I'm in recovery and these alcohol ads are literally painful. Like one 30 second ad will make me spiral and I'll need my antianxiety meds and my ESA. How do I stop the fucking algorithm?
For context I watch everything on my Xbox one because my laptop is broke
In this case you may need to use a secure DNS that block ads. I have not tested these, but here is a list: https://www.reddit.com/r/dns/comments/711dzl/a_free_ads_blocker_dns/
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I've heard about pi-hole, which is a system where you can set up a Raspberry Pi to block ads across your entire network. It's a little involved to get one set up, but could be worth it.
https://pi-hole.net/
Sounds like a neat project to keep me busy and help my sanity. Thank you!
There might be a way to block the domains of most common triggering advertisers (or Google ad services in general, but that might break stuff) at your router. You can connect to your router via an address that looks a little like 192.168.0.1, check online for your router's model if that doesn't work. Then there should be a place to configure the blocked domains.
Since I'm not sure if blocking google ad services will work, you may have to identify and manually block the triggering ads one by one. Hopefully someone else has an idea for how to fix that problem without too much of a hassle.
one more way ads are literally propaganda beamed into your eyeballs
me when i have to watch an ad (cw: creepy stuff done to eyeballs)
JUST LET ME WATCH CUTE NATURE DOCUMENTARIES WITHOUT A BEER AD. I DIDN'T EVEN DRINK BEER. ITS PISS.
If you think it thinks you "want" (are susceptible to being propaganized into buying thing) these ads, look in the privacy settings to see if you can turn off personalized ads or reset your advertising ID
Unlimited destruction on "advertisers" (slop psyop terrorists)
If you have a subscription to AdGuard (either the VPN or just the adblocker service), they'll give you DNS and proxy servers that you can add to your router's configuration that block all ads for all devices on your network. It's awesome. It even works on mobile game ads. Worth every penny, in my opinion. There might be some free services out there that do the same thing.
Do you have access to any working computers? Even one without a functioning screen will do. If so, you can install Pi-hole on one and futz with your router, and that'll block ads on everything on your network.
Also apparently NextDNS will do it for you for $2/month, but that's really just someone else's Pi-hole (hehe).
Just so you're aware, pihole/dns level adblock won't block ads on YouTube, and I don't think Netflix. I think a different account/turning off personalized ads are the cheapest options. For YouTube at least, using revanced/ublock origin should get rid of ads but you'd need a different device then an Xbox.
I think other people have already covered your options well.
I just want to rant about how predatory marketing is under late capitalism. If we had a government that halfway cared about us - and not even in the "cared about our general wellbeing" sense but just the "cared about our cost to the government and potential negative impacts on the community" sense - then they would mandate that all advertising has blanket opt-outs for things that may trigger an addiction spiral such as alcohol or gambling ads.
Would tons of people "exploit" this system to be free of gambling and alcohol ads? Yes. Good. But also wtf is your government doing where you can't even say "Please don't trigger me to spiral into addiction by shoving this shit in my face constantly"?
Sorry that you're going through this. I will there was something I could offer you besides righteous indignation and rants.
mute, look away
not the best because it wastes your time but it's low tech
Also do something to occupy your mind.
Not thinking about things doesn't really work.
It might be because I'm not particularly bright but I'd be doing complicated maths sums in my head to occupy all of my mental focus on something completely different so that I don't get drawn into thinking about the thing and I don't get caught in the Pink Elephant Paradox.
Plus I might actually improve my mental calculation skills, which would be nice.
