A while ago I gave up installing adblockers on every browser and switched to blocking ads (and other annoyances) on the DNS level. This way the network request is blocked before anything gets downloaded (unlike browser-based ad-blocking). It also means that the whole device is protected, including browsers like mobile Chrome, which doesn't allow extensions. And even ads inside apps are filtered! I'm going to shortly describe my setup here.

Mobile (Android)
Blokada is an open source app that allows you to block network requests on your Android device, according to auto-updating filter lists. It does not require root access. It comes with all necessary list providers predefined, which you can simply enable (or define your own). 
Blokada also offers a VPN service called Blokada+ with costs, but you can ignore that. Since practically all websites use encryption these days, VPNs have lost much of their usefulness (except for torrents).

Blokada is not available from the Play store, because Google earns a lot of money with ads. I installed Blokada-v4 via the alternative appstore F-Droid but you can also download the APK from Blokada's own site and install that.

I use 2 filter lists in Blokada: "StevenBlack Unified" and a smaller custom list to block cookie notifications. I have had good experiences with Steven Black's host list but I've also used Blokada's default list ("Energized Blu") and it's fine. For performance and battery reasons I recommend not to use more than 1 large list provider.


Desktop (Windows 10)
I wanted the same experience on desktop and found the free HostsMan program, which serves this purpose.
HostsMan can subscribe to custom filter list providers and add the data to your hosts file. It has some niceties like keeping backups and various options how to merge data. While it doesn't automatically update the lists and hosts file, this is hardly necessary to do often and HostsMan makes a manual update as easy as possible.

HostsMan doesn't require installation, however in order to change the hosts file it requires to be run in admin mode, as do you.
This is the custom filter lists URL I use with HostsMan (it's the aforementioned StevenBlack list again): http://sbc.io/hosts/hosts

Yes. A similar idea is to install the DNS server software Pi-Hole to a Raspberry Pi and configure your router to use the raspberry pi as a DNS server.

For me this isn't an option though. Disabling ads on the whole home network is too inflexible. As a web developer working from home I sometimes need to see the ads on websites I work on. And my wife actually prefers to see ads.

Haha, to support the websites she visits.

Me too. Usually use youtube with firefox and adblocker on mobile, but had to switch to the app. Its soooo anoying. Not just the ads, but the confusing UI, the constant screen rotation and the stupid non-video content. The mobile browser version is really ZEN like in comparison.

But, ads are what keeps youtube free to use. We should have a day to thank all the people who watch youtube with ads. Their sacrifice keeps YouTube free for us all!

I think the way the internet is right now is workable for me. Websites get payed by ads and you and me, who don't wanna be tracked can just install an adblocker.
Don't want the gov screwing it up, like they did here in the EU with the mandatory "would you like cookies" banner on every freaking website. That might even be more annoying then ads. Before that, those who cared could just quietly block cookies. Now everyone is constantly interrupted and without reading just clicks yes. Nothing was won.
Micropayments are hard implement well. Also they would hand a lot of power to whoever is running that system.
Social media censorship has nothing to do with ads though. Its actually hurting there bottom line. YouTube for example, can't profit from demonitized or hidden videos.
Ads may track you, but that is optional if you know what you are doing. So I consider them the best compromise.

Brave Browser talked about doing an interesting system, where it would keep track (locally) of the websites that you visited, and then give them each a fraction of a monthly "internet fund", based on how much you visited each one.
But Brave Browser has... other problems which would turn one off using it.  Still, it's an interesting idea.


I still can't help but feel that the entire concept of advertising is flawed.
That is - I think the impact of advertising is exaggerated.  Letting your potential customers know that your product exists is invaluable, but I feel that actually swaying them to buy it, when they weren't already inclined to do so, is a much harder proposition.

Then again, we've already proven how many people are willing to believe any nonsense without giving it even a moment's critical thought, so I'm probably just not the target audience for most of the advertisements.

In part that, but also there was something about them being involved in dodgy practices, such as removing ads from websites only to instead replace them with ads that make Brave money.

Using or not using a useful piece of tech for political reasons is silly.

It's not that silly considering that by choosing to use their tech you are actively supporting their success. Can't separate politics from your actions.

Anyway, I use a portable Chromium build from here: https://chromium.woolyss.com It comes with a launcher that keeps it up-to-date. You can decide the level of google's involvement you're fine with yourself, by choosing the appropriate build.

That sounds awfully like the patreon model. Which, yes, works very well.