Alison WilderDear Everybody,
PLEASE for the love of god stop posting your events only on Facebook.
Thanks,
Me
The Other Brook@alisynthesis ...which includes Instagram.
@theotherbrook it most definitely includes instagram. What an absolute piece of shit.
I know how out of touch I am because I honestly, legitimately cannot believe people still use ad-driven social media in 2025. I mean...REALLY???
It reminds me of the time I was like 19 and happily on mushrooms, walking down the street in Denton, TX, and I stopped in my tracks and was like, "wait...is this SERIOUSLY illegal??? No, no, I must be making that up because I'm on mushrooms."
@alisynthesis Ha! That is one tautology I can totally get behind.
I've been using adblockers for so long that when I see people using sites without them I can't believe they put up with that.
@theotherbrook crazy right? I clearly do not live in the real world. And also I don't want to.
@alisynthesis I'm not sure why (maybe it's ongoing exposure to all this fedi-wonderfulness, or maybe it's moving back to my place of 19 year-old mushroom wanderings) but lately I've been really noticing how ad-saturated the physical world around me is.
Maybe I'm turning into Cayce Pollard from William Gibson's Pattern Recognition. Which would be fine if I get to wear her cool bomber jacket.
@theotherbrook omg I haven't thought about Cayce in years! She is such a crush worthy character.
One of the things I love the most about New Hampshire is that billboards are illegal here. It's such a shock when I cross over the border on a highway and suddenly I'm just surrounded by ads.
@alisynthesis For a decade after we moved out here, every summer we'd drive back across the country to make our rounds of relatives stretching from Pennsylvania to Maine. It was during those years that states started banning billboards along the interstates. Which probably read to my increased rate of reading comic books to pass the time.
"ONLY 1,922 Miles to the SNAKE PIT in State Line, Idaho!"
Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK@alisynthesis @theotherbrook since the 1980s billboards are restricted in Ipswich, Suffolk, England (there are way fewer than in similar towns) and National Highways also restricts how many can appear near fast highways and motorways (for road safety reasons)
@vfrmedia @theotherbrook it's so nice, right? See, government CAN improve daily life! 😂
@alisynthesis @theotherbrook what was impressive about Ipswich is the billboards were often paid for by a cigarette company which was one of the biggest employers in town at the time and the Council was *still* able to push back against that (although it became easier as over the years smoking became less socially acceptable)
(these pictures show what it used to be like before the ban and afterwards)
Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK (@[email protected])
Attached: 2 images Falcon Street and St Nicholas Street, #Ipswich #Suffolk #England in late #1960s and #2024 (which also shows just how many #advertising #billboards were around in 1960s, and for unhealthy stuff like cigarettes and alcohol as well!)
@alisynthesis @theotherbrook whilst its likely that particular set of billboards were temporary whilst Friars House was built, that's also a massive amount of distraction for drivers on a 4 way junction with pedestrians crossing (today one of the roads is fully restricted to motor traffic and the others have various traffic calming schemes and parking restrictions)
The Witch of Crow Briar@vfrmedia @alisynthesis @theotherbrook Back in the idyllic days when Reliant Robins roamed free, unbothered by the predations of Mr Bean-driven Minis.
@crowbriarhexe @alisynthesis @theotherbrook there was an attempt as recently as 2000 to restart production of the Reliant Robin in Suffolk, although this faltered as the entrepreneur involved decided to be too much like Del Boy and start building the cars *before* he had got full approval from DVLA (the company went bankrupt by 2002).
It is still occasionally seen on the roads round here..
@vfrmedia @crowbriarhexe @alisynthesis Jeremy Clarkson didn't do the Robin's future prospects any favors when he rigged one so it rolled over on every corner. But on the other hand, attempting to launch one into space was fun.
Michael@theotherbrook @alisynthesis re ad saturation - yup. I grew up with ad-laden broadcast tv in the 1960’s after having ad-free tv in the late 1950’s in the UK. Ever after I have assiduously edited commercial messaging out of my life. Back when “jingles” were a thing, if I was out shopping for a product and that products tv ad jingle popped into my head I would put it back on the shelf. I taught grandson to close eyes and go lalala if he was watching an ad on tv.
Veronica Olsen@garrattguy These days, the only ads I'm exposed to are ad posters on shopping centres. That's pretty much it. I hate ads so much that I refuse to use any service that includes it and I cannot block it.
We have state TV here, and the handful of times I want to watch a news broadcast, that's the stream I go to. No ads. They have sponsors for some content, like sports, but I pretty much never watch that either.