I cannot understand how some people are living with this. It is unbearable

  • elliot_crane@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    231
    ·
    1 year ago

    My retired parents live with me. I went ahead and put a PiHole on our home wifi. A day later my mother was literally complaining that she couldn’t click on ads on facebook. I told her those are ads and they track her and she says “well everyone likes to use the internet how they like to use it… can you put it back the old way? I want to look at these shoes”. Can’t fucking win.

    • jarredpickles87@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      172
      ·
      1 year ago

      My wife turns off the WiFi on her phone to avoid the pihole. She does this so she can watch the ads in her games to get an extra life or whatever. You’ll never win on that front and I won’t either.

      • Name is Optional@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        20
        ·
        1 year ago

        Spot on. I was incredulous when they told me they each sent their cheek swabs in to the “free to be me”, the population tracking group 🌊 👁️a. Now I understand that that same company’s entire database is on the dark 🕸️.

    • flameguy21@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      46
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      People actually CLICK on ads??? Genuinely never had even an iota of desire to do that. I forgot it was even an option.

      • dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        26
        ·
        1 year ago

        Boomers that aimlessly surf facebook. They’re still trying to figure out what the use-cases are for the internet thingy they pay $60 a month for.

      • neanderthal@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        17
        ·
        1 year ago

        I do when it is advertising something I hate. Publishers get dollars for clicks, pennies for impressions. That way I force someone I dislike to give money to someone I like.

        • Jamie@jamie.moe
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          27
          ·
          1 year ago

          I use adnauseum on my computer so it blocks the ads, but also sends a request simulating a click to the ad network. Based on average CPM, I’ve cost advertisers like $300 so far.

          • Knuschberkeks@feddit.de
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            6
            ·
            1 year ago

            Interesting. But wouldn’t that still decrease my privacy? Advertisers still won’t know which ads I’m interested in, but they will know what sites I visit and can still build a profile from that data.

            • Fushuan [he/him]@lemm.ee
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              4
              ·
              1 year ago

              Some people care more about fucking advertisers than privacy, as long as they don’t have to suffer through the ads themselves. But yeah, blocking is more private than fake clicking.

      • at_an_angle
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        I click on ads.

        Mostly it’s either the close X is too small or out suddenly pops/loads when I try to click on something else.

    • Boozilla@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      26
      ·
      1 year ago

      I got a lot of complaints from family, too. Especially because I block Meta. I just let them bitch and I tell them things like “those ads are broken because of malware” which isn’t entirely untrue.

    • gohixo9650@discuss.tchncs.deOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      18
      ·
      1 year ago

      but this means that she would see the ads but not being able to click? I don’t get it. They should had just disappeared, no? Or was she complaining that she wasn’t seeing the ads?

    • Katana314@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      1 year ago

      I know it’s rare, but there have been times I intentionally clicked on an ad - if it genuinely seemed like a unique or useful product I had some interest in.

      I imagine the fake-social-post type of ads are worth blocking though since it’s based in dishonesty and deception.

      • Jamie@jamie.moe
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        1 year ago

        I block ads on all my devices, but I assume they’re scams by default when I do see them.

      • andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        1 year ago

        Some shops I only used once still send me their written newsletters and I don’t mind checking them if they do them entertaining, or about some niche products, even if I don’t consider buying them at all. I miss well-designed full-page print ads in magazines, or just those with a catchy imagery\wording. Now these all feel like a vintage, premium product, akin to vinyl records, if compared to what garbage web serves today. Such a weird thing to be nostalgic about, but I hope oldschool advertisers\smm persons feel it on their end too.

        • Flax@feddit.uk
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          1 year ago

          I get Royal Mint and Royal Mail news leaflets. I just like looking at pictures of stamps and coins lmao

    • Fushuan [he/him]@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      1 year ago

      “I’ll try to fix it. Now that I put it in taking it down brings the Internet down. Sorry, let me think how to fix this”

      And literally put up excuses until they get used to it. I’m sorry but they made you do stuff you didn’t enjoy for your own good while telling white lies, it’s time for payback.

    • Flax@feddit.uk
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      1 year ago

      Great aunt was talking about all of these anti-aging pills that she was going to get

      • nave@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        The ads on Facebook (and many other sites) are served from the same site as the actual content. So if you try to block ads with pihole it will stop the website from loading any posts.

