549

The Internet is becoming genuinely unusable without an ad blocker (lemmy.zip)

submitted 8 months ago by sunglocto@lemmy.zip to c/enshittification@lemmy.world

122 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I don't know if it's just me, but browsing virtually any mainstream website without an ad blocker or with alternative frontends is becoming harder and harder to justify. It's getting to the point where adblocking isn't an optional luxury - it's a requirement to effectively get basic information about things.

Yesterday, I was trying to search some information about Ghouls from Fallout. This lead me to this Fandom wiki page which had ads on almost every corner of the website, autoplaying video in the corner, asking for my age as soon as I clicked on the site, injecting polls and random unrelated videos into the communty wiki content and being incredibly slow to browse. A query that in the past that took 5 seconds now takes 50, for what? Money?

I get that online services cost a shitton amount of money to operate, but the sheer level of degrading quality is not OK. This is just one example of how services are completely barreling towards the shitter at 100+ MPH with no brakes or airbags. I feel some guilt for using content blockers, but that guilt is being wittled away every single day because of websites like this.

(page 2) 50 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[-] RootBeerGuy@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 8 months ago

Becoming?

[-] tombruzzo@lemm.ee 6 points 8 months ago

I feel this. Sometimes I'm looking up something on a fresh browser and I say to myself 'I'm just looking up one thing, I don't need all the extensions'

Then the google results get buried and the article is clogged with ads. It could also be I'm so used to an as free internet I can't tolerate even the most innocuous banner ad

[-] JoMiran@lemmy.ml 4 points 8 months ago

Not only does my browser have an ad blocker, all of my devices use my PiHole via Tailscale (Headscale) as their DNS server.

[-] AncientFutureNow@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago

You're just now coming to this realization?

Ever since download speeds have been able to support the bandwidth required for ads, ad-blockers have been a part of my daily life. I'm gonna guess that started in 2006?

[-] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago

On top of that, ads pay to load first; so even if you've got a poor connection, guess what the first thing you'll see is?

[-] Bytemeister@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago

At this point, it will take hostile confrontation to turn the tide if advertisements and click-bait on the internet. We need to make it more expensive for advertisers, with less return.

[-] braxy29@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago

i am at the point where i'm just letting this encourage me to use the internet less. my house is quieter, my mind is quieter.

[-] olafurp@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago

But they ads to pay for seo engineers to get more traffic to show more ads.

This is the current metagame of the web, only people profiting are SEO engineers and ad services.

[-] Mammothmothman@lemmy.ca 2 points 8 months ago

As someone who never used an ad blocker, its always been like this.

[-] elbarto777@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago

You're missing out.

Like eating bread and water, no butter no cheese, no ham, no hot cocoa.

load more comments (1 replies)

[-] 31337@sh.itjust.works 2 points 8 months ago

"Using the Internet for the 1st time" (YouTube)

load more comments

this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2024

549 points (97.6% liked)

Enshittification

2160 readers

20 users here now

What is enshittification?

The phenomenon of online platforms gradually degrading the quality of their services, often by promoting advertisements and sponsored content, in order to increase profits. (Cory Doctorow, 2022, extracted from Wikitionary) source

The lifecycle of Big Internet

We discuss how predatory big tech platforms live and die by luring people in and then decaying for profit.

Embrace, extend and extinguish

We also discuss how naturally open technologies like the Fediverse can be susceptible to corporate takeovers, rugpulls and subsequent enshittification.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

hydra@lemmy.world