You "often forget", perhaps because it's been a very long time since you've emerged from your bunker.

"Most people" are not even using the web, they are using the app, and getting very targeted ads, based on their behavior. The web is just some place where auxiliary transactions happen.

Text + Ads stopped paying the bills years ago. (long before chatgpt) If you want to read good stuff, it's mostly behind a paywall now. (I like reading stuff, so I pay for it.)

Sounds like you are landing on bottom-tier legacy webpages. And your 'slot machine' ads are how they profiled you, so you are perhaps telling on yourself.