Is it immoral to block advertisements?

I use an adblocker. Mainly because I do not want to deal with loud ads and slower loading times. My operating system is Ubuntu so malware isn’t an enormous concern, but that is another reason to block ads.

Still, I have to say, it does seem somewhat wrong for me to do so. A lot of the websites I visit (like this one!) are run partially or fully based on ad revenue. I know that if everyone did what I do, many of the content providers I know and love would not be able to continue maintaining their websites.

Another issue would be a site like Youtube. People earn money for putting ads on their videos, but my adblocker somehow completely blocks even the ads that play before a video. Again, I feel bad because I feel like they deserve to be compensated for their effort. But I suppose I feel like I’m “giving back” by just subscribing and viewing their videos, which increases their profile on the site and thus gives them more exposure, indirectly giving them more money. Still, that might just be my way of justifying my behavior to myself.
So what do you guys think? Do you block ads? If so, do you feel bad about it?
If not, why not?

It’s a favor to the advertisers, though they probably wouldn’t take it that way.

When I am bombarded with ignorant, insulting and flashy ads, I mentally start boycotting the company, and seriously consider moving into the woods and never buying anything again. When I block your ads, I stay calm and avoid hating everything your company produces and stands for.

Win-win!

Some sites that I go on request that we watch a short add before entering each new game. I kind of feel guilty when I don’t watch any of them as they are sponsoring the site.

I use an ad blocker for better performance and stability. I feel a little guilty but not a lot because I never buy items based on ads anyway.

No shame here. Ads are known virus vector. I will disable my adblocker on some sites which I visit often and want to support. But the first loud, hopping, flash driven monstrosity that I see and right off the whitelist they go.

My default browsing is done with the adblocker on, but I turn it off for webshows, blogs, and the like that I want to support.

I know what you guys mean, but at the same time, I feel like if I don’t like their revenue source, I just shouldn’t go to that webpage. It feels wrong to just block ads and continue using their site ad-free.

But the inconvenience of that leads to be acting hypocritically and continuing to block ads whilst also thinking it’s not right.

[edit] That is a good idea, though. I should make better use of the whitelist feature on my adblocker.

They already paid to have their add on those sites. So the site is making money whether your eyeballs are aimed in that direction or not.

Morality doesn’t begin to enter into this question and I can’t believe you think it would. You do not have to let anything into your home, computer, or head that you don’t want to. Period.

I actually don’t go to too many sites, even though I’m online all day. I go here and I pay to be here. I go to Facebook and now Facebook ads are starting to show through AdBlock and I’m not trying to stop them. I don’t think I’ve blocked ads on YouTube or Indians.com because it messes up video playback.

I don’t have time to wait for ads to load, I’ve got work to do.

You’re right. You don’t have to look at the ads if you don’t go to their websites.

But if you choose to do that, it seems wrong to intentionally alter the way you view the website in a way that reduces their revenue.
It is taking up resources without giving anything back to them.

Maybe that’s not immoral, but I don’t see how it’s wild to raise the question.

When you watch a movie on TV, is it immoral to leave the room and go make sandwiches during the ad breaks? Because I do that, too.

As far as I know, it’s not the same sort of thing.
I don’t really know a lot about this, so let me quote an interesting article on this topic.:
“Invariably someone always pops into a discussion like this and brings up some analogy with television advertising, radio, or somesuch. It is not in any way the same; advertisers in those mediums are paying for potential to reach audiences, and not for results. They have complex models which tell them if X number are watching, Y will likely see the ad (and it even varies by ad position, show type, etc!). But they really have no true idea who sees what ad, and that’s why it’s a medium based on potential and not provable results. On the Internet everything is 100% trackable and is billed and sold as such.”

That sounds reasonable to me, but again, I’m not well versed in this topic.

Advertisers don’t really care if you see (or hear) their ads, what they care about is whether you buy their product. Do you think it is immoral not to buy all the things you see advertised on the sites you visit?

To me, the claim that blocking ads is immoral holds about as much water as the claim that you’re “stealing TV” if you go to the bathroom during the commercials.

One web-streaming company has started trying to shame people who use adblock by throwing up a splash screen that lasts longer than the ad itself. I keep my adblock on and let that splash screen run purely out of spite.

Oh, I don’t really lose sleep over hurting the advertisers, it’s the content providers I care about.

If I’m on Youtube and I don’t see an ad before a video, I’m hurting the person who uploaded it, which doesn’t seem right.

Hah, I do that too. Although out of laziness rather than spite, really.
It does seem to be an effective strategy, though.

If a site shows me a message saying “please don’t block our ads”, I turn off my ad blocker for that site. But I have no qualms with having an ad blocker on by default.

I recently had Chrome lose its ad-blocking capability (something wasn’t set right). God that was awful. Massive full-page ad pops up over a site that you have to click away. How can 30 percent of you surf the internet like that?

I mute commercials, too. It’s so automatic, I have to not have the TV remote during the Superbowl.

I usually go to some other site in a different tab while I wait for the splash screen to finish counting down, get distracted by something shiny, and forget that I wanted to watch the video in the first place…

You don’t owe any business success. They’ll find a new business model if the one they have now isn’t working. Or they’ll fail. Either way, not our problem. You do what you do, and they can keep trying new ways to part you from your money. And people who get paid by helping larger companies lie to me don’t deserve any sympathy, in my opinion.

Companies use every bit of computing power at their disposal to extract money from you. Why not use what little computing power you have to put up a speed bump? Ad blockers are a basic pillar of online self-defense if you ask me. They should be installed by default with every anti-virus, firewall and security software.