We're building a dystopia just to make people click on ads [video]

Post by hikewkwek » Sun, Apr 27, 2025, 9:02 PM UTC

breatheoften wrote: post #86

antfarm wrote: post #28

My way to circumvent most of this: I am using Safari with AdBlock Pro and AdBlock and see zero ads when browsing the web. I spend more time on YouTube than I care to admit, so I got a Premium subscription, bought an extension called UnTrap for YouTube to hide most recommendations and turned off all YouTube history etc. I regularly visit BlueSky, Hacker News and YouTube, but not X, TikTok, Instagram or Facebook. The h…

Is there anyway to fully disable youtube shorts/reels/whatever that mess is called ...? I quite like youtube long form content but have found myself occasionally in short form rabbit holes (which are both very addicting and extremely unsatisfying and which motivated me to delete instagram to escape when i realized how much a time and emotion suck they are)

  // ==UserScript==
  // @name         Redirect YouTube Shorts to Regular Videos (Mobile-Friendly)
  // @namespace    https://example.com/
  // @version      1.4
  // @description  Redirects YouTube Shorts URLs to regular video URLs on mobile
  // @author       YourName
  // @match        *://*.youtube.com/*
  // @run-at       document-end
  // @grant        none
  // ==/UserScript==
  
  //Written by GPT-4o Mini
  (function () {
      'use strict';
  
      // Function to redirect Shorts to regular video URLs
      function redirect() {
          if (location.pathname.startsWith("/shorts")) {
              const videoId = location.pathname.split("/")[2];
              const newUrl = "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=" + videoId;
              window.location.replace(newUrl);
          }
      }
  
      // Observe changes to the DOM and check for navigation
      const observer = new MutationObserver(() => {
          redirect();
      });
  
      // Start observing the body for changes
      observer.observe(document.body, { childList: true, subtree: true });
  
      // Initial check in case a Shorts URL is loaded directly
      redirect();
  })();

Post by corytheboyd » Sun, Apr 27, 2025, 9:05 PM UTC

grumbel wrote: post #195

ujkhsjkdhf234 wrote: post #90

I have been groaning about income inequality a lot but it is amazing how much of this can be explained by it. People do not have the disposable income to spend on services so you make people pay with attention. Give them the carrot for free so they don't notice. On top of that, the product is free so there is no expectation of support for the end user. You're getting it for free so what are you complaining about?

Money alone wouldn't fix this, as a Web where every page has a paywall wouldn't be much better either. Which in turn would concentrate most of the Web in a few services just as it is today and enshittyfication would bring the ads back sooner or later, even if you pay for the service.

Post by eesmith » Sun, Apr 27, 2025, 9:11 PM UTC

1oooqooq wrote: post #16

eesmith wrote: post #9

Pohl and Kornbluth in 1952 wrote "The Space Merchants" - "a novel of the future when advertising agencies take over." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Space_Merchants

you will like https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_Government also, the premise of the entire lore of shadow run, is corporations building armies and seeing they can get away with it and then just doubling down. but back to reality... everyone would buy stock of the ad-dystopia and since now their retirement is tired to it they will just normalize and promote it. just like today.

Post by altairprime » Sun, Apr 27, 2025, 9:16 PM UTC

no_wizard wrote: post #169

dijit wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The funny thing is that we fought so hard against pop-ups throughout the 90's and 2000's only to re-implement pop-ups in javascript as soon as we could.

I have always wondered what the web would be like if we added the scripting language later and only solidified CSS and HTML for the first 15 years or so. I wonder if things would actually be better overall. I’m not going to argue that having a scripting language for the web was a mistake, it definitely isn’t on the whole, but I think having it come at a more mature point for the web might have helped stave off a lot…

Post by NBJack » Sun, Apr 27, 2025, 9:20 PM UTC

no_wizard wrote: post #169

dijit wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The funny thing is that we fought so hard against pop-ups throughout the 90's and 2000's only to re-implement pop-ups in javascript as soon as we could.

I have always wondered what the web would be like if we added the scripting language later and only solidified CSS and HTML for the first 15 years or so. I wonder if things would actually be better overall. I’m not going to argue that having a scripting language for the web was a mistake, it definitely isn’t on the whole, but I think having it come at a more mature point for the web might have helped stave off a lot…