This is what you should know about how Javascript shapes the way we perceive the internet; but it also works without.
Do you want to experience a new internet without annoying ads, pop-up windows urging you to subscribe, or website that endlessly scroll? You probably have felt annoyed by one of these things at some point. Wouldn’t it be great to just turn off the annoying part and keep what we all really want: the content? Well, this other kind of internet has been with you all the time you just haven’t discovered it yet.
All you need to do is turn off JavaScript in your browser. JavaScript is a programming language that was initially developed to include features like validate online forms or create dynamic animations of content.
Javascripts are technically small programs and need computational power. However, with the exponential increase in hardware performance, JavaScript has been used for all kinds of things.
When you visit a site that contains JavaScript, the programs are automatically started. Many of these scripts are loaded from third party sites, which then can load other scripts, such that it quickly becomes difficult to keep track of what they do. Over 94% of all websites use JavaScript. Google is probably the biggest supplier of third party JavaScripts, which helps build many websites.
JavaScripts are especially important when it comes to advertising. The great advantage for advertisers is that they no longer have to impose what you are going to see. By running conditionals on your information, they can tailor the ads to your interests.
If you are concerned about your privacy and want to have full control of what happens to your information on your device, turning off JavaScript in your browser is mandatory. Without JavaScript you will run into many sites that don’t work. Many sites load content like images or videos from content delivery networks, which only work with JavaScript turned on. Same for videos on Youtube or slideshows on Facebook.
Luckily, most sites do work without JavaScript and there are even sites that have optimized their pages to display properly without JavaScript. Here, we even have to give credit to Facebook and Twitter, which work with JavaScript turned off.
On the other hand, there are many benefits in turning off JavaScript. The load time is drastically reduced since we no longer wait for external content to load. At the same time, loading less saves unnecessary data consumption. There is also much less advertisement and no annoying pop-ups that asks for your email address for their newsletters. Many news sites restrict the number of articles non-premium members can read by using JavaScript. If you turned it off, you have no restrictions at all!
Completely turning of JavaScript is very inconvenient for everyday use. Luckily, there is an add-on for your browser called NoScript that controls what site can use JavaScript. With NoScript, you can choose which resources can be loaded by what site. Sites can be white-listed and scripts can be allowed temporarily or permanently. The add-ons looks like below.
Example view of the NoScript extension on nytimes.com. Content can be allowed or blocked for individual sources; either temporarily of permanently.
SnowHaze also includes a handy control of JavaScript. On top of the setting to turn on and off JavaScript globally, you can also choose per site if you want to allow JavaScript. SnowHaze doesn’t offer the selectivity of choosing which resources to allow but this is not a problem since tracking scripts (JavaScript with the sole purpose of tracking you) are blocked either way by default.
Screenshot of SnowHaze with the JavaScript page setting turned of for New York Times. All page settings can be changed permanently or temporarily.
Now it’s up to you to try surfing the internet for at least one week without JavaScript. The best way is to install NoScript in your Firefox and use our free browser SnowHaze on your mobile devices. Tell us about your JavaScript free experience!
