You're begging the question. Are they a net good? Do they make us prosperous? Do they create jobs, etc?
Because there's a strong case to be made that they:
- exploit the credulous, mentally-deficient and emotionally unstable
- carry significant externalities in the form of personal data collection & malware
- contribute to psychological distress (anxiety, degraded sense of self-worth, poor body image, etc)
- cause financial distress by encouraging unnecessary spending
- act as a vector for selling harmful products (tobacco, predatory loans, etc.)
etc.
If you want to take the consequentialist approach, you have to contend with these questions as well. You'll also have to admit that the net balance is unclear at best.
Yeah, there are people who overshop, I'm sorry, but so what? What's the alternative? Ban ads? Let the government decide what should be sold / not sold? I believe it should be left to the individual what they consume and buy with their own earned money. No one has the right to say that they can't buy tobacco, or take a predatory loan.
"personal data collection & malware" - you agree to those conditions. In return you get amazing free products. Don't want that? There are many alternatives (Linux, Chromium / Firefox, duckduckgo, telegram and other alternative open-source products).
The point, which you (deliberately?) miss, is that you have simply declared ads to be worthwhile, and are now working backwards to argue your conclusion. You are begging the question.
Because there's a strong case to be made that they:
- exploit the credulous, mentally-deficient and emotionally unstable
- carry significant externalities in the form of personal data collection & malware
- contribute to psychological distress (anxiety, degraded sense of self-worth, poor body image, etc)
- cause financial distress by encouraging unnecessary spending
- act as a vector for selling harmful products (tobacco, predatory loans, etc.)
etc.
If you want to take the consequentialist approach, you have to contend with these questions as well. You'll also have to admit that the net balance is unclear at best.