Ask Lemmy

I take ads as a personal attack on my psyche. I turn my toothpaste around so I'm not looking at the logo. I pirate any shows I want to watch, and I use uBlock Origin in my browser.

My guess is that normal people, such as the ones least likely to be on Lemmy, don’t do anything when an ad plays. They’re accustomed to seeing them, and aren’t likely to be inclined to stop them, as quite a few on here would. There are always outliers, though.

One of the following:

• Ignore, do nothing.
• Fast forward. An ad break is around 15 min so sometimes we start watching a program late so we can fast forward ads later.
• Change channel. Sometimes half the ad breaks are at the end of the program so by changing channel you don't lose anything lol.

Why you askin Lemmy what normal people do?!

Lol, the fuck is an ad???

I either pay for no ads, or sail the high seas

Fucks ads

When I was a kid I would change the channel until commercials were over

I can't stand ads. It's even worse on TV when they yell them at you. So I actually stopped watching TV in 2009 because I couldn't stop the ads, and I was tired to have the TV trying to convince me to buy a car every 15 minutes.

If I want to watch something that was on TV, I download it from... * the internet *.

My parents still watch TV and just let the ads blast in the background, and we need to yell over them to talk. I hate it. Then they're like "oh it's just like in the ad". I don't know how they can tolerate this. I did when I was younger but when I realized that the TV was trying to sell me twice a car in 15 minutes, or about 8 times an hour, I couldn't help but notice and it's just really annoying.

I haven't seen an add in years, but I would mute or do something else like a regular commercial break. You know, snack, maybe bathroom, check my phone, etc.

Ads are my chance to get up, make a snack, come back and find that along with the ads I've missed the next 5 minutes of my show

I mute them, look away, or go to another room. Can't let the bastards win..

I mute ads when I can’t ship them and I’m not walking away to get something. They’re so loud. 🔇

I ignore them. I don't really watch TV channels nowadays, both shows and ads are just background noises to me.

I mute and change channels. Bout half of them have the same ads on at the same time though

Team mute all the way.

BTW I hate using Apple TV.

My home is off the grid

What are ads?

I haven't had an ad in my house or on my devices in like 15years. I block all ads.

When I go elsewhere or out and see an ad I literally get confused for a second before I remember people still let them play.

Don't suffer through ads friend.

Mute ads in live sports. Absolutely.

Avoid ads in all other formats.

One of the best things I did was raise my kids ad-free for the first 5 or 6 years of their lives. The first time they saw ads, they were baffled about what they were, then they were baffled why people would put up with them.

Ads? Hmm. No, now that you mention it. I must be doing it wrong, because I never see ads.

🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️

I have no idea what normal people do, but I avoid ads at all costs. Sometimes I pay premium, sometimes I just don't watch.

Ads aren't a thing in my life. On the off day I have to visit someone who lives with ads and suffer through one or two I tough it out, or look at my phone, or do something different.

I don't watch live TV. I dont pay for any subscription services except phone service and internet data. I watch YouTube content that has the ads stripped out. I download youtube videos that get often rewatched to hard drive. For movies I buy DVD that can have the drm stripped out.

I play good video games preferably drm free (steam is the one service I can't really give up easy, but it has offline mode and the deck so praise gaben!). I read e-books that are drm free. I have a mp3 player downloaded with all my music drm free.

The better question is, why are you willing to live with ads at all? Assuming you are in control of your living situation and have the power change whats shown on tv or played through speakers.

Why would you tolerate being constantly bombarded with manipulative messaging by companies, political canpaigns, and all the other powerful groups who want to affect he masses for their benefit?

Why is it so hard just say no? To give up the forms of toxic entertainment delivery? Why can't you sacrifice ease and convinence and familiarity to regain some control overhow your attention is spent during free time?

If you like something, buy it and really take the steps to own it physically.

I solved this problem by having not watched cable television in like ten years.

Ads?

Visit a house where they have the tv on all the time. Commercials and everything. It's harsh.

I jolly roger everything. No commercials.

Has anyone watched an NHL game lately. They got annoying moving ads on the boards. Hard to concentrate on the puck with whirling ads in the background. Someone needs to use AI to counter thier AI. It's enough for me to stop watching. And I mute ads of course.

I stopped watching TV some 15 years ago or smth.

I found a cool way of ad-blocking back when I watched TV. Probably does not work anymore, and relies on Teletext page 888 (closed captions, the number varies by country) not being updated during ads.

1. Mute
2. Switch to another channel and back to clear Teletext cache
3. Turn on fullscreen Teletext, any page (I like the 89x test patterns)
4. Type "888" as the page you want to go to
5. The TV will now wait for 888 to be broadcast, which only happens after ads and trailers
6. The program is now running with captions. Disable Teletext and unmute if you want sound instead.

I stopped watching 'tv' because of ads. No way will I pay for ads or be subjected to them as best I can.

I don't watch shit with adds lol. I just recently learned that in the US Netflix, Amazon Prime and the such offer paid subscriptions that still show adds. Like what the actual fuck? Just pirate at that point, the bad sites have an equal share of adds and the good ones have none, it's a much better experience.

I find ads on tv to actually be entertaining. Like sometimes even cinematic masterpieces. Last time I watched tv was Olympic games so I don't watch tv all too often anyway.

No TV, no ads. Simple.

My spouse and I have not been forced to watch a TV-ad since the late 90S. Since the day we got rid of our TV once and for all, when we realized the were expecting us to pay good money to buy a TV set and then still have to watch their ads, and more and more of them? Not the best deal. So thx, but no. 25 years later, we still have to regret it once ;)