I definitely consume too much dystopian content to be a fair dystopian barometer, but the sheer amount of ads being pushed my way is starting to make me feel legitimately anxious. It feels like a techno-dystopia where all of the neat and artistic elements have been extracted and then ground into dust for our corporate overlords. Even the ‘regular’ people are just trying to sell themselves. The streamers, the funny videos, the pet videos, the porn, the reposts of all of those, so much of it is just monetizing my attention.

Do ads even influence people that much? Does anyone even eat Church’s Chicken?! Do people consider switching their car insurance? I though the postmoderns were jumping the gun a little with the pictures they painted of a future with corporate logos and other advertisements spread across every visible surface, but now I have to see 5 ads and a cookie consent pop up to look up a quick definition. Watching a friend’s youtube video? 30 seconds of rapidfire ads from 15 brands. It’s starting to feel absurd. Are we going to be okay?

  • sturlabragason@lemmy.worldEnglish
    311·
    1 year ago

    I believe most of us here block as many ads as possible by any means possible. I so rarely see ads that every once in while when I do (on other peoples devices) I’m shocked and disgusted.

    https://github.com/pi-hole/pi-hole

    https://ublockorigin.com/

    https://brave.com/

    Is enough for me. If I watch YouTube on mobile it’s in Brave browser as that block the ads on iOS.

    If I watch YouTube on my TV it’s in https://smarttubeapp.github.io/ which also blocks ads.

    You don’t have to live like that and I feel sorry for all the people that do.

    All that being said I know what you mean, even the content itself is now saturated with ads, i.e. a word about our sponsor for five minutes at the start of any video…

    • Alk@lemmy.worldEnglish
      11·
      1 year ago

      For the in-video sponsors try sponsorblock.

      Or FreeTube, an open source desktop YouTube client with sponsorblock built in.

    • LucidNightmare@lemm.eeEnglish
      7·
      1 year ago

      I’m sure you know about Brave being called out here lately so I just want to give you some iOS alternatives so you can stop using Brave (if you care enough, of course)

      AdGuard (I paid for the lifetime, $12 I think) and it works great. Just like having uBlock on Firefox, but in safari so I still get all the integration that safari offers on your iOS device.

      Dark reader is on the App Store.

      When it comes to YouTube, I sideload a YouTube app with all the essentials installed using Sideloadly.

      The rest is up to you.

    • yo_scottie_oh@lemmy.mlEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      How do you actually load the smart tube app on your TV? I have a chromecast btw.

      EDIT: Just figured it out. Involves installing the Downloader app on my chromecast from the Google Play Store, then within the Downloader app I downloaded and installed the Smart Tube apk file from GitHub (after enabling Developer Mode in chromecast settings first).

      Tested it on a gamer content creator channel and it skipped the sponsor segment at the very beginning. I’m in!