@futurebird I only watch YouTube on the television.

@u0421793

You still can use playlists and other features on the TV.

But on a TV I can't find a way to block "mid roll" ads. Though if you pay it will block most of the interrupting ads.

@futurebird A trick I use sometimes is to start and make immediately pause a video on my phone so that it shows up in my watch history, then go to the watch history on my TV and start it from there

@futurebird my approach to advertising is to attempt (partly successfully but not wholly) to ‘curate’ my advertising viewscape – I instantly block any advert for a motor vehicle, and if it doesn’t stop playing once blocked I’ll just switch the whole thing off and walk away then come back (with a coffee). I also block food adverts that focus on meat. I instantly block any advert that starts with an irritating clicky-ticky sound (no advertising agency should hold the mindset that an upbeat percussive-only clacky bangy ticketyticketytickety sound is going to help their objective by attracting attention, you’ve already got the attention, treat it carefully).

On the other hand, I very much like a lot of the adverts I do see. For example, the new Tesco ad campaign (the ‘For the love of itʼ campaign, created with BBH London) is absolutely one of the best adverts I’ve seen in a long time, I was just watching a thing now and it came on and I watched it all the way through and smiled again, it’s excellent.

I’m not willing to block every advert, a lot of them are pleasant and enjoyable even if I’m never going to buy the product or use the service. Also advertising isn’t the ‘evil’ people consider it to be, or if it is, then choosing your own content or products to consume purely by peer influence is just as bad, if you don’t get influence over mindshare one way, it’ll be through another, and just because one way seems overtly commercial doesn’t mean other ways of being influenced are pure and loving and full of light. And if a person isn’t influenced they’re not really doing anything much in life, a person isn’t an island, they’re not going to formulate directions to act or think just by themselves, that doesn’t happen despite what some macho but insecure members of society would like to portray ‘oh I make up my own mind about things in life’ oh really.

Also having spent quite a while as a freelance designer and graphic artist (most actively in the 90s but with huge gaps of inactivity) the whole advertising agency world was a complete laugh, wonderful atmosphere, lots of money and resources to get things done (and be paid in), generally nice and smart people, not overworked but lots of work to do, and a good respect for the skills we all had. The advertising world was a lot of fun and did good things, I consider. At least in London this was the case, I’ve no idea outside that. So maybe that alters my view of advertising, I see it a tiny bit from the inside too.

@u0421793

That makes sense. I'm more fanatical about advertisements. If I could find a way to block the ads that play on the subway too I would. I'm like... Amish or something.

@futurebird it might be a cultural/national thing too – the adverts we get here in the UK are if anything probably more respectful and dare I say it more cerebral than the country you have to put up with seeing adverts in. From the little I’ve seen (some has escaped over the times) the only thing I can say about adverts from your country is (to use an -ism from your country) “sucks to be you” – but then adverts across Europe are their own thing too, Spain’s advertising is just, well, like the UK but hi-energi and louder (but then so are the Spanish).

@futurebird I think about advertising a lot (we all do, but I mean differently) and I think half (approx 50%) of the reason so many people object to the advertising we’re all subjected to all the time is not so much because of the content or style of the adverts themselves, but rather, that “how dare you have found a way to present adverts to me so freely and effectively”. It’s that advertising has that sort of access to your mind that people object to, not the adverts themselves. This is an important difference.

@futurebird Having said that, I will mute most casual average general adverts and just not point my head in the direction of the telly, which means that when the YouTube video itself starts I miss the beginning often, because YouTubers just start straight in and begin talking or whatever from the first millisecond. I appreciate a YouTuber giving the video a nice relaxed approach and give me time to unmute in a civilised manner.

@futurebird @u0421793 There are ways to do it but you start falling down the tech rabbit hole.

Most people don't have the time, knowledge, or inclination to do browser plugin ad blocking, much less a pihole or other advanced methods.

I forget who, but someone commented that as techies we need to work harder at changing the whole system instead of relying on our skills to whack a mole.