TV, retail, advertising and cascading collapses

If you're walking to the store because you live in a walkable neighborhood, it's zero. If you're going to the mall and buying a dozen things from a dozen stores, the carbon footprint per purchase is probably lower than if you're buying a dozen things in a half dozen separate transactions online. Not to mention all the boxes and the energy and/or trees needed to produce/recycle them.

I'm going to guess "about $5," or however much you save by using Amazon. Bezos isn't dumb.

That's, IMO, a very strong argument.

A lot of this waste is a function of population density. With a super-dense city, where almost every conceivable product is within walking range (and, as a bonus, it's expensive to move around in cars) and prices are normalized, retail stores make sense. As the density drops down, people get into cars and often ignore their local stores, driving far out chasing rare items or discounts. Which is stupid (gas costs too) and wasteful in aggregate at the same time.

In addition, building construction has a massive carbon footprint. Concrete creates 5% of the world's CO2 [1], not even counting the energy used in construction. Home delivery from a distribution center eliminates stores. Seems like that will bring massive energy savings.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_concre...

Exactly!

I recently needed an HDMI cable. At Amazon, it's like $7. The ones that Best Buy/Target/etc have are around $12-$15. For surge protectors, it's been a toss-up as to whether they have something that I think I'd trust, or something that is Barely Adequate. For finding an X-to-Y (e.g. HDMI to DVI-D) cable or adapter, good luck -- they often list it and then say, "Oh that's not an in-store item".

It's especially egregious with books! Every time I am in a bookstore and see something I might like, I nearly always can find it on Amazon for about 2/3 of the price (or less if I buy used). If I'm browsing fiction for something to read, but am not desperate for a particular resource, what am I paying for?

I hate boxes, but it's rare that my "Must have it now" impulse outweighs the knowledge that I could get the item for much cheaper. I do hate cutting down boxes, though. =/

Lack of availability is the real killer for me. Walk into a Best Buy, and you'll be able to take your pick of a zillion different car chargers, and they must have something like 200 square feet devoted to cell phone cases. But all of that is stuff I'm not going to bother hauling myself all the way to Best Buy for, because Walgreens is just around the corner and has that stuff, too. Things that you'd actually go out of your way to try and find, like, say, a decent-quality tablet stylus that isn't the Apple Pencil, just aren't to be found. Even the selection of things like keyboards and mice is weirdly spotty.

Not OP, but I sold my TV, stopped listening to all radio (including NPR), deleted Facebook, and the city I live in banned billboards from the main highway. So it is possible, just takes being willing to really go against the grain. I send friends emails or text messages and connect with new people via Meetup, which I pay for.

A bad side effect of this is that when I do hear ads or see a TV it's really, really difficult to filter it out.

Where I live, broadcast TV has just become a waste of time. If you don't have a car, there's no time/need to listen to a radio.

As for billboards and other "in your face" advertising, i'd love to see it disappear, but there is one important factor that differentiates it from explicit tv, youtube, and radio ads: there isn't an explicit opportunity cost between their presence and the activity you're usually partaking in. So if you have you're attention elsewhere, they won't capture it and stop you partaking in the activity you're actually doing.

Indeed, my mind has gotten so good at unconsciously filtering out those ads, I can't honestly say I see them. But then, I'm the kind of guy who will walk past a new store I'm not interested in for 6 months before someone else has to inform me it exists.

Now, i'm not naive, I know that there's bloggers and newspaper articles and product placement (and all the more reason to stop reading the ones that deliberately do it), but its like junk food.

Ok, maybe you can't get it down to zero. But you sure as hell can try to cut it back to a minimum, and its good to do so...

"Mandates ads," as in I have to turn off my ad blocker; or forces me to sit through an ad.

Broadcast TV: I skip ads with a DVR

Aps: As long as the ad is a tiny banner that doesn't pop in front of the screen, it's okay.

I'm not getting that, what are you using? I'm using uBlock Origin. I wonder how those work, if they detect extensions or what

I didn't see anything, using uBlock Origin.

Yes, same. My subscription is mainly for Football, and when it's half time it's usually an excuse to go for a wander, take the bins out or put the kettle on.

When is "when you were a kid?"

For me, seeing a 1980s ad is pretty funny. At least I had the excuse that I was a kid.

(Though I recall even in the 90s thinking the whole "EXTREME!" thing was stupid. I think that may have been a pretty egregious case of geographic parochialness; surfer culture may seem totally radical when you're in Hollywood, with easy access to the beach almost year-round, but for anywhere else in the country who either doesn't live so far south, doesn't live near a surfable beach, or doesn't have the cash to fund such an expensive hobby, it was much less compelling.)

>Maybe it's a generational thing. Maybe it's laziness (i.e. let them decide what I watch, I don't want to pick). Maybe it's the convenience of the interface (it just works, no connecting, changing channels is near instant, etc). Maybe a combo of all of those.

That's all likely true to some degree. Personally, I've probably become more and more a very intentional (and occasional) TV watcher and I've never been one to flip the TV on in, say, a hotel room for background when I walk in the door. I still have a cable bundle but I rarely use it.

I've never found value in TV (cable or otherwise) because it seems to be mostly ads these days, but I do a very similar thing in the car. I subscribe to SiriusXM radio (because most channels are commercial-free while FM radio around me is loaded with more ads than music). I have a music streaming service and music on my phone I can pick from, but more often than not I don't want to pick my music. Especially while I'm driving. So I turn on a station I like and can listen ad-free. And if I flip to another station, it's highly likely I'm flipping to another song being played, not to another ad being played like FM radio or TV.

If cable TV could be commercial-free like satellite radio, I might be a subscriber. It's the same reason I cancelled my NYT.com subscription: I don't like paying for the privilege of watching advertisements. If I'm paying you money, I'd better get an ad-free experience. If my monthly fee doesn't cover the cost of replacing ads, then you're not charging me enough.

Maybe Netflix should set up channels where they just play shows back to back like cable TV does.

One problem I found is that streaming services have too much mental overhead. It sounds funny, but look at Netflix original content; Most of the story writing is "too good" and too dark (like most of their content seems to be about murderers or spooky stuff or substance abuse). I have to remember what happened in the previous episode and pay attention so I know whats happening in the next episode

Things on cable are more focused on self contained episodes. Black mirror accomplished this but again, it was too emotionally heavy. Netflix is too focused on binge watchers.

I haven't really found content (except old series from cable) that I can just "zone out" and be entertained like Futurama, cooking or auto shows and not worry if i didnt watch all of it.

I'm overseas and so I dont have a lot of the series from cable on Netflix. The content it has is good. But its not something I want to unwind with in the background.

At least cardboard decomposes, whereas plastic remains in a landfill for eternity.

Waste is waste but at least cardboard is sourced from renewable tree farms and when it's dumped in a landfill it is sequestering carbon.