I would love to know from the rest here - isn’t a solution to the ad creep just… not buying things? Like going for second hand / refurbished, avoiding big brands for food and drink, and just not shopping online (ffs)? Or am I being naive? Enlighten me!
Of course working under the assumption that the government cannot (yet) admit to tracking us for more sinister purposes. That’s a problem for another day.
The other problem with repairing things is very often these days there’s no where to buy the parts from. You can try buying a broken version of the thing you want to fix, but you’re gambling on whether the specific part(s) you need will actually be functional. If the thing you’re trying to fix is expensive then a broken one is likely going to be in a similar price range, and if it’s not expensive there may not be anyone selling a broken one since it’s not going to be worth the time or effort.