Hacker News Reader

Comment by karlgkk | Hacker News Reader

Between adblock, piracy, and generally avoiding services, and things that make me see ads…

it’s always really jarring when I visit my parents and I’m forced to watch cable TV. It’s like being assaulted.

I got assulted with a youtube ad recently I couldn't believe how bad it made me feel and I don't really know why. At least the ads on twitter are generally amusing in a way where it's some ai furries that look like kids or some outright scam, but having an ad pretend to be my friend / relate to me felt so offputting that it doesn't even make sense.

> At least the ads on twitter are generally amusing in a way where it's some ai furries that look like kids or some outright scam

Ironic, as most of the furries I know hate GenAI with a passion.

They're very annoying all around on YouTube. Hit skip, wait five seconds, hit skip again... and if you don't, there's a several minute ad??!

I see some adverts on YouTube on channels I watch, I just jump ahead (“commonly skipped section” feature). Some I actually enjoy and don’t jump over (map men ones are typically good).

I don’t recognise this “wait 5 seconds” bit.

That bit is for the preroll ad you get without an adblocker.

IIRC the wide use of adblockers in the US constitutes the largest consumer boycott in the world. Obviously there are some caveats that come with that statement, such as how you can simply download a specific browser and you're technically participating, but still interesting to me nonetheless.

This. Even watching cable TV in a hotel room feels like a different life.

OTOH, my (teen) kids get a kick out of watching commercials sometimes, because it's something novel to them and they say it actually helps bring their attention to stuff they had no idea existed..

The parent's cable is so bad. First of all, the ratio is way off. Like 60% content to 40% advertisements, and I'm being generous. Then it's SO LOUD. Maybe the decibels aren't actually higher (I think that was outlawed?) but these ad firms employ some top notch sound designers that make their ads almost impossible to tune out.

I have no idea how this is still a viable product. Coasting off Boomer's 50+ year old habits I guess?

Coming from Europe, US TV is really something dystopian. There's this constant stream of interruption to put as much ads as possible in your face, it's disgusting.

Unfortunately it is very easy to get around dB rules with aggressive loudness mixing

Meanwhile plenty of the rest of the world still has strict limits on the amount of commercials per hour of content, and gets to enjoy more of the show they actually pay for rather than being sold a drug for a condition they do not have.

Reagan lifted some of those limits because "free market", because apparently a free market requires you to not get the content you pay for? Also so we could directly advertise to children more. Reagan literally removed restrictions to selling your child plastic shit and America loved it.

American consumers are so much more willing to put up with atrocious crap it seems.

It's a viable product because Americans work very hard to not look around and see the way other people have it in other countries, because they can't copy that, because america is "special"

Reply on news.ycombinator.com