    • Orionza@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      1 year ago

      Hi, butting in here, hope you don’t mind a question - is there a place to go with basic I instructions on how I can set this up too? Thanks!

      • elliot_crane@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        1 year ago

        Yeah for sure. I’m no expert by any means, but I can talk through what I did.

        I used the instructions directly from their code repository: https://github.com/pi-hole/pi-hole/#one-step-automated-install (I used option 1, the automated install). I did this on an old RPi2B that I had laying around.

        After I set up the pi, I got its MAC address. I used this to set a static IP address in my router settings. This is important to make sure the pi keeps the same IP at all times. Then, also in my router settings, I set the DNS server to be the pi’s static IP address.

        After all that was done, I just plugged the pi into a dedicated power supply and rebooted the router.

    • I Cast Fist@programming.dev
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      59
      ·
      1 year ago

      You forgot the endless popups in the 2000s, which led to every browser integrating a popup blocker since then (and which often fail to stop actual malicious popups, no less)

      • Zerush@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        15
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        Yes, in these years are a lot of pop ups, pop unders among other crap in some pages, but normally in most pages there was, apart of an ocassinal Banner not much else to justify an adblocker. But nowadays, between ads, clickbaits, cookie consent, adblocker detections and ant-adblocker, paywalls and other shit like these, you need a lot of extensions and scripts if you don’t want that the page fills your browser and HD with all kind of PUPs and unwanted scripts, apart of an ad/trackerblocker. It’s a cats and mouse game between companies which want to track and profile you with all kind of dirty tricks, and the user and devs continuos searching contrameasures to show them the middle finger.

    • Y|yukichigai@lemmy.sdf.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      21
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Almost, but needs a few tweaks:

      • Content should be border-to-border in the 2000 panel.

      • Needs to be 3 lines of content in 2010 and only two lines of content in 2018.

      • 2018 needs a slide-over autoplay video on the bottom-left of the content space.

    • Bluefruit@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      63
      ·
      1 year ago

      Me everytime i use a broswer without ublock. Ill open a link here in lemmy without opening it externally to firefox and dear god my eyes.

      Ublock makes the internet a better place. Or at least it shoves the bad stuff under the bed lol.

    • Squirrel@thelemmy.club
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      31
      ·
      1 year ago

      I always forget about my adblocker until I need to use a browser without one. It’s really pretty miserable.

      • Jamie@jamie.moe
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        13
        ·
        1 year ago

        I helped someone I know out with a thing on their computer and got blasted by ads because they didn’t use an ad blocker.

        Those two minutes on the Internet really had me questioning how anyone manages to use it raw without going insane.

        • miss_brainfart@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          11
          ·
          1 year ago

          Maybe if we tell them uBlock Origin is a condom for their browser, they’ll understand?

          What a sentence to type out

          • Jamie@jamie.moe
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            6
            ·
            1 year ago

            I see it that way. You don’t dive into some strange without protection, don’t let your computer do it with websites.

            • miss_brainfart@lemmy.ml
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              4
              ·
              edit-2
              1 year ago

              It’s always difficult with digital matters, since there isn’t anything tangible and concrete to show.

              Like, there’s no shady person following them with a notebook and reporting back to their boss all day, but that is kinda what’s happening, just invisible to the user.

              My pihole is pretty good at showing family how many connections their apps make are completely unnecessary to their actual functions. That’s a good illustration to start with.

  • Rolando@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    70
    ·
    1 year ago

    As I recall, back in the late 90s there was a story in the Wall Street Journal about a man who loved receiving email spam. After a long day’s work he would go home and relax by looking through his email spam and order things.

    Some people are just like that.

    • Khrux@ttrpg.network
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      1 year ago

      I don’t like spam but I do like a good scam email, especially if they’ve actually given it some plot.

    • semperpeppe@feddit.it
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      Tbh, I can relate to some degree. Sometimes I really love watching TV commercials. My favorite is teleshopping

      • Rolando@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        Yeah, when I watch sports events from other countries it’s interesting to see the commercials, even if I don’t speak the language. It’s when I have to watch 20 minutes of the same commercials every hour that it gets bad.

