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Comment by submeta | Hacker News Reader

Whenever I'm sitting in front of a computer that isn't using ad blockers, I'm shocked to see how polluted websites are, practically yelling at me, vying for my attention. How can folks concentrate on an article without ad blockers?

Then there are those ads in YouTube videos and blog articles purporting to offer the reader something valuable when, in fact, they're packed with falsehoods ("xyz changed my life, and if you want to check it out, please click on this affiliate link").

While I can't block ads on the radio, on the internet, I make a point of blocking every ad I can.

There are other ways to reward an author or a website. For instance, I block ads on sites like Haaretz, but I do subscribe to them because I believe quality content deserves compensation.

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I don't think I have ADHD but trying to read a news website without an ad blocker actually triggers me a little. The content keeps moving around as the ads are pumped in, and then a video (often unrelated to the article) begins to play, and it's often impossible to close it.

I'm unable to concentrate on the article. And then the ads change and a new batch is rotated in. Some of them try their best to obscure the content, they are all demanding my attention like screeching birds in the nest.

Firefox has an absolutely fantastic reader view (f9) which turns the page into something resembling an ebook with the ability to resize the font and adjust the pagination. All the distracting fluff is gone. Bliss.

I do have ADHD. The idea that people are out there just raw-dogging the internet with no ad-blockers makes me deeply uncomfortable.

> raw-dogging the Internet

Dann thats a great way of putting it.

So sad that this is what the Internet's become.

Do you use a reader app like Readwise Reader or Pocket? I have ADHD and they help a ton, both because saving the article strips the ads and because I can return to them later when I inevitably get distracted.

I use pocket but I've been starting to use Omnivore and considering a switch.

I have ADHD and the only way it works for me is to use adblocker, disable all video, save the article to zotero if I want to read it in first pass.

I have a set designated time period to read news and never use internet for information outside that period. I disable internet and read only my saved zotero articles one after another until I'm done.

Rules are essential to not let this attention economy businesses ruin your life if you have ADHD.

Yeah if I click on an interesting article title and the first thing it pops up is some stupid "do you agree to cookies" and "do you want to subscribe to the newsletter" at the same time on top of each other I usually just click out. I'm lazy. If they aren't watching their bounce rates, their loss.

I use blockers too, but they don't catch all of them, especially the stupid cookie popups.

I never get cookie popups. I use the, "I don't care about cookies", web browser plug-in.

I haven't used an ad blocker in years. The short answer: you get used to it. Banner blindness is a real thing

Might you explain /why/?

he works for ad company, is what crossed in my mind.

Hah, nope. Not my cup of tea :)

Maybe he does not surf websites with low-quality content.

Sorry for the late reply, I didn't think to check back on this :)

A couple reasons:

Back when I did use them, I got really bothered by sites breaking, and I'd rather have the ads than dealing with "is this broken because of my ad blocker or is the site broken". Now, I've just gotten to the point where I don't really mind.

The other part is there's enough content I consume that is supported by ads that I would like to continue supporting, without having to consciously opt into it (e.g. news sites; I don't want to pay a subscription for every newspaper but am happy to contribute to what little money they get from ads)

Not OP but I do something similar, because I know each ad I see costs someone $$$. This leads to odd behavior like making sure I let youtube ads play for their full duration and I'll usually click on sponsor links + their pages enough to trigger the first flag of a sales pipeline, ensuring the company responsible for the ad pays as much as possible for it.

And therefore you are rewarding and validating this behavior, so that content authors continue to pile on more and worse ads.

I doubt you're completely "blind" to them, I strongly suspect that on some level you're still processing those images despite being unaware of them. Sometimes I catch myself thinking about things I've seen on billboards and other advertisements, despite consciously filtering those images out. It's quite invasive, really.

I wonder what impact they have on people's mental health.

Not everyone gets used to it.

Anyone who claims they are unaffected by advertising likely just understand how the human brain works. You aren't immune. No one is.

... likely doesn't understand... ?

There's research about it: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-fallible-mind/20...

There is certainly a difference in reaction though. There are people that cannot resist if you slap a percentage on something. It doesn't matter if they need it or the price is even good. There is something to save here and it is all that matters...

And it even affects people that should be adapt at math too.

Actually, I don't think I'm immune; I'm definitely affected by ads. But I definitely get used to seeing them and don't think about them actively. Sometimes I miss that they're even on a page.

When you hear something when you're sleeping, it gets memorized and analyzed for you. That's the basis of hypnosis and also the idea around which scientology started long ago. It can be used to program an individual, bypassing his critical thinking. Advertisements use the same trick to prime buyers to favor certain brands. If you doubt it, do a simple experiment: record yourself saying something and make the recording play back at night, when you're sleeping.

I sometimes browse my Google Discover feed on my phone, which I've set up to open articles in Firefox (on which I have an adblocker installed), and sometimes I browse my Google News Feed, which opens articles in its internal Chrome browser.

The difference in experience is striking. Random auto-playing videos that are stuck in the corner of your browser. Horizontally it takes up like half of my screen. It has an X button that either doesn't work, OR its hit box is just so tiny that you have to tap it multiple times to get it to actually close. Not to mention cookie banners that take up 20% of my vertical real estate.

Maybe you can get used to that shitty experience, but I certainly can't. I almost always just immediately open Google News articles in Firefox now.

Mobile news sites are so bad I have a hard time believing that it was done on purpose. The actual content of the article is actually hard to find among (or beneath!) the mess of advertisements and clickbait.

People ignore them, just like TV ads.

Speak for yourself. I don't own a TV precisely because the ads got too much. I haven't owned a TV in well over a decade. I have a cinema system I just hook up to my laptop whenever I want to watch a movie or series from some streaming service. I doubt I'm rare in this regard.

I have a 16yo TV just because I don't know what to put in its place. And I have cable TV just because cable TV + 500mbps internet was cheaper than 300mbps internet by itself. It's a crazy world we live in.

Haven't turned it on since the FIFA world cup last year, though.

> [Some] people [are able to] ignore them, just like TV ads.

FTFY. I am definitely not one of them. If I'm hanging out at a TV-heavy friend's place they all chat happily over the obnoxious ads while I try+fail to ignore them.

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