I strongly encourage people to block ads. Ublock Origin is free and extremely simple to use, and it will get rid of all of the pre-roll advertising you see on Y

I strongly encourage people to block ads. Ublock Origin is free and extremely simple to use, and it will get rid of all of the pre-roll advertising you see on Youtube. IMO the only reason at this point for anyone of any technical level not to be running an adblocker is if they have some kind of ethical objection to blocking ads in general. And even in that case, I encourage people to leave their adblocker enabled on Youtube and just pay for Youtube Premium on the side. One thing I try to get across to people is that pervasive advertising has harmful side-effects that are difficult to see when you're used to that state. I started universally blocking ads on the web, in media, in apps; I got really aggressive about blocking unwanted content. And I very quickly noticed a change in how long I could focus on content, how quickly I absorbed information, how much effort it was to consume things or interact with things. It was noticeable enough that I don't think of advertising as free anymore -- you're paying a real cost in mental ability, in your energy. Ads have an effect on your psyche, on how you see the world. I don't think it's healthy.