> What is very true is that most social media users don’t like to click on links. They read the headline, look at the included image (if any), and assume they understand the whole story from that context. They jump to the discussion to comment about it or see what others are saying without leaving the site.
I also have been trained to avoid clicking on links if I can avoid it. It’s not that I don’t like it in principle or even that I want to stay in my social media wall. It’s that any time I click on a link to a website now I am all but guaranteed to
A.) Endure multiple seconds-long waits to load the page despite a gigabit connection
B.) See a modal asking me to sign up for a newsletter, often using annoying gimmicks to make me look to find the dismiss button
C.) Have the content I’m trying to read skip and jump all over the screen as random bits of external content load in
D.) Cookie banner
The web has turned into a user-hostile clusterfuck and ad-blockers only staunch a fraction of the problem. Bad design practices have led to a tragedy of the commons where everyone has contributed minor annoyances everywhere. It has sapped away all of people’s willingness to explore by introducing immeasurable amounts of cognitive friction to “surfing” the internet. And that’s all BEFORE we get to the floods of garbage content, SEO spam, and clickbait headlines that have made the upside potential of visiting a site or clicking a link lower than ever before.
Just to add my 2c on this; I browse with a sandboxed text-only Links
or W3M for 99% of all web interactions. I've got into Qubes, and for
those 1% of times they hold a gun to my head I can create a single use
Firefox routed through Tor.
The experience of text-only is that I click on loads of links! It's
very liberating. Highly recommend it for sites like HN that are high
on content and low on silly eye-candy.
I just never see the belly-dancing models selling me stuff, or the
entire page bugging-out like I did a whole bag of speed. Maybe I'm
missing out!
The links load instantly in a new tab or they don't load at all. I
set the timeout to 12 seconds. About half the time the page doesn't
load at all because it wants to run javascript or some nonsense. I
just move on without thinking about it.
Honestly it's really changed my psychology. Instead of getting annoyed
that half the web is user-hostile, I just take the attitude that it's
great that 50% of things do still load and contain real information
like its 1990! Because text-only browsing is so fast and effortless
it's no overhead. The "shit web" just slides past like water off a
ducks back.
btw our cybershow [0] is designed to quite Suckless [1], minimalist
standards.
I also have been trained to avoid clicking on links if I can avoid it. It’s not that I don’t like it in principle or even that I want to stay in my social media wall. It’s that any time I click on a link to a website now I am all but guaranteed to A.) Endure multiple seconds-long waits to load the page despite a gigabit connection B.) See a modal asking me to sign up for a newsletter, often using annoying gimmicks to make me look to find the dismiss button C.) Have the content I’m trying to read skip and jump all over the screen as random bits of external content load in D.) Cookie banner
The web has turned into a user-hostile clusterfuck and ad-blockers only staunch a fraction of the problem. Bad design practices have led to a tragedy of the commons where everyone has contributed minor annoyances everywhere. It has sapped away all of people’s willingness to explore by introducing immeasurable amounts of cognitive friction to “surfing” the internet. And that’s all BEFORE we get to the floods of garbage content, SEO spam, and clickbait headlines that have made the upside potential of visiting a site or clicking a link lower than ever before.