Roughly during the fourth rapid fire commercial break my housemate exclaimed:

These ads are really annoying, and I like ads!

We normally don’t watch live TV, but had decided to catch the season opener of Cosmos. We were blown away both by the quantity of unskippable ads and also how poorly they fit together, like someone hit shuffle and called it a day. After the second set of repeat ads we started hitting mute immediately and having a conversation instead. 

People lament ad-ridden websites, but the majority of content now includes targeted and arguably thoughtful advertising. Google with ads on queries that are likely commercial in nature, YouTube videos with a single skippable ad that is often so good it makes me want to watch the entire thing, and Facebook with ads for useful apps. The lack of privacy on the internet can be scary, but at least it’s not annoying.