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?
Any source of ads I avoid as the plague.
Regular TV? Don’t watch it. Only streaming with a good ad blocker.
Radio? Never listen to it, I have my own old-school mp3 music list I update on the regular.
Youtube? Only with uBlock Origin and sponsorblock
Websites? Same as above.
Apps? AdAway removes the ads, and mainly use FOSS ones anyway.
I even avoid game stores as much as possible since those also try to get me to buy stuff.
I don’t want to see any ads ever, marketing should be banned.
Do you ever watch YouTube on your living room TV?
I do, also without ads. SmartTube
Living room tv is a large display for my living room laptop, my remote is a bluetooth keyboard and mouse, youtube is in firefox with UBO and sponsor block. Streaming is emby in the browser.
I agree that we are living in an Ads-nightmare but there are ways to avoid them.