5 ms·

I love the idea, but our whole world is built on advertising. A world without ads does not seem possible. The internet mostly works only because of advertisemen

I love the idea, but our whole world is built on advertising. A world without ads does not seem possible. The internet mostly works only because of advertisements.

quesera 10mo ago
The Internet worked before advertising. It was different, but it was great. I would absolutely go back.
- ajs1998 10mo ago
  I would not go back. YouTube is a wonderful thing that I can't afford to pay for, and I don't want to live without. There are so many creators I love that would not be able to create and share beautiful things if they didn't get ad money. It's not all bad.
  - adamwong246 10mo ago
    yeah but what if (just hear me out) we just SELL our content. Money exchanged for goods rendered. Why subsidize this exchange with ads?
    - ragequittah 10mo ago
      That's what YouTube premium is. The fact that someone with no money gets access to all of YouTube seems like a win to me. If the only way to access was premium the world would be a worse place wouldn't it?
  - quesera 10mo ago
    I agree that it's not all bad. But if I had to choose one or the other, I'd choose no ads. And that's only comparing "then" to "now". I'm confident that "now" will get worse in the future, making "then" all the more appealing! I'm all for the idea of small content creators being able to afford to create their work. I wish content creation did not attract so many people who only do it for money, though. Maybe this would be achievable if the rewards were lower. Advertising sucks all the air out of the room for alternative funding mechanisms. If ads were eliminated, there would be other mechanisms. However, back in reality, I'll concede that (e.g.) Google's massive ad revenue has given them the ability to try a thousand other things, a handful of which will be long-term valuable to the world. But the cost is immense.
  - account42 10mo ago
    But you are paying for it. Do you really think Google would just provide that service for free?
- mhinze 10mo ago
  I would too. Society would not.
  - account42 10mo ago
    I don't think this Society guy was actually asked.
- lkbm 10mo ago
  The Internet has had ads since the advent of the world wide web, arguably longer. I loved Usenet, but I also appreciated being able to have a personal webpage for free as a kid, and that was ad-supported.
  - quesera 10mo ago
    The web precedes commercialization, but many tons of money were pumped into the web post-commercialization, so a lot changed quickly after that. There were free ways to get on the net, and to host web pages, before 1995. And for many years after that, you could pay for ISP access, which would come with the ability to host pages. We're still paying for ISP access, we just get fewer services with it. That could change.
deleted 10mo ago
[deleted]
immibis 10mo ago
Of course it's possible. We just don't have the courage to make it happen.
autoexec 10mo ago
> A world without ads does not seem possible. The internet mostly works only because of advertisements. Wow you were fed that lie and you swallowed it right up. It's actually scary that you've been so thoroughly convinced that you've fallen into learned helplessness as a result. Of course it isn't impossible to have a world without ads (at least not intrusive/unwanted ones). The internet didn't have ads when it started and doesn't need them now. No, we don't have to surrender ourselves to constant abuse by adverting, or abandon entire mediums of communication just to rid ourselves of them.
- Whoppertime 10mo ago
  What happened to the local newspaper when most advertising went broadcast or digital? There are some local newspapers who clung onto life, but without ads local print news went the way of the dodo.

I love the idea, but our whole world is built on advertising. A world without ads does not seem possible. The internet mostly works only because of advertisements.

quesera 10mo ago

The Internet worked before advertising. It was different, but it was great. I would absolutely go back.

ajs1998 10mo ago
I would not go back. YouTube is a wonderful thing that I can't afford to pay for, and I don't want to live without. There are so many creators I love that would not be able to create and share beautiful things if they didn't get ad money. It's not all bad.
- adamwong246 10mo ago
  yeah but what if (just hear me out) we just SELL our content. Money exchanged for goods rendered. Why subsidize this exchange with ads?
  - ragequittah 10mo ago
    That's what YouTube premium is. The fact that someone with no money gets access to all of YouTube seems like a win to me. If the only way to access was premium the world would be a worse place wouldn't it?
- quesera 10mo ago
  I agree that it's not all bad. But if I had to choose one or the other, I'd choose no ads. And that's only comparing "then" to "now". I'm confident that "now" will get worse in the future, making "then" all the more appealing! I'm all for the idea of small content creators being able to afford to create their work. I wish content creation did not attract so many people who only do it for money, though. Maybe this would be achievable if the rewards were lower. Advertising sucks all the air out of the room for alternative funding mechanisms. If ads were eliminated, there would be other mechanisms. However, back in reality, I'll concede that (e.g.) Google's massive ad revenue has given them the ability to try a thousand other things, a handful of which will be long-term valuable to the world. But the cost is immense.
- account42 10mo ago
  But you are paying for it. Do you really think Google would just provide that service for free?
mhinze 10mo ago
I would too. Society would not.
- account42 10mo ago
  I don't think this Society guy was actually asked.
lkbm 10mo ago
The Internet has had ads since the advent of the world wide web, arguably longer. I loved Usenet, but I also appreciated being able to have a personal webpage for free as a kid, and that was ad-supported.
- quesera 10mo ago
  The web precedes commercialization, but many tons of money were pumped into the web post-commercialization, so a lot changed quickly after that. There were free ways to get on the net, and to host web pages, before 1995. And for many years after that, you could pay for ISP access, which would come with the ability to host pages. We're still paying for ISP access, we just get fewer services with it. That could change.

deleted 10mo ago

[deleted]

immibis 10mo ago

Of course it's possible. We just don't have the courage to make it happen.

autoexec 10mo ago

> A world without ads does not seem possible. The internet mostly works only because of advertisements. Wow you were fed that lie and you swallowed it right up. It's actually scary that you've been so thoroughly convinced that you've fallen into learned helplessness as a result. Of course it isn't impossible to have a world without ads (at least not intrusive/unwanted ones). The internet didn't have ads when it started and doesn't need them now. No, we don't have to surrender ourselves to constant abuse by adverting, or abandon entire mediums of communication just to rid ourselves of them.

Whoppertime 10mo ago
What happened to the local newspaper when most advertising went broadcast or digital? There are some local newspapers who clung onto life, but without ads local print news went the way of the dodo.