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_number8_ @lemmy.world

Do normal people mute the ads or just let the television keep going?

I diligently mute them, I'm a freak I cannot stand them. But from the nature of many people's complaints about ads, it seems like they listen to them and want to retain the words they've said?

105 comments

  • 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 have not put myself in a position to be forced to watch ads in a very long time. Even when I had normal TV service I was recording shows to a computer that would identify the commercials to automatically skip them when I watched a show. But I guess I'm not anywhere near normal in that regard.

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

    🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️

  • i have not owned a television since I was a child and came to develop my quirky ad-reviling character trait

  • 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 ;)

    • Do you watch any streaming services or do you mean zero tv, no shows, nothing?

      • Do you watch any streaming services or do you mean zero tv, no shows, nothing?

        We do, from time to time. We will subscribe for a month to such or such streaming and watch the few content we're interested in. Most of the time, though, there isn't that many stuff we really want to watch. And if you're wondering, we watch content on simple computer screen (hooked to a Linux machine) that has nothing 'smart' in it — it just displays pixels.

        Note that a few years ago, when they all started appearing, we were subscribed to quite a few services and that was fun, at the beginning. Alas, we quickly grew tired of always being fed the same kind of politically correct, highly sanitised, and very... formatted type of content. Like with books, my spouse and I both enjoy challenging content (which includes being confronted to things and thoughts we will deeply disagree with). Don't get me wrong, there are a few very high quality content that is streamed, just not enough to our taste for us to be willing to pay the always more expensive monthly fee they're asking for it.

        That said, we own a large DVD collection, which we prefer to streaming because:

        • We paid for them once, some 20+ years ago. No lifetime rent.
        • In the same logic: nowadays used DVDs are dirt cheap and one could easily build their dream library for almost nothing.
        • We're not tracked while watching them.
        • We're free to watch whatever we want. It doesn't matter if it is trendy or not, if it's popular or not, if it's decades or a century old. We own it? We can watch it.
        • Last but not least, there is no one that can come at our place to modify the DVDs we own. Be it to remove some content that would be considered unacceptable today (or tomorrow), to change or to add something in it, or even to delete the whole DVD. We paid for that plastic disc, we legally own it. Even if the almighty Sony, Warner, HBO, Universal or Whomever changed their mind and wanted to take it back, they can't. Unlike what we have already seen happening more than once with digital content being modified or deleted, or less dramatically but as efficiently as far as censoring goes 'not being available anymore'.

        This is also why I quit reading ebooks almost completely, to read printed books again. I don't want anyone to be able to remotely edit or delete a book from my bookshelves (Hi Amazon, please go kindly sit your naked ass on some cactus), nor to feel entitled to look over my shoulder while I'm reading so they could 'data mine' my reading habits.

        Wooops, sorry for this lengthy and 'ranty' reply. Hope you won't mind ;)

  • I don't watch many things that have commercials. Only if I really want to see something and nothing else is more convenient or it's just for background noise while working on a project.

    But since so many streaming sites let the ads be super loud compared to the content, yes, I usually mute it a couple of seconds ahead of time to avoid the jump scare.

  • I mute them habitually and very regularly wish muting was kept as a metric so "they" could know just how much I truly loathe them.

  • 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.

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

  • Use a DNS adblocker on your router and mobile network. 10x easier than it sounds. I haven't seen an ad on my screen that I didn't want in years.

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

  • For the few cases I watch live TV over the antenna, I will either lower the volume or leave it be. Muting to silence is usually too jarring but the same could be said about the ad itself

105 comments