Ask Lemmy

You're in good company here.

I expect most people who decide to watch cable or a comparable streaming service would watch ads with the volume on. A lot of people grew up with cable and constant ads and don't see a problem with it.

I don't watch cable TV. I get free Disney plus which includes ads. For these I do in fact mute them. I find ads annoying.

Never directly watch any ads. We record everything on HTPC (NextPVR), ads are cut before the recordings get thrown into Jellyfin. Ads in general simply dont happen in our household

I don't watch many things that have commercials. Only if I really want to see something and nothing else is more convenient or it's just for background noise while working on a project.

But since so many streaming sites let the ads be super loud compared to the content, yes, I usually mute it a couple of seconds ahead of time to avoid the jump scare.

Use a DNS adblocker on your router and mobile network. 10x easier than it sounds. I haven't seen an ad on my screen that I didn't want in years.

When I was a kid I would change the channel until commercials were over

I use YouTube premium and Twitch turbo to have no ads at all.

Oh yea, I mute that shit before they start.

You’re not a freak, they’re something that you don’t wanna pay attention to but they’re literally made to grab your attention, so it drives you crazy. Nothing wrong with muting them

Commercial breaks wouldn’t drive me so crazy if every third ad wasn’t for a medication with legitimately gruesome side effects

I don't know what normal people do but people like me don't see ads because they use the appropriate protections from the invasiveness of the internet.

Pihole. Firefox. ublock origin, privacy badger, decentraleyes...

It also helps if you don't participate in systems that attempt to intrusively shove ads down your throat, but you do you.

I avoid ads religiously but when I can't avoid them I mute and look away

I’d have to pay closer attention to the ads if I wanted to mute them at the right times. My mother in law does the mute thing and either forgets to unmute it until halfway through the scene or gives the silent ads her undivided attention.

I record everything I watch. Record now and watch later. Then I fast forward through the commercials. If something seems interesting I'll go back and actually watch it.

When I was a kid my father would always mute the ads, which was annoying to me because the images still demanded my attention and it was frustrating not knowing what they said. Now I don't watch TV and know how to use adblockers so it's a mute point.

when an ad is on I take the time to stand up and do whatever small tasks I have to

I made an Arduino IR cloner, took it to the barbershop and when nobody was looking copied the mute button's code so I now have a little device to silence the long Retro Music Television ad breaks I would otherwise have to endure. I don't really go anywhere with TVs otherwise.

Ads are my chance to get up, make a snack, come back and find that along with the ads I've missed the next 5 minutes of my show

I haven't seen an add in years, but I would mute or do something else like a regular commercial break. You know, snack, maybe bathroom, check my phone, etc.

My wife mutes them, I just ignore them.

I mute and change channels. Bout half of them have the same ads on at the same time though

I mute ads when I can’t ship them and I’m not walking away to get something. They’re so loud. 🔇

I mute them, look away, or go to another room. Can't let the bastards win..

For the few cases I watch live TV over the antenna, I will either lower the volume or leave it be. Muting to silence is usually too jarring but the same could be said about the ad itself

I watch regular tv so little, it mostly doesn't happen. We used to DVR a show, but it's been off the air for a while now (or my settings broke when I moved), and fast-forwarded through them. Now, it's generally only very rarely watching the news and I suppose I let them play.