Who doesn't use an adblocker and why?

I don’t block anything. I work in accessibility, so it’s important to me to know what the experiences are like for my fellow users with disabilities. I also don’t want to recommend sites or apps that are riddled with inaccessible ads. I’d rather not give them traffic at all. Though even though I let them track me, I still get ads in a language I don’t speak for cars I can’t drive. What’re they doing with all that data?

A lot of people. For many, it's not even something they know exist. Even setting it up for them is a bother because of the occasional site it breaks, and the complete lack of technical awareness.

I know some of family don't because they mostly rely on mobile devices and devices like Chromecasts where installing ad blockers can be a challenge. They don't use traditional computers.

They know apps like NewPipe exist but the effort to port things over or not get recommendations is too much for them.

I do use ad blockers and open source front ends/software/alternatives. Ex. AntennaPod instead of Spotify for podcasts and Linux instead of Windows because I didn't like ads in the start menu (amongst numerous other things).

I use uBlock Origin and Consent-o-Matic. Works like a charm!

The biggest thing I miss from seeing ads is knowing what movies are in theaters... And I never think about looking haha.

I have AdNauseum on with the "Hide Ads" button unchecked and "leave non-tracking ads alone" option enabled. Privacy Badger is on too to detect tracking scripts.

I can safely ignore ads generally but what I want is to discourage the practice of annoying placements to farm clicks. If they want clicks then they can have as many of my fake ones as they wish.

My mom uses Edge, told me not to block Facebook ads and clicks on most of the clickbait articles on her MSN home page. It's like she WANTS them to collect as much data to sell and spy on her as much as possible 🤦

If you do use one what other blocking do you use to circumvent data collection, YouTube and reddit front ends and things alike?

Firefox on maximum security will get rid of all cookies when you close the window (ie exit from Firefox, not just close the tab). If there are sites that require cookies, you can use Firefox containers to stop it collecting data across other sites).

I do use adblockers but there are sites which deserve the revenue (and don't bombard you with shite) so I try to remember to whitelist them. But I'm not as diligent about this as I should be. Someone does have to pay for it and we don't have a decent system to do that without advertising (yet). I can't subscribe to the eleventy million sites I visit so advertising is a necessary evil (atm). Obviously, denying bad sites the advertising revenue is a public service, so there's that.

Lady I used to sit next to at work didn't use an ad blocker. She also would have like the "do you want to install this plugin?" thing open in her ide for weeks. I don't know how she did it. She's a software developer so she's reasonably tech literate. It just didn't bother her enough to think about doing something about it.

By default I'm using adblocker but when I notice I'm visiting a new site more frequently like wikis for games, I disable it and keep it off if the site is usable.

I haven't bothered yet because I don't really frequent the types of sites where the ads get in the way (although my occasional Youtube visits are starting to convince me to use one).

I do use a plugin made by the EFF that blocks certain tracking cookies though.

I asked a friend of mine about this recently and she told me it was because it helps her kids learn patience.

That got me thinking about it, I personally learned a rather large amount of patience because of ads when I was growing up so it made a lot of sense to me.

If you do use one what other blocking do you productively use to circumvent data collection, YouTube and reddit front ends and things alike?

I use an ad blocker, and in addition also use Pi-hole for network-wide domain based tracker blocking. I use tailscale to use this on my phone, but also have Tracker Control (the real version installed from F-Droid) to do something similar if for some reason I need to disable Tailscale (only one can be used at once, as they both use the VPN method).

People who aren't trying.

Because.

My wife, she plays mobile games where you get temporary boosts if you watch an ad.

I only recently started using uBlock but it's not really because of ads (which I don't mind too much as long as they don't prevent me seeing the page content). I use it mainly to automate the rejection of cookie popups, which have become absolutely absurd.

I don't. I know they exist, and I could probably have one set up in under ten minutes, but I just don't care.

And I know what they do. I know what they collect. I used to sell online ads for the local paper, geomapping and all that shit. They still know.

I just don't usually find ads to be intrusive enough to have blocking them be worthwhile.

As others have said, I don't mind supporting small content creators by watching the ads.

Edit: imagine getting downvoted for an honest answer lol. So sorry that you don't like my opinion!

Laziness.

Plus, if it’s too many ads and too much tracking, maybe it’s my using the thing that’s the problem.

