon.
Some people just seem to ignore external stimuli better than others. Whether ads whose purpose is brand recognition work on them subconsciously, idk.
One aspect of that is people who have learned to ignore ads. One aspect of that is that many people do not perceive their entire screen at once.
I tend to catch almost everything on the screen when I'm taking it in, and if someone asks me about something on the screen I can generally find it in a small fraction of a second; I don't take in every last detail (e.g word of text) simultaneously, but I have every major UI element in mind. I have observed that many people are focused specifically on one thing and don't notice a thing I call attention to without searching the screen for multiple seconds.