Content Blockers: a warning, not an apocalypse

MG Seigler makes a good point about the content blocker panic:

Having downloaded and installed one myself (Peace), I can say with a good amount of certainty that the likelihood of “regular” users picking these apps up en masse is nearly nil. Not only is the download being guarded by a price, the installation is being inhibited by a toggle buried in Settings. I implore you to try to explain how this works to my mother. But actually, you won’t even get past the whole notion of what an ad-blocker is and why it matters in the first place. So don’t bother.

That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t think through why content blockers are surging, and the long-term implications of that. But it also means that we probably shouldn’t panic that if we don’t act now – or strike back – then we’re screwed.

This is a warning sign, not an apocalypse.