> Advertising literally does make content "free", as in, you do not have to pay for it. Advertising only makes content free monetarily; there's no money excha

> Advertising literally does make content "free", as in, you do not have to pay for it. Advertising only makes content free monetarily; there's no money exchanged with the viewer. It instead costs you time, attention, memory. And sanity. > $1000 per year seems like a reasonable charge for being able to search the web with the power of Google's search. This shows the power of advertising in abusing our brain's ability to put realistic costs on our time and attention. Google has $50 billion in revenue minus profit, and there's a billion people in just the US and Europe, so more like $50 per year for everything Google does, not just search. If you are only using search and not Android or gmail or youtube or docs the cost would be far less. Advertising is so insidious because its entire purpose is to prey on our foibles and weaknesses, and convincing us that our time is worth less... and that cigarettes are cool. Smoking pollutes your lungs with toxins, advertising pollutes your mind with jingles. There are times and places where advertising is necessary, but it's never free.