Comment on YouTube's ‘War’ on Adblockers Shows How Google Controls the Internet
merc@sh.itjust.works 7 months agoI guess if you don’t use ad blockers you somehow get used to it. It’s like someone whose job is 100% outdoors vs. someone who works indoors and then has to do a day working outside. The person who is used to cold, wind, rain, scorching sun, etc. stops noticing, even though it takes a toll on them too.
Every once in a while I end up using a browser without ad blockers enabled and it’s incredible to me that some people live like that. It really is almost unusable. Things jump around as ads load in. Ads / videos pop over the content you’re trying to use. The useful part of a page might be 60% ads: ads along the sides and breaking up the text. And then there’s the bottom area of the page which is an endless scroll of “related content” ads.
elbarto777@lemmy.world 7 months ago
That’s not a good analogy. It’s more like saying that whenever you go outdoors for a walk on the park or do groceries, you have to give up 15 minutes of your time to “donate” blood to the rich.
merc@sh.itjust.works 7 months ago
No analogy is perfect. Yours gets at the reason for the ads – they want something from you and you have no chance to bargain or say no. Mine is more about how people can become accustomed to something that’s really unpleasant and after a while not really notice it.
My point is that to me (someone who blocks ads), trying to use the web without an ad blocker is extremely painful, and I find websites almost unusable. But, to someone who has never used an ad blocker, they’re used to the crap, and have developed some ‘immunity’ to the distracting images and work-arounds for the broken thing.
Anyhow, we’re on the same page. I just felt like explaining a bit better what I was getting at.
elbarto777@lemmy.world 7 months ago
I was quite content with tolerating banner ads. Then they became animated and it went downhill after that.
merc@sh.itjust.works 7 months ago
I’m fine with a variety of ads, but I really hate distracting animation. The current trend seems to be that every ad is animated, so every ad is blocked.