I didn’t until recently. I wanted to give companies I valued credit, in some way. But, ads are completely out of control and it broke me so I started using ublock a few months ago. It’s so much better and I’m not looking back.

I don't use any ad blocker, and I don't care.

I don’t because I work in SEO and I need to see how some things just work to troubleshoot or find hidden gems from competitors.

However, on my home computers I absolutely do!

I don't use an adblocker. 90% of the sites I visit don't abuse ads. When I was younger I used to go to sketchy sites to watch content for free, but now I'm in a position where I can pay for the content so I do. The last time I pirated something was an anime because no streaming service offered it, I had to buy blu rays.

Also, I like targeted ads. Most of the time you can ignore them, but every once in a while they show you something interesting that you do actually want. I've picked up a few board games that way. I didn't buy it through the ad, but it did cause me to start researching it.

I use my phone except for work. If there are good iPhone ad blockers, if use them.

I'm simply too lazy.

I would use one, I'm not opposed, but I've just never bothered. I don't use a lot of sites with prominent ads.

I don't use ad blockers on YouTube because the creators that I watch on YouTube are people who I actually care about. I watch content on YouTube from real people who I want to be able to profit off of me watching their video. Ad blockers are effectively piracy, your taking the content without the agreed upon price, in this case, the price of the content is the ads.

And I don't make that comparison to convince anyone that they shouldn't use an ad blocker, I just think the decision of where to use ad blockers should be made with the understanding that you are pirating any content that you consume while using an ad blocker. Are you willing to pirate something from some random mega corporation? I am. Are willing to pirate content from this niche 3D printing YouTube content creator that you enjoy? I'm not.

As a default, I do use an ad blocker, but I will disable the ad blocker for any website that I can trust enough to not have malicious ads, especially websites that i want to financially support. Because for me all it means is sacrificing a little bit of bandwidth to load the ad that I'm just going to ignore anyway.

I have been using adguard dns on my phone for years. For the past one year or so also using adblockers on browser (Firefox). Used to watch youtube with ads. Got fed up moved to watching youtube in browser with adblocker, then finally moved to newpipe sponsor block when youtube started adblocker shenanigans. For pc I use cloud flare dns, regular adblockers (Firefox) and keep privacy and security settings on strict.

I don't use one because I feel that the more people use ad blockers, the more intrusive and annoying the ads will be for people that aren't using one, and less overall content will be available for free. The only ads that I can't stand are video ads, and that's why I have YouTube premium.

Nearly everyone uses at least some level of adblocking. Pretty much every major browser blocks pop-up ads by default, so the people who are too lazy or computer illiterate to do anything other than the default are still going to have some ad blocking.

Internet Explorer 6 added this feature in 2001, so even your grandpa still stubbornly running his end of life Windows XP probably has a popup blocker.

On top of an adblocker, I use Pi-hole/Adguard home for DNS blocking.

For added privacy, I also use my own unbound DNS server, which can be easily setup with Pi-hole, so that I make as few external DNS requests as possible.

I don’t use an adblocker when I browse in ios because I don’t know how to

I turn off my adblocker for YouTube if it's a creator who should be getting revenue from the video. I'm not happy with Google's cut of it though...

I use my usual addons like privacy badger, Ghostery, ublock and Tampermonkey to get rid of the annoying "disable your adblocker" message on youtube.

I don’t, without the advertising a lot of the content can’t exist and I like the context to exist.

No, because I want the content that I consume to be financially viable. You either accept the ads, or seek out other sites with other payment models.

For mobile, you might need to block ads at a DNS level instead.

Because I am not sure if I want a 3rd party "controlling" my trafic. It sucks that my behavior is shared around in ad networks but I am not sure if the ad blocking components are more trustworthy. There are certainly good solutions out there but I am sceptic of the explosion of new ad blocking tools. Having said that, I never did a deep research to check if my scepticism is justified..

Ads are what have been keeping the internet largely free. They don't really bother me anyways. Both the creator/site/company and the consumer benefit from this transaction. If the ads make the experience unbearable though, easy enough to simply disengage from it.

Stop telling people to use adblockers ffs... Obviously most ppl on lemmy are smart enough to know about addblockers but the only way we get to keep using them is if enough "normies" watch adds. Stop educating people about addblockers for the love of god.