I use ad blockers and open source privacy focused software whenever I can but occasionally I have to use computers that don’t belong to me or an older phone where my usual applications aren’t installed and seeing all the advertisements just feels dirty and dystopian.
I think the worst ads are the text to speech ones that say “Download this app today”. The unblinking energenic people saying you can make a living at home are probably a close second.
Same, it’s so weird seeing normal TV or using the internet without blockers. Feels like living in Idiocracy.
Ads nowadays are little more than psychological assault and it can’t be healthy to be exposed to it regularly. My Home Ec teacher back in the day had a whole unit about the different manipulations present in advertisements and it was really enlightening and upsetting. Modern advertising should be banned or severely regulated.
“Jarring” would have also been acceptable.
Most people are so desensitized to ads that they barely register. So the advertisers ramp up the attention-grabbing. Repeat. So when I actually see an advertisement it nearly knocks me out of my chair because I’m not desensitized anymore.
Absolutely. And it’s getting even worse, since some ad networks also broadcasting executable code in the form of javascript snippets intended to make interactive banners, where e.g. you move the mouse cursor over it, and an in-ad mouse button moves along. A bunch of those have been used to run malicious code on the machines and actually cause harm to the user, from crypto miners to keyloggers and trojans.
In this day and age, I consider a system without adblock to be compromised by default.
The person who was instrumental in the development of modern advertising was also involved in the notorious little Albert experiment. That really says a lot about how unethical modern advertising is on a psychological level. As a psych major myself I am constantly disgusted by how manipulative and toxic advertising is. It actually troubles me how we’ve essentially just accepted this as part of our society now.
Whenever I see someone’s computer who doesn’t use adblocker it blows my mind. I can’t imagine going back to that shit.
Does anyone have recommendations on how to block ads on Android without rooting? I’ve tried AdAway but it doesn’t seem to be terribly effective. I’m pretty tied into Chrome and would prefer not to change browsers but I understand I might have to.
Firefox with uBlock origin, setting your DNS to “DNS.adguard.com”, and using ReVanced with MicroG for YouTube has worked best for me on a non-rooted phone.
Change your dsn to dns.adguard.com
Edit: Firefox on Android has unlocked origin as well nowadays
Try adguard. Its a system wide blocker(blocks ads in most apps too) and needs no root. Its paid. For free you can use blockada version 5. Get it on fdroid. Or just use adguard dns.
Yeah I agree.
It’s made me very intolerant of ads. It’s kind of surprising how much effort I will invest to avoid ads, and avoid supporting people who make a living from advertising revenue.
people who make a living from advertising revenue
That’s a lot of people, lad…
…just imagine if they were all doing something productive instead.
Props to @DogMuffins@discuss.tchncs.de for helping to discourage their parasitic behavior and ushering them toward career paths that might actually utilize their potential in a positive way!
It IS perverse. You’re having your eyes groped by strangers, all trying to get you to do what you have no desire to do. You just want to get what you came for and leave, but no, everywhere you look something is trying to block your path and distract you from your goal. And it’s not even honest: you already know that none of these extraneous, unwanted come-ons you’re seeing is anything close to true. In some cases, it’s a full-on mental assault.
It’s vile. I used to leave some on, but now there’s not even such a thing as “acceptable ads” anymore just because of the sheer numbers involved. So now I don’t just block: I go full extermination mode. I’m usually on desktop so if it’s a one time thing, like a single ad on YouTube that managed to sneak by all of my walls and filters and I can’t just pass it by because it’s stuck in my field of vision, I’ll actually do an “inspect element” and delete it on the spot. But otherwise, if I can’t block 100% or very close to it, I find a different site or source, or shut down altogether.
I genuinely don’t think our minds were made for this level of constant information onslaught and never-ending manipulation campaigns, and I don’t think it’s healthy or life-affirming to subject oneself to it without limit. So I don’t. People get angry about it, but hey, more for them to enjoy if that’s how they wanna roll.
