Just trying to live with as little advertising as possible and curious what tips or tricks the community has aside from moving out to a cabin in the woods.
I can’t really get away from road side advertising for now. Public sporting events are completely infected, and for the ads I am forced to see I try to make a conscious effort not to buy their goods or services. I won’t subscribe to a streaming service if they have a sub+ad tier, if they’re separate free with ads or sub no ads I’ll support it.
Not really for any moral stance, but ad blockers are good at avoiding malware and some services are basically broken if you have to wait for an ad network, and I just feel mentally healthier in general without the extra propaganda.
- Avoid the internet.
- Pay for services so you’re the customer instead of the product.
- Pirate TV shows and movies if you can’t afford them.
Here is the problem: Even paying will not get you out of ads any longer. You bought a TV, well the manufacturer will show additional ads on it. You paid for Windows or a Mac, well Apple or Microsoft will advertise additional services on it, same with Android (Google services) or IPhone.
Just spending money to be ad free is no longer enough, because companies try to find ways to extract even more money (or information to sell others) from you, now that you have proven to have some. Either be it additional subscriptions or vendor lock in. They never have enough money, they just want all of it.
So to live ad free, you have to avoid using any product with profit interest or research every company you deal with on what its incentives are, which is very hard or impossible for many people.
Here is a tip though, try to find hardware that comes without bundled software, and find open source software to use it with.
Was just thinking about this today, as I pumped gas, and the fucking pump wouldn’t stop blaring ads at max volume.
Movies and TV shows are absolutely packed full of product placement advertisements.
If this is your level of ad avoidance you need to completely cut yourself off from all society and humans. Full social death.
I was just pumping gas at a random 76 station a couple days ago and the gas pump started blaring ads at me. Like, FUCK OFF! It made me want to go back at night and stab every single one of their pump screens with a screwdriver.
I don’t know if it’s still the case but you used to be able to press the 2nd button down on the right to mute the pump’s audio
It changes based on model but yeah generally holding one of em down mutes it
I pressed all of them and none of them did anything, so I just walked away. I will never go back to that gas station. I’m not going to be held captive to some bullshit advertising.
Obviously they obscure what button combo does it.
Well, I hope the $2 they got for those ads that played while I was pumping gas were worth losing my business forever to them.
Ok
Give Kagi a try if you haven’t already. It’ll cost you a little but you can try it for free (100 searches I think) and see how you like it. The advantage of paying for search is of course that you’re no longer the product, so no more selling your data to ad companies every time you search something, plus it’s actually in the providers’ interest to make searching a better experience for you. Just the fact that I never have to see Quora in my search results ever again (I can just block their site) would be worth the price for me. It’s just a little thing that made a huge difference for me since I search the web so many times daily, and for a long time now the results has been mostly useless.
I like Kagi but fucking hell, it just doesn’t seem to get that the vast, vast majority of people don’t want search results from the US!
I don’t live in the US and I don’t have this problem, it returns results from my area in my language no problem. You can also create a lens that locks results that originate in a specific region, haven’t tried that myself yet though since the default works so well. But perhaps it depends on where you live.
Stay off the internet.
In the world of streaming devices the AppleTV is the only one I’ve used with no ads on the homescreen.
I started blocking ads on Facebook. Even ones I might be interested in at some point. I mean every single fucking ad I would hide, block that specific ad, block a user page or something of relevant, and then report the fucking lot of them. It takes a little while, but eventually you get zero ads (for some time). They will of course refresh their ad campaigns and push new stuff occasionally. A simple hide-block-report and it gets cleaned up again in short order.
Linux and a browser with an adblocker will get you most of the way on the computer.
For real-life I don’t have good advice. You could move somewhere where it’s less common. But I think sports for example comes with ad banners everywhere.
Didn’t Vermont outlaw billboards?
Thanks, didn’t know…
“Vermont became the first state in the continental United States to ban billboards (1968). Hawaii prohibited the advertising signs back in the 1920s. Maine and Alaska are the only other states to outlaw billboards.” (https://vtdigger.org/2021/07/11/then-again-vermonts-billboard-ban-followed-a-winding-road-to-passage/)
I didn’t read all of it. Wonder how that’s handled and translates to private property next to the road.
Cool! Thanks for finding that article. I keep hearing good things about Burlington but wouldn’t know from experience. My understanding is the rest of the state is pretty rural but at least somewhat affordable and small business friendly.
You should def check out the privacy communities. I only vaguely follow otherwise I would direct link you to the best one.
Shh…
It’s private…
J/k
No TV, radio, highways. Avoid things with ads and seek things without.Take the back way to your local library for free media. No movie theaters, no public transport, no cities, lots of DIY.
Stop using social media, go hike, and go somewheres you enjoy that has lots of new faces.
