Ads can FOaDiaF.
You know, I'm not old, or so people tell me, but I feel like I'm not young, either.
I don't have great internet, even by American standards, which means I have shit internet by the standards of everywhere in the most-civilized world. But things were worse back in the days.
You know the days I'm talking about, the days when computer games were bought in boxes, the days when you'd eye a Counter-Strike server with a ping of 600+ as "Eh, I can probably tolerate it." The 56.6 days.
I was young, and stupid. Those were the days when using Netscape Navigator instead of Internet Explorer meant you were tech-savvy. (I am no longer young.) Advertisements got worse, and worse. Eventually, they became absolutely unbearable; you'd spend five minutes downloading ads and ten seconds downloading content. The ads were insane, they'd jump out at you, scream at you, make pornmoans at you. It was atrocious. It was unbearable. I thought I had to live with it.
Then came the days of Firefox. The reason I switched to Firefox, in fact, was largely because of a little thing called AdBlock Plus.
I haven't looked back. The advertisers got out of hand, they were given free reign, and I pulled the trigger on them all. To this day, my reaction to seeing an advertisement is rightclick > AdBlockPlus: Block this Image.
To everyone who says "Oh, but the content producers need the money," I have to say: I don't care. I just don't. Your arguments fall on deaf ears, and your whinging just hardens me further. I hate being advertised to. I absolutely loathe it.
I consume hardly anything, I have practically nil income, existing entirely at the largesse of family members, who are themselves on fixed income. I'm not going to be buying anything, so advertising to me is pointless. If I DO keenly feel a need for something, I will search for it on my own terms. There is no such thing as something I needed but didn't know I needed until I knew it existed. I have never, not once in nearly 30 years on this blasted, miserable rock, purchased anything that was being suggested to me by advertisements.
And it's getting worse, in other corners of life, too. Advertisements are everywhere, screaming at you "Buy our shit!" I don't want your shit. I don't want to see endless commercials on the television, because I don't have any money to buy products. (The worst are food and drug advertisements, which should be banned outright along with tobacco ads. Seeing a food ad makes me hungry, even if I've just ate a full dinner. I'm not saying it's why I'm obese, but I am saying it could be a contributing factor.) Honestly, I just ignore the ads, I read a book on Kindle, or scratch the dog behind the ears, or just tune out.
The Ad Men know they're on the outs, they know that by and large, people are sick of their bullshit. One of the most common phrases around is "Jesus, why is the TV so loud? Turn it down!" I didn't turn the TV up, the advertisements just have their volume CRANKED ALL THE FUCKING WAY UP so you will PAY ATTENTION AND BUY THEIR SHIT. Or, more likely, you'll just change the freaking channel, and channel-flip - my aunt's solution. (Drives me batty, because I HATE missing a minute of my show. I just ignore the ad.) They're also striking back with their on-demand service: Comcast USED to be okay about this, but in recent years they disabled the fast forward on most viewings of TV shows. Then they apparently twigged to the fact that people were using the scan-ahead button (that skipped five minutes ahead,) to skip the majority/entirety of the ad spots, and rewinding as needed, so they shifted it to ten minutes up.
It's a battle. One I hope they lose, but as for myself, I will do everything in my power to insulate myself from advertisements. And on my PC, at least, I have the power; they can't FORCE my computer to download and display content. The only question is whether I'm willing to go to the lengths necessary to prevent it from doing so, and I am.
Because the ads get more obnoxious with each passing minute. They're banal, they're intentionally attention-grabbing, distracting me from what I ACTUALLY want to see. They're information I don't need to see, that is useless to me, and in fact actively hostile to me, because they are attempting to make me part with money I don't have.
So bugger the lot of 'em with a rusty spoon.