I keep noticing that in non ad cluttered UIs and searches my eyes automatically go to the secondary information sometimes making me miss the primary information.
Someone will say “click on “name” element” and I’ll search for it but miss it even though it’s the most “eye catching” thing. Or I find I open the link a few down from the top one even if it’s not sponsored.
The mental filter to find good information hiding in a sea of dominant splashy advertisements has resulted in a reduction in my performance in processing well meaning eye catching designs meant to guide me to useful information.
Has anyone else experienced this?
Can’t relate; I blocked ads on every PC, phone, and TV I own over 15 years ago now and haven’t looked back. Don’t know why anyone would voluntarily put up with ads when there are oh so many ways to easily block them.
Firefox w/Ublock Origin
NextDNS
DuckDuckGo App Tracking Protection
YouTube/YT Music ReVanced
SmartTubeNext
Stremio, Torrentio, and Real-Debrid^ Look into these things. They will change your life forever.
No, been blocking ads for twenty years or more.
I mostly do but now ads for services are baked into some software. But yeah when I don’t have to use it for work will be a blessing
Been using FOSS services for 15 years. No ads, no dark patterns, good documentation.
You’re a victim of your own failure to advocate. Ads aren’t just an annoyance, they are a security failure. Even “trusted” ad networks have been infiltrated and dispersed malware. If you are allowed the browse the internet at all at work, I would not ALLOW you to browse the web without an adblocker at minimum.
With ReVanced you can patch adds out of some apps.
You can also setup AdGuard or PiHole on your network, which will block the vast majority of adds coming into your network.
So as long as you’re on your WiFi, no adds
blokada can block in app ads, to an extent
are you using Linux artch btw
Various distros over the years; used OpenBSD, FreeBSD and Solaris for a while, back using Fedora at the moment.
I can’t remember the last time I saw an ad on the internet, but then again I zealously block them in every way I can.
Yeah I don’t even start reading or watching until the ads are gone.
Why are you seeing ads online?
I use arch btw.
Nope. I’ve successfully avoided most digital ads my entire life thus far. Block 'em all. Plus I don’t watch Shorts etc on any platform current day or long defunct apps in the past.
I read a ton still, and on paper for the majority of that. Guest room is full of book shelves. Some digital through epub / Moon+ Reader paid version of the app which… removes ads, haha. Not that I’d see them with TrackerControl installed, but the screen space waste blank ad bar would remain.
Stuff out of my control offline is it and it’s just annoying instead of detrimental. The gas station pumps adding obnoxious screens is the most infuriating new thing so far. I show up to movies later to miss the pre-rolls which is easy now with assigned seats.
Thats awesome. Aspiring to be you.
Thanks for mentioning TrackerControl, it is a true game changer!
Been looking for such an app for years! 🤍I’ve just installed it and suddenly Komoot has started behaving itself. Isn’t that interesting.
Link broken
Works for me…
No problem! It can be a little aggressive at times, but it’s easy enough to whitelist stuff. For example it blocked some YouTube ReVanced or Piefed/Lemmy thumbnails I noticed by default on my end. I’m running GrapheneOS for mobile.
Just in case you run into something broken and aren’t sure why lol.
if you can get something long and slender and relatively strong you can usually destroy the speaker.
I used to lol, but now they use the screens with the tinny awful built in rear mounted speakers you can’t reach.
Had the same thing with youtube videos, my brain filters out eye-catching thumbnails
I have
I never thought about this being caused by ads, but, maybe.
It goes beyond reading too. When I worked retail, we had a saying, “when you can’t find something, it’s right in front of you.” We would just look over the item we were searching for because we were looking everywhere but directly in front of us
I lost my hairbrush, couldn’t find it, gave up and used a comb. Three days later, It was right there on my nightstand.
I also lost my keys once for five days, (I had a spare set thankfully). They were on top of a cabinet.
All the damn time. It’s “funny” but honestly, so frustrating I’m like this. If I can’t find something, best to just wait, it’ll appear eventually.
I often joke to my wife: “I can’t find X anywhere! Give me something else to start looking for so I can find them!”
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nah i stil reed reel gud n stuff
what are a d s? so confused
I find online formats have shrunk my attention span. I don’t think I’ve experienced what you describe, however.
my best friends dad growing up was an advertisement executive… he gave me a lot of insight to advertising and advertisment…
basically you have to understand the game so you can block it, and once you understand the rules it won’t get to you and you won’t notice it … unless it’s marketing art and then you see it
