The vast majority of the services we use on the web are backed by advertising.

Which is a bit like saying that you are the product being sold to advertisers.

Is it really advertising? Advertising is a public promise made to a large group of people. Which is not what happens on the Internet, where hyper-targeting means that we have no idea if the same message and promise is being made to other people or not. [1]

And how does this "advertising" work? A long time ago, pundits talked about "interactive advertising". For reasons nobody ever cared to explain, the same consumers who went to the loo during commercials were supposed to want to "interact" with online ads.

It didn't happen. Hardly anybody clicked. [2]

With the advent of social media, the new gospel is about the "conversations" companies are supposed to have with their clients. But not many clients seem interested. [3]

And even if they were, Facebook started charging companies for the privilege. [4]

We are left with a deluge of low-cost "content" supported and encouraged by the most aggressive and privacy-threatening direct marketing industry the world has ever seen.