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The frequency and duration of ad breaks is beginning to make me feel like I’m in that black mirror episode where they had to pay to stop ads from constantly playing. (kbin.social)

submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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?

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

Shout out for pihole. Never ceases to amaze me when I end up on public data sources (cellular/wifi) and my phone is littered with ads and banners that squeeze the viewable area to a thin strip of screen. It's truly toxic. However, you can set up a personal VPN at home on the Pi and get your ads scrubbed by PiHole while you're away from home.

So yes, if I may offer my list (desktop browser):

PiHole (+ personal VPN to connect to when away)

uBlock Origin

Https Everywhere (for the odd site that isn't https by default)

Facebook Container ( if you use FB)

SocialFixer for Facebook - a godsend. I use FB for work and hobby groups. FB insists on cramming "suggested for you" content in everywhere. SocialFixer will filter and block FB posts based on text, and using "suggested for you" as a filter makes Facebook great again.

Duck Duck Go privacy essentials

EFF's Privacy Badger

uBlacklist - an app that lets you block sites in search results. A little tedious, but if you stick with it eventually you end up getting rid of many those awful boilerplate SEO worthless sites.

SponsorBlock for YouTube

EDIT: Guess I didn't answer the question? I despise ads. I will do most anything I can to avoid them. The aforementioned list of blocking and privacy add-ons is proof enough of that. There's nothing that I need to buy that I don't already know I want or need. I walk away from the TV (I can't remember the last time I watched network TV. Probably the primary election?), I put my phone down, and if it's that much in my face I simply close the site if I don't absolutely have to be there.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Why not just use an ad blocker directly in your phone’s web browser? Works on any connection, works better than DNS based blockers because it will properly remove the page elements, and no need to connect to a VPN. PiHole is nice for devices you can’t install an ad blocker on like a smart tv or something but on anything with a controlable browser it’s objectively inferior to a native ad blocker…

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Because there's a limited number of ad blockers for iOS, they charge for features, and the ones I looked at were designed for safari. I use Firefox on iOS, my VPN/PiHole is free, so there's no reason to change things up or sweat it.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

This requires a ridiculous amount of work and expertise, the average person can't do this. I also question how trustworthy these apps are and that they aren't data harvesting or opening security holes.

News sites are the worst offenders for "lets cram as much shit on the screen as humanly possible". The last 80% of the screen is click bait trash. Videos chase you constantly and pop ups begging for your email always harass you. I fill in the email with "admin@{their domain}"

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

The pihole is the only one requiring a level of tech above that of installing the add-ons I mentioned.

Sure, you could question the trustworthiness of the plugins. So what’s your choice? Suffer through known ads, tracking, and whatever else or judiciously install a few plugins that have tens or hundreds of thousands of users and no history of foul play?