What is the practical difference between blocking an ad, manually skipping an ad, and watching an ad and then ignoring the product? In all three cases you're mo

What is the practical difference between blocking an ad, manually skipping an ad, and watching an ad and then ignoring the product? In all three cases you're mostly worth the same to the creator: zero. This is especially true in worlds like podcasting, where promo codes are the primary tracking metrics to find out how successful the ad campaign has been. Advertising isn't magic. Your creator is getting paid because they are encouraging users to either spend more or to direct their spending at a specific product (regardless of that product's actual value). I don't see how you're supporting a creator just by listening to ads. The people who buy the products are supporting a creator, and they're subsidizing you. Even to an advertiser, ultimately, your ears aren't valuable. Your money is valuable. A conversion is valuable. There's this idea that if we all tolerate certain kinds of advertising, creators will get paid and nobody will have to lose -- but it just doesn't click with me, no matter how much I think about it. The money isn't free, it has to come from somewhere. Somebody has to have their spending habits manipulated against their will for this to work. The propaganda has to be effective for some people, or they wouldn't pay this much money to distribute propaganda. And it's very difficult for me to imagine a scenario where introducing multiple massive middlepeople into that transaction will make the transaction ultimately end up costing us less money than if we just payed creators directly for their content. We are paying for ads; or at least more vulnerable people are paying on our behalf. I strongly suspect we would collectively pay less as a society if we just gave creators money.