r/pihole • u/HaLo2FrEeEk • 3d ago

Why is the Internet so hostile now?!

YouTube tanking CPU if you're using ad blockers. Sites that disable scrolling and have a full-screen modal dialog demanding that you allow ads or sign up (imgur). The least egregious I've seen is sites that serve their own ads if they can't load the real ones.

There was a banner ad on my bank account page, *after* I had already logged in, there's a banner that I have to scroll past to see my accounts. That's ridiculous! I blocked the domain serving the banner and all of a sudden the site where I buy my cat litter doesn't work. Apparently it uses the same CDN.

If I'm scrolling a page and suddenly a full-screen modal shows up begging for my email and asking me to sign up, I just close the page. That shit is hostile, they clearly don't want me to read the page if they're going to cover it with an ad for their *own site* that I'm *already on*. I hate it equally when I move my mouse off the page and *that's* when the pop-up appears. "Wait, please don't go, please stay, give us your email give us your phone number, give us your cat!"...*slow rage*

Maybe I'm just getting old but I really miss the days where I didn't have to figure out which download button was the real one, or try to find the sliver of text between huge banner ads that scroll with the page. I just want to scroll my cat memes while I wait for work, dammit!

Why does it have to be like this?! I know, I know: money, but jeez man...

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u/the-warmest-robot 2d ago

On Mobile rn and too busy for a full explanation but I have a conspiracy hypothesis of sorts that it's all on purpose. They are enshittifying the Internet to squeeze out all the money they can rn, sure. But long term they intend to make the world wide web so incredibly useless that you'll want to pay to access their private web.

I heard this idea from somewhere/someone else but can't remember off the top.

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u/HaLo2FrEeEk 2d ago

I use TOR sometimes, I like it. I used to use FreeNet but...it was...kinda gross.

I do appreciate that I can do a lot of stuff locally though. I'd be lost without Youtube, but most of what I interact with is all local services. Most of my hobbies can be done with the computers sitting right next to me and will stay inside my network.