Ads definitely have an effect on me: the more intrusive they are, the more I remember them and tend to not buy that product and ignore the company altogether.
But generally I'm not exposed to a lot of ads thanks to the adblockers I use. And the Duckduckgo browser on Android, besides generally blocking network access for apps with Netguard.
The massive industry exists vor various reasons, but mainly because people have been trained from early on to get something "for free" without pondering the hidden longtime costs.
Disclaimer: prefer to pay or sponsor useful apps or services instead. And my North Face wind stopper west is more than 20 years old, the raincoat 10+ years and both are still serving me well ;-)
But generally I'm not exposed to a lot of ads thanks to the adblockers I use. And the Duckduckgo browser on Android, besides generally blocking network access for apps with Netguard.
The massive industry exists vor various reasons, but mainly because people have been trained from early on to get something "for free" without pondering the hidden longtime costs.
Disclaimer: prefer to pay or sponsor useful apps or services instead. And my North Face wind stopper west is more than 20 years old, the raincoat 10+ years and both are still serving me well ;-)