What a crazy read! Terrifying but somehow also hopeful?
Indeed, long but good read. Showed in great detail how we got here and what has to change
Zero per cent of app users are running ad blockers
Not to take away from his point, but... Pi-Hole.
I use AdAway to modify the host file on my Android phone. I literally can't load ad content; sometimes it gets in the way since the ad is the easiest way to get to what I want to click occasionally, lol.
Also, the Vanced app can modify apps to eliminate ads. Or X-Manager for Spotify does a similar thing.
Then there are alternative front-end apps, like NewPipe/LibreTube for YouTube, Xtra for Twitch, and others.
Or there is just straight piracy to avoid the ads, but in their own apps. Stremio + Torrentio + a Debrid service is basically a pirate Netflix app with full control of your stream quality.
Regardless, I think his point mostly stands; it's a very small percentage of users modifying apps to avoid ads or telemetry.
Yeah, <1% would be the more technically accurate answer.
I'm still not sure why that works, honestly. If I was going to be evil I'd load the ad data via the same packets as the app payload. It wouldn't be hard and there's no way I'm the first to think of this.
If too many people were blocking the ad servers, apps could tunnel the ads through a single connection to the app... but that would only work for ads served by the same platform as the app (like Meta ads in Meta apps, Google ads in Google apps, etc.), with 3rd party ad networks not trusting random app developers' tracking and engagement data to send them a payout... so blocking the ad servers is likely to keep working for those, and for the larger platforms as long as they don't see much value in spending resources to counter it.
The vast majority of mobile ads are served from google or apple, which likely is not where the rest if the app data is served from. It makes it particularly easy to block mobile ads from adMob or whatever the apple equivalent is called.
You don't even need pihole, there are VPN-based apps that screen and block ad domains.
I agree that pi-hole is an option here, but yeah, the reality is that most daily users don't even know what it is. At least, not yet.
Adblock Plus and it's betters became ubiquitous in large part because they were so incredibly easy to install. As easy as gramma accidentally installing yet another yahoo toolbar on accident. Like, too easy.
Pi-Hole isn't hard to install, and there are some fantastic guides to help users get it running with essentially zero prior knowledge. But in my opinion, I think until it gets closer to "push-button" easiness, pi-hole and systems like it will really be limited to the <5% of users motivated enough to go through the steps, who aren't mortified of logging into their router's admin page. I want us to get there faster, and we're a hell of a lot closer than 10 or even 5 years ago. But we're not quite there yet.
Edit-typo
Finding it ironic that I’m literally not able to finish this article because it keeps plastering the page with ads.
Get Firefox, or any of the lemmy clients that offer reader mode. Avelon, voyager, Thunder, I’m sure there are plenty of others.
Reader mode is a must for everything I read these days.
@Gaywallet As usual, Cory Doctorow writes beautifully and insightfully (go read the article, it isn't just a litany of what is bad, it is about how it is bad and why it is bad). Hard to pick just one pull quote but I'll go with "the potential anti-enshittification coalition is massive".
It's also got a substantial helping of "here's how things are getting better, and will continue to get better in the future."
So, fun fact, until recently I only knew him as the guy XKCD makes fun of occasionally. I read one of his posts on something recently, though, and I was pretty damn impressed with the depth of research.
This is a really great read, but I'm less optimistic than he is.
Retirement rates are up and new workers in the work force are down. (Look at a demographic pyramid for more details)
Instead of “saving for retirement” by giving money to investors to invest in growth opportunities, now retirees are taking money out of the system to live on. Suddenly the pressure Is no longer on growth for companies, it’s on generating revenue that can be passed on to share holders, ether by stock buy backs or dividends. And there are not nearly enough new young workers coming to the work force and putting away savings in investments to make up the difference.
Capital is getting rarer now, if companies want it, they need to prove they can generate revenue, no more blitz scaling, no more “we’ll figure out how to monetize later”. Suddenly the free services need to make money, enshittification is the inevitable result.
Just to be clear, generally stock buy backs are not to increase revenue or dividends, but to increase the stock price by creating a false scarcity. Potential dividend increases from corporate stock ownership are a shell game as the corporation received the dividend and it is simply added to the cash on hand and book value.
Nearly all growth in stocks is capital based. Every corporation wants to increase revenue and profits because that forms the basis for valuation. Yes, there are young companies who are "forward looking" and trading on factors based on revenue and not net income, but most of the market is based on a net income multiplier (which varies by industry).
As much pressure as the boomers (and soon GenXers) will place on revenue, it will never be enough to support the lifestyle to which they have become accustomed. Rather, they will be selling capital to fund their retirements. This will lead to long term stagnation of stock prices (in the best scenario) or a collapse of market value as retirees try to sell their stock for the next 9 month round-the-world cruise. This is a negative feedback loop, too, as the more people sell, the lower the value of their stock, requiring they sell even more shares to get to a fixed value in cash. I think of this as just one more Fuck You (added to the collapse of public health and public retirement subsidies) the boomers will be handing Millennials and GenZ. Actually, I thought you might catch a break with housing, as the value of housing as they all move into retirement homes would drop with the glut of units coming to market. Alas, corporations have found they can buy those units and rent them back at exorbitant rates, so they'll be tag teaming the boomers in fucking over the youth of today.
What I meant by stock buy backs as a way of generating revanue was more that it’s a way to take revanue and pass it on the shareholder without using dividends, which are what the corporate tax is on. The way I worded it was really poor.
I don’t think the current generation of retirees are screwing over younger generations maliciously, they just haven’t critically examined the whole economic system and don’t seem to get that the current system is incredibly unsustainable, they just want the money they were promised. They are so insulated from the decision making process that they don’t understand the reality of what they’re demanding.
Seems to be very similar to his The Enshittification of TikTok post, linked here on his own platform (no ads).
I didn't do a full comparison, though.
Its literally the same author, doing a follow-up to that article.
I learned about Cory Doctorow when I found a copy of Down and Out In the Magic Kingdom at a bus stop. Never been disappointed.
Cory 😍😍
Perhaps you know of examples from Smart City, such a downgrading of public services in your cities?