  • AutomaticJack@beehaw.org
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    49
    ·
    1 year ago

    I once had a user whose PC would freeze every time they tried to see their desktop. Like, you minimise something full screen and the PC would freeze for a few minutes and crawl while the desktop was in view.

    Turns out they had more than 4,000 items on their desktop.

    That day I learned where Windows puts icons that don’t fit on the desktop (it stacks them all on the first icon’s place, lol). And this wasn’t even the problem they called about! They were just grumpily blaming Microsoft and working around it for years.

    I guess my point is computer illiterate/belligerent people will find a way around the problems they cause and just blame something/someone else.

      • Kumatomic@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        13
        ·
        1 year ago

        All the better to track you with so you have no choice but to agree and agree to their arbitration clauses if you want to use their and their competitors’ products with no alternative to avoid it. Sometimes you can’t even use the mobile site when so many services and businesses have flat out broken their mobile sites just to force the app. I don’t like DuckDuckGo’s browser but I use it to block trackers in the background.

        • 𝕸𝖔𝖘𝖘@infosec.pub
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          This is correct. I use ddg for the same reason, and the “Desktop site” option for those little shits that broke their mobile site to force the app. If that option doesn’t work, I leave the site.

          • PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            1 year ago

            I found that Firefox mobile with adblocker solves 100% of my advlock issues, and usually fixes format and display issues with websites. Half the websites I view on chrome mobile don’t even fit on my screen anymore!

            • 𝕸𝖔𝖘𝖘@infosec.pub
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              1 year ago

              Last time I tried ff mobile, it was sluggish, and had no extensions. I’m guessing they fixed those issues? I like ddg mobile browser well enough, but I’d love to use ff on my mobile, too. And, yes, I did notice those formatting issues. I thought it was just bad design, but it’s the chrome engine? Interesting. Not at all surprising, though, but interesting.

    • flerp@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      12
      ·
      1 year ago

      Ah this brings back the memories of the race to close pop-ups as you can hear your parents coming home. For every one you close, three pop up to take it’s place. You can hear the key in the lock. Sweat pouring down your face you finally do it, you hit the last X and nothing new pops up. You have defeated the pop-ups… this time.

    • Zerush@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Yes, typical screens from these years, from a user who, as a newbie in the Internet, clicked on these beautiful banners and animations that were on certain pages with nice freeware stuff, screensavers, games, funny Powerpoints, etc… Nowadays these things do not appear and you can only notice that the PC goes every time slower and you know that you belong to the big family of the botnet community.

  • netburnr@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    39
    ·
    1 year ago

    I have it on good authority, if you type Google into Google, you can break the internet.

    • coffeesnob@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      24
      ·
      1 year ago

      Wait a minute, the “Elders of the Internet”!? The Elders of the Internet know who I am!? You’ve got to let me have it!

      • macniel@feddit.de
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        13
        ·
        1 year ago

        no no. The Elders of the Internet would never stand for that! The Internet needs to get straight back to Big Ben.

  • 𝕸𝖔𝖘𝖘@infosec.pub
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    30
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    I used this scene in a cybersecurity training session. I knew it got the point across, when our resident ad-clicker asked me for advice to avoid that situation.

    E: she asked for advice for her home computer, as she didn’t understand that “at home and at work” meant “at home and at work with any device, not just work’s”

  • Pantherina@feddit.de
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    24
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Literally the Windows Desktops+Applauncher / Mac Desktop+Panel of people making waaay more Money that I am.

    Like Mac really, who thought just piling up apps in an always shown panel is a good idea?

    • Dave@lemmy.nz
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      14
      ·
      1 year ago

      I have spent a lot of time around a lot of IT workers and I am literally the only person I’ve ever seen on a project that has an ad blocker installed in their browser.

  • lorez@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    22
    ·
    1 year ago

    I’m noticing some sites have become pretty unusable on mobile and I dunno what to do.

  • Geo_bot@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    21
    ·
    1 year ago

    I have a friend who has their entire center 5th of their laptops screen just dead. they move windows around it to deal with it. I look at the way they’re using their computer and like I can barely reach it at their window size but it’s better than paying the $500 MacBook repair to them