The room is dark and silent. Suddenly, a loud noise pierces your ears. You panic as everyone turns in your direction. You just wanted to read an article about cute kittens, but instead of peaceful kitten reading, an annoying political video ad is on autoplay.
From the many annoying things you encounter on the internet, autoplay videos are one of the worst. A Firefox survey showed that 90 percent of people would like a web browser that blocks autoplaying videos. That’s why the latest version of Firefox stops videos from assaulting your ears.
If you’re not sure whether to activate autoplay blocking on your browser, here’s five reasons to do it.
Bombing the presentation
You’re presenting in front of the boss. Out of nowhere, a video about the foraging habits of pandas starts to autoplay. Panicked, you search for a way to turn the darn thing off. Then, your laptop bursts into flames.* Okay, probably not, but autoplay videos are still the worst.
Waking up baby
If you’re a parent, you know the golden rule: don’t make noise when the baby’s asleep. After hours of crying, you’ve finally managed to put the bundle of joy to bed. You leave the door open and tiptoe out. Then it happens, music blasts from your partner’s computer. Someone didn’t block autoplay. As they sheepishly close the video, you point to the door. It’s their turn to soothe a crying infant.
Causing a commotion in the library
You’ve been researching for hours. It’s time for a break, so you go to your favorite gossip website to catch up on some celeb news. As soon as you open a website, a booming voice asks if you need rash treatment medication. You don’t have a rash, but everyone in the library now thinks you do.
Stopping the REM cycle
After a long day of work, your partner is sleeping peacefully next to you. Meanwhile, you want to catch up on the news. You click on the article and bam! A video starts to autoplay, and your partner jumps up startled. They point to the couch and then look back at you.
Disrupting the commute
It’s early morning and you’re taking the bus to go to work. It would be a normal day, except that your boss asked you to send over a presentation ASAP. You turn on a hot spot, open your laptop and before you can click close, an ad so loud the whole bus turns to stare autoplays on your computer.
Videos are fun, but a video shouldn’t autoplay and disrupt your experience. To stop any of these situations from happening you can download the latest version of Firefox.
This post is also available in: Français (French)
