Recently, I’ve noticed ads are getting way too comfortable on platforms. Starting with YouTube, many years ago, it wasn’t uncommon to click your favorite video, watch it from start to finish and not see a single ad. Slowly, there’s been an increase in ads, some skippable after five seconds. But more recently, I’ve tried to watch my favorite videos, and there are now two unskippable 10-second ads, which is absolutely insane. It’s even worse if you watch YouTube on your TV; sometimes you get 60 seconds of ads.
It’s starting to feel like cable TV, where you get long, annoying ads, so you switch to subscriptions. But now those subscriptions are adding more ads unless you pay extra, still, I was hoping this trend wouldn’t hit YouTube so hard. YouTube is really trying to push users into buying YouTube Premium for $13.99 a month or YouTube Lite for $7.99 (and side note, YouTube Lite only allows some videos to be ad free). I know companies need to make money, but this is getting out of hand.
I recently got “Pie Adblock” as an extension on Chrome, which helps with ads on my laptop. You can also set your VPN address to countries that don’t get as many ads, such as Albania. But YouTube is trying to crack down on ad blockers. Some companies, like Amazon Prime, already don’t let you watch content if they detect a VPN; this would be really disastrous if YouTube implemented the same thing.
The world is such a hectic place, and I’d love to just enjoy a 30-minute video in peace without constant disruption. There are lots of videos out there to help you study, and ads impact your focus, or videos to help you fall asleep, but you are awoken by a loud ad you can’t skip. If this trend continues, I don’t think people would completely abandon these platforms. People will just have to get used to ads, find ways around them (which is getting harder and harder) or buy premium. YouTube can and most likely will get away with it for a while, which shows how they no longer care about users’ entertainment but their own gain.
