Hello people.

I wrote a Tumblog about this, but, let's face it, most people don't watch my Tumblrs, they watch my videos. Some people don't want to read. They want to watch. So this is for those people: basically the exact same thing.

So people sometimes say, "I don't ever see pre-rolls on Vlogbrothers videos because I use Adblock." A couple problems with this.

One short problem: no one sees pre-rolls on Vlogbrothers videos because we don't have pre-rolls on Vlogbrothers videos because we don't like pre-rolls. And yes, we make about five times less money than the average YouTuber because of that.

(subtext: Per View)

I feel kind of ripped off when you don't know that we do that for you, because you use Adblock. So there's that. That's just a personal thing, it's not a big deal. It's just something that- that's like... aww.

Two, there's this idea on the internet and in some people's heads that Adblock is this super-hip, indie, underground thing that nobody knows about. Only hip, underground internet people know about Adblock. And so obviously if everyone knew about it, everyone would use it.

And let me tell you that that's not the case. Everyone knows about ad-block. But most people choose not to use it because they recognize that if everyone used it, the internet would suck.

So, one, everybody knows about Adblock, but two, don't tell everybody about Adblock and how great it is. If you think that not everybody knows about Adblock because everybody does know about Adblock, if you tell the world and they all know and they're like you and they install it, then you really do break the internet!

So shh!

If you want to use Adblock, stop telling everybody about it. Because if everybody used it, people will figure out a way to break it.

Google, in charge of ads on the internet basically, lots of smart people work there. They would figure out a way to stop Adblock if it became a serious issue.

Here's what would happen, if, say, 20% of the internet used Adblock. Everyone would make 20% less money, from CrashCourse to YouTube to Google. And 20% of the growth would not be there, 20% of the employees would have to be fired.

The advertisers would freak out, they would say "well, you're not serving ads for us." The platforms would freak out, they'd then assign a significant portion of their workforce, so 20% are already gone, and then another percentage are now working to figure out how to work around Adblock.

So now everybody's spending huge amounts of money making sure that the ads are actually getting served all because you didn't want to see a freaking little box next to your YouTube video.

So, thinking this scenario through, you've got fewer people who can make it on the internet, fewer products that can be successful, fewer YouTube creators that can go professional, and everybody, instead of spending money on making the Internet better, is spending money on making sure that ads get showed to people.

I hear lots of arguments, everything from like ludicrous, like, "But I pay for the internet! Why should I watch ads?!" Because you don't pay for YouTube. You pay for a pipe that lets you connect to anything, and if you wanted to like pay specifically for YouTube, then the internet would suck. That would break- that would destroy the whole way the internet works.

To like the sort of douchebaggy ones like, "But it's okay for me to use Adblock, because like not everybody else is going to use it, so I can use it as long as not everybody does, right?"

Yeah, yeah I mean like, that's like saying, "I can be a douchebag because most people are nice, so the world will still be an alright place even though I'm a douchebag." Yeah. But you're still a douchebag. 

And I- I'm not trying to be super critical of you, I'm just saying that probably you're not thinking it through. You're just like, "Will this be better if I didn't have ads?" And yeah, it probably would. But like Reddit makes money off of ads. And I love Reddit. And I don't want Reddit to go away. So same thing with YouTube.

I can't understand why anyone who feels the same way about the internet that I do would, like, stab at the heart of the thing that makes it work.

You can't have a body without food. You have to feed it. And the advertising it what feeds the internet. And, yeah. If it- it wasn't there, then all of it would either cost money or suck. Sorry. The way that it is, 'cause people gotta eat, and have houses, and dogs, and stuff.

Now that's, my Adblock rant. Please feel free to argue with me in the comments, or not, but I'll see you later. Goodbye.