Online advertising and the ability to opt out

Advertisements are absolutely everywhere online.  They’re the first things that pop up when you search something on google, they’re on the side of social media sites like Facebook, and often play before any video you try and watch.  What if I told you there was a way to opt out of most if not all of the advertisements you see online.



Adblock is a free internet extension that allows you to disable many of the advertisements you see online. It works by filtering out the advertisements in a website and stopping them from running or being shown. 

Adblock is clearly without its controversy. As explained in the video above, in many cases the advertisements pay for the server upkeep or in the case of sites like YouTube, provide for the livelihood of th content creators themselves. By disabling advertisements through a service like Adblock we are potentially moving the economy of the Internet away from a place where content is free for users and generated through advertisements, and moving towards s future where content is free to view and revenue for upkeep or livelihood is generated through advertisements, and moving towards a future where the currently free content is hidden behind a a monetary pay wall.

When considering products like Adblock, it's important to think about the larger picture and what kind of Internet we want in the future.