Really it's advertising. It's just much worse online because it's deceptive and sneaky. Advertising is a privacy and social health nightmare. It pressures peop

Really it's advertising. It's just much worse online because it's deceptive and sneaky. Advertising is a privacy and social health nightmare. It pressures people to do things we shouldn't be doing. It normalizes unhealthy behavior for profit. Among a ton of other issues. Society has suffered immensely since advertising really took off in the 70s. Especially when the US started to allow advertising towards children. That's when US propaganda(and extreme capitalism) REALLY went into overdrive. Then with the advent of social media in your pocket it became constant to the point people hardly recognize how influencial/manipulative it is. I block advertisements on all my devices. The difference is massive. I cannot overstate how different the online world is when you don't see advertisements.