If you believe what you read, and what you hear at events like the IAB's Annual Leadership Meeting, ad blocking is an existential crisis for the advertising industry, and even more so for the content publishing industry. At the aforementioned meeting, Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was even invoked, as evidence that ad blockers are destroying "the virtuous cycle that links freedom to advertise to freedom of the press to freedom of expression to economic freedom." Now that is a lot of freedoms. The implication is that unless ad blockers are put back in their box, the whole underpinning of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and our whole way of life, will be insidiously eroded.
But what about another freedom? What about our freedom to not be annoyed by content we don't want to see or hear? I signed up for the "Do Not Call" directory for that exact reason. I'm sure many of you did, too. I now realize that I trampled on the right of free speech inherent to telemarketers. I won't lose sleep over it.