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   Ars Technica (arstechnica@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 05-Feb-2025 23:46:44 JST Ars Technica

   As Internet enshittification marches on, here are some of the worst offenders
   Ars staffers take aim at some of the web's worst predatory practices.
   https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/02/as-internet-enshittification-marches-on-here-are-some-of-the-worst-offenders/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

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     tinydoctor (tinydoctor@mstdn.social)'s status on Wednesday, 05-Feb-2025 23:46:41 JST tinydoctor

     in reply to

     • John Francis
     • Joe Morse

     @ildiavolorosso @johnefrancis @arstechnica We bought a big smart tv and put it in the basement for the grandkids to watch, about 3 years ago. I'd stopped watching TV and most video years ago, and I had not realized how bad "smart" TVs have gotten, since I don't use the one we have. But, here's the funny thing--my grandkids don't watch the smart TV either. Or my wife. They watch whatever viddy they watch on their tablets. As for me, if the Revolution was televised, I wouldn't watch it.

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     Joe Morse (ildiavolorosso@sfba.social)'s status on Wednesday, 05-Feb-2025 23:46:42 JST Joe Morse

     in reply to

     • John Francis

     @johnefrancis @arstechnica Mine are both a bit older too. One is connected but the other is not, because it becomes almost non-functional when it is disconnected. I'm replacing my home routing setup with something a bit more sophisticated, and I'm going to see how well the router's ad-blocking DNS works on the TV.

     It's such a shame that the Digital Milenium Copyright Act makes it nearly impossible for anyone to create an open-source TV OS to replace the bloatware TV manufacturers ship.

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     Joe Morse (ildiavolorosso@sfba.social)'s status on Wednesday, 05-Feb-2025 23:46:43 JST Joe Morse

     in reply to

     • John Francis

     @johnefrancis @arstechnica The key thing about #Enshittification is that it happens, in part, because of the lack of discipline imposed by competition. So end consumers like us are often trapped with no alternative.

   • Embed this notice
     John Francis (johnefrancis@cosocial.ca)'s status on Wednesday, 05-Feb-2025 23:46:43 JST John Francis

     in reply to

     • Joe Morse

     @ildiavolorosso @arstechnica I'm running a 10+ year old Smart TV, but it has no connectivity, so it's not so bad. I have various streaming devices external to the TV. I will focus a lot more effort on finding a 4k display that will function without an internet connection and can't interrupt, overlay ads or send data home. It's worth a price difference of maybe $750 to me.

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     John Francis (johnefrancis@cosocial.ca)'s status on Wednesday, 05-Feb-2025 23:46:44 JST John Francis

     in reply to

     @arstechnica suggesting alternatives would've been helpful. But thanks for confirming my worst suspicions about smart tvs.