More Auto-Play Video - Ugh!

I wrote a short piece recently about stopping Facebook from auto-playing video.

Then I noted poor performance on my browser in general, and again, believed the culprit to be those oh-so-annoying auto-play ads that are simply everywhere you go on the Internet these days. I understand, honestly, the need for websites to make money. Annoying or not, commercials on old-school television were what enabled us to see "free" TV shows.

Of course, when you did the math, perhaps they weren't nearly as free as we perceived them to be: an ad agency was getting paid very generously to come up with the "campaign," and in-house marketing person - or entire department - was getting paid to supervise the "campaign" (I have to admit I get a kick out of the term, campaign, in reference to an effort to get me to try a product - nothing like a little assault to get me motivated to buy!), a production company was getting paid to create the ad or ads, actors were getting paid to appear in the ads or voice them, musicians were getting paid for the use and/or performance of the music, a media buyer was getting paid to place the ads and track them as well as could be hoped, a handful of administrative support people were assisting all these folks - and getting paid to do it. And guess who was ultimately "paying" for all of these people? You, the consumer. That cost was being tacked on to the product, and where as the raw materials and manufacture or modification of the raw materials are one thing - that's the actual product, the "advertising" or "marketing" of the product is something else. You are paying for it whether you want to be subjected to it or not, as opposed to buying the product because, presumably, you want to use it!

Nevertheless, somehow the "content" coming at us on television had to be paid for somehow, and that is also true for websites.

Of course, as I have noted before in this blog, we have become very canny when it comes to avoiding these ads - and today, I have another tip for you, which will free both your mind, and your computer's memory from the persistent attack of auto-play video.

Depending on the browser you use - I will work with Firefox right now because it's the one I most frequently use and arguably the most popular choice right now - there are controls, options, or preferences you can set. One of them is to "disable" Flash until and unless you specifically allow it.

This means that most, though not all, video will be disabled unless you specifically allow it (you will be prompted to do so).

In Firefox, select the three bar icon in the upper right corner of your browser window. Now, select Add-Ons. Find Shockwave Flash. Then set the dropdown to "Ask to Activate." Done.

So, it is true that you may run into times when this is annoying, because you'd like the Shockwave to run without your having to allow it - or you may be confused momentarily because nothing happens when you try to go somewhere and do something. But compared to the increasingly annoying - and frankly, resource-robbing alternative of having multiple videos auto-playing (sometimes one after another after another - and often, in a tab that isn't even active!), I'll settle for the occasional frustration of having to start Shockwave with my permission, thanks!

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