For us people blessed with ADHD, ad blockers have become just as essential as ramps are for wheelchair users. I'm dead serious, getting anything done on the web with ads is a complete disaster.<p>Their continued existence and unhindered operation should be legally protected.<p>Edit: For people who might not be aware, ADHD could be seen as an executive function disorder.<p>It's impossible on a biochemical or neurological level for me to ignore irrelevancies such as ads. Best case I get distracted (that thing I was doing... yeah not gonna happen today), worst case even make a purchase (also known as the ADHD tax, life's not cheap for us invalids).<p>The medication is alright, but requires supplementation by things such as strict time schedules, alarms and reminders for all the things, and... ad blockers.
Ads aren't what cause me to avoid distractions.<p>However there are many sites which would be on my no-visit list due to ads, honestly, google probably being one of them. I rarely see google results without ads, and when I do I am shocked by how hard they are to avoid. Even that small dark patern of having an icon, and replacing it with "ad" is so fucking evil.<p>Long story short, ads are a plague. I hope everyone installs adblockers and the entire ad industry collapses in favor of something hopefully a lot better.<p>I heard in a city in south america ALL advertisements outside were banned. You were permitted a name + logo for your business, but that's it. Turns out advertising got much more interesting and opt-in rather than forced upon you.
I use ad-blockers and PiHole. I sometimes cannot access sites due to PiHole and I don't care. I had to cancel a digital subscription because of PiHole I could not stream videos. I would get a message that "Ad blocking was detected on my network", I could whitelist it but nope.<p>I hate ad tracking and if I cannot access a service then too bad.
He touches on TV. I haven't watched TV at all (outside of NFL games) in the past decade, but when I have, is it me or have ads become incredibly obnoxious, condescending, and just flat out <i>unbearable</i> in said past decade? I can't say exactly what, but they've just amped up the annoying-ness from ads I remember in yester-decades.
I can't speak for anyone else but if there were no ad blockers then I would just refuse to visit any site with ads. I've already moved most of my transactions to local businesses and only utilize amazon when I can't find something locally.
I am afraid that the arms race will continue, and that the ad companies will prevail. A lot of ad blocking is based on the assumption that ad networks work via HTTPS.
We may not be far from the point where ab blocking loses the arms race to obfuscated wasm rendering co-served ads to canvas.<p>I'd return to more niche enthusiast sites, where the top handful of uses chip in a few dollars a year to keep the VPS on.
The one piece of software/extension I have used since I had the internet was Ublock by gorhill. I wanted to donate to him but he doesn't accept donations. If you are reading this gorhill I love you mate.
Making procrastination unpleasant seems like a good idea. Ideally the result would be more time spent on being social with coworkers, or even get out of the office and participate in local events. Doesn't necessarily increase productivity, heck, it could even decrease, but one might just end up being happier either way.
I've been considering using the same sort of reverse-psychology approach on myself. I use YouTube to distract myself all the time and I'm a premium subscriber, so I don't have the friction of viewing ads. If I stop paying and start seeing ads again, would that be enough of a deterrent to keep me away? I'm not sure I even want to try.<p>Change can be so distasteful.
I know plenty of people who don't use ad blockers (indeed, most of the people I know do not), and I would not say they are more productive.<p>You might ask: is it that someone who doesn't block ads just doesn't care about them, and so they don't affect his productivity one way or the other, while someone who does care about ads might be more inclined to work more rather than idly browse? I have witnessed many people start using ad blockers and not become less productive. I have witnessed people move to work environments where they could not install ad blockers, and they did not become more productive or browse the web at work less. So, my conclusion is "no"!
Well, with WASM making progress, it's only a matter of time.<p>Thanks SF browser companies!<p>Mozilla happily killing the web with their friends at Chrome but at least the CEO gets to promote social justice on the browser's dime
Personally, I'd subscribe to paper publications, newsletters, and probably visit my library more. I do a lot of avoiding ads and paywalls for the same reason as the author: they're just unbearable (or, additionally, unaffordable if you have a varied diet)
I won't fuck without a condom, and I won't browse without an ad blocker.<p>If there were no ad blockers I'd stop using the internet for the same reason I stopped watching broadcast and cable television: <i>too many ads</i>.
Modern web ads are a result of the technological arms race with ad-blockers.<p>If there were no ad-blockers, ads would be less devious about being intrusive. But then they'd be easier to block. So we would. And then they'd have to become more devious to circumvent blocking.<p>We'd be right back here.