4. How Bad Can it Be?

Alright everyone. We’re rounding third base. Let’s take it home. Is it actually good or bad to use ad blockers? Now, if you’ve stuck with me, and read everything up till this point, and still really, really want to use ad blockers without feeling like an asshole? Now is the time to back off. Because if you use full-on ad blockers, which are the ones without whitelisting content creators or excluding non-intrusive ads, you are going to be an asshole after this.

So to me, ad blockers are bad because they steal someone’s income. Simple, right?

 

I’ll tackle the arguments I’ve come across, one-by-one.

Out of all the debates and conversations I have, one of them led to this. Let the market decide. Basically, it argues that ad blockers are simply products, and because there is a demand for the product, we should just let capitalism take its course.

Back when I had this initial argument, I slipped. I couldn’t properly answer. I knew what I was arguing for and about, but I did not have the knowledge to phrase it. Now, I do. When I said our morality should decide, I was shot down on a logical basis. Now, I’m in home field, people. This is where I shout the loudest.

Prepare to feel my bern.

Our morality must decide what capitalism do. Because capitalism is not just a system. It’s a societal construct. Even though there is a market for child prostitutes, it does not mean that should actually be a thing that we allow!

Let’s break everything down. Let’s take out all our knowledge from the previous segments on how things functions and just look at it from a market and morality position. Because as ad blocker users continue to rise, we are actually creating a bubble within the industry of online content creation and host. If ad blocking goes on unchecked, there is only one possible logical outcome.

Roll D20? Wait, I think I used this joke already.

Hosts will continue to find more intrusive and complex ways to play ads to counter ad blockers and ad blockers does the same. Ad blockers gets anti ad blockers, and that gets an anti anti ad blocker. Eventually, the value of online ads drops. At our current point, advertisements barely supports most content sites, host companies makes all the money and support all the infrastructure, and ad blockers are giving you something that you do not have to pay back. Ad revenues.

Does this sound familiar? The richest few owns all the wealth. And there are companies that are too big to fail.

Yes. We are re-enacting the financial crisis on the internet. Host companies are the big banks. Ad blockers are the housing loans. The users are the people who took out loans. And content creators are about to be the people who loses their jobs.

We don’t ask for much. We don’t even ask to be paid, unless you feel like it. But we almost all asks for 1 thing. Don’t block our advertisements.

 

If Google continues to break even on YouTube, with ad blockers rising, there will come a point where YouTube will no longer be profitable. If that happens, it will have to shut down. When that occurs, millions of people are going to lose a portion or all of their sources of income. Hundreds of thousands of jobs will go down the drain, vanishing overnight.

With host websites down, only the biggest and largest of content creators who have their own independent servers, stores, websites, and chains, will survive. Everything else? Gone. If this is once again sounding familiar, it’s because this is the exact same outcome as the financial crisis, except this time, on the internet.

But this time, aside from just losing money, we are going to lose data. That’s trillions of gigabytes of data that’s going to disappear. Shows and podcast. Music and memories. Let’s plays and fail compilations.

Ggwp, everybody. Good game, well played.

Fight with the team, you piece of shit! Ulti! ULTI!

Okay, so, this might seem extreme. But remember, it’s a possibility. And one that is rising by the day. The idea alone should scare people away from full-on ad blockers. But it is not.

Conclusion

At this point, if with everything that you know, with everything that I have said, you still want to continue using full-on ad blockers? Well, there’s really no more logical arguments to make. You are simply an asshole. You are a terrible person.

Because the power of bone–I mean, the power of laziness it strong. We simply cannot stand wasting an average of 20 seconds of ad time per video, or to see, not even a clutter, but just a single ad banner on the side.

The power of bone is the power of calcium.

As we have established through this stupidly long article, content creators gets the shittiest end of everything. For doing honest work and providing products that you otherwise get for free. Hosts are Chinese sweatshops, ad blockers are the companies that gateway products to you, and you are the client who wants everything cheaper. And it damages the market because of its system. You are an asshole.

No argument you make can change that. If you claim time is money, you’re not saying that your time is valuable. You’re saying that your time is more valuable than the content creators. Your time is more valuable, than other people’s. You’re not saying that content creators are not real jobs. You’re saying that your jobs are more real than content creation. You are saying that you are more than them (You>Everyone else).

Remember, I am not advocating for complete ad blocker annihilation. I am simply asking for a middle ground, because ad blockers have its uses. They help block intrusive and malware ridden advertisements. There are genuine security and practical usages for it. But use ad blockers with a system that only blocks intrusive ads, or make an effort to whitelist content creators that need, or you hope to, support. Liking, following, subscribing and sharing does diddly-squat if there’s no sales being done.

You current definition of sharing.

When you take away all the complexity, and at the core of things, what is the relationship between a content creator and a viewer? We put our creations (products) up on hosts (shops). You (customers) come in and buy the products we sell. Except, we’re not asking for monetary value in payment. We’re asking for time and effort. A little time in watching an advertisement. A little effort in tolerating the banner ads at the sides. But when you use ad blockers, you’re not paying. You waltzed into the store, took the stuff we used love and effort to make, and ran off.

You just stole our content. If you full-on ad block, you are a thief. End of story.

There are some who said it is an arguable stance, but that will depend on how a judge or a lawyer view the case.

 

Time is money, you may say. Individually, do you know how much watching the average pre-roll ads will cost you? Don’t worry. I’ve calculated for you.

3.5 cents per video.

You know what’s worth more than that? Everything. Even shit. Literal faecal matters are worth 26 cents. That video you ‘liked’. The comic you ‘shared’. The art that took your breath away. The story that you cried over. The music you danced to. You just told all of us that they are worth less than shit.

You win, poop. You finally win.

Maybe I’m being paranoid. Maybe most of what I’ve pointed out is not true. But honestly ask yourself this. If even 1 of my 4 points are correct, which one do you think is the best to be correct about? Which are you actually willing to live with while still holding onto some semblance of good?

I can’t stop you from using full-on ad blockers. It is your freedom of choice to use it. But you should use it knowing how horrible a person you are. Because you as a consumer are getting the better end of the deal at the expense of someone else’s livelihood.

Still blocking all the advertisements at this point? You are either too selfish to care, too lazy to change, or too heartless to understand. There is no other way to look at it now. You are either selfish, lazy, or heartless. And if you continue to use full-on ad blockers, then know and wear that as a symbol of your title as a douchebag.

(Turn to the next page for my afterthoughts on this. Also for links to many of the online source articles and pages I’ve went through in research for this which I might not have included in this article, in case you want to know more about the subject from other points of views. Also, take a look at Brave, a new browser with a unique outlook on the issue. I’m hopeful, but cautious of it.)

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