[Draiken]

One aspect you didn't mention is the ability to not look at the ad billboard.

If I see a giant ad billboard, I can not look at it, look away, close my eyes, block it with my hands, etc. In a distant future I'd buy glasses that blur ads from my sight (if that could be done without a company seeing everything I see).

For me ad-blockers are the same with some automation. It's a way for me to not give up my time and attention for something I never asked for in the first place.

Moves like this one from YouTube are one step closer to that dystopian nightmare depicted in Black Mirror where you have to watch the ad no matter what. You close your eyes, and the ad pauses and only goes away after you finish watching it. It's absolutely insane.

We somehow got gaslighted into believing there's something good with advertising and there are just a few "bad actors" (where did I hear that before?). I firmly disagree. The entire world would be a better place without ads.

[PH95VuimJjqBqy]

To add another example,

I arrive late to the movie theater, I'll arrive anywhere from 15-30 minutes late.

why?

Because I paid to watch a movie, I did not pay to watch advertisements of movies. There's typically 15-30 minutes of ads in front of movies nowadays.

When I was younger I didn't have this policy because there were far fewer ads, but they keep cramming more and more.

[aequitas]

YouTube use to have a single pre roll of just a handful of seconds. Now there are multiple which take 10 seconds each, unskippable and also ads on top of the video an in between segments. They have just become to greedy, like a Pythagorean cup, take too much and you will end up having nothing.

[scbzzzzz]

Thanks for Pythagorean cup analogy, interesting read. I didn't know such thing exists.

[ninju]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagorean_cup

[gigaflop]

A funny edge case of those glasses might be accidental blurring of people's faces, if their face is prominent enough in advertisements.

[Draiken]

Hahaha, haven't thought of that! I'd probably call that a feature and not a bug.