I have not put myself in a position to be forced to watch ads in a very long time. Even when I had normal TV service I was recording shows to a computer that would identify the commercials to automatically skip them when I watched a show. But I guess I'm not anywhere near normal in that regard.

I always mute and go off to do something else (meaning, I'm not watching, either). One of my worst hells was when I had to take care of my MIL for 2 months last year and while she watches YouTube non-stop, she does it with all the ads. I hadn't realized how bad the ads there actually are these days. I almost didn't make it.

My TV lets me pause live TV, so I pause, leave the room for a bit, come back and fast forward through the ads.

Never directly watch any ads. We record everything on HTPC (NextPVR), ads are cut before the recordings get thrown into Jellyfin. Ads in general simply dont happen in our household

I don't watch TV.

That's one of the reasons I cut the cord.

And unsubscribed from Netflix/Prime when they started asking for more money for ads.

And freak out whenever the weird hacky fix from the depths of Lemmy that kills youtube ads stops working for a day.

Ads are the goddamn worse, Carpenter had them dead to rights in They Live.

i have not owned a television since I was a child and came to develop my quirky ad-reviling character trait

I use a TV and pi connected to my server thus no ads but what gets me is radio ads in cars such as a taxi or in the barbershop, I hate them, they're obnoxious.

I stream everything and pay for ad free services. I hate ads.

My wife normally mutes them, but I generally don't care enough to pick up the remote and push the mute button. I just tune them out and use it as a chance to grab a snack or go to the bathroom, or just check stuff on my phone.

I made an Arduino IR cloner, took it to the barbershop and when nobody was looking copied the mute button's code so I now have a little device to silence the long Retro Music Television ad breaks I would otherwise have to endure. I don't really go anywhere with TVs otherwise.

When i run into ads on Twitch (rare) i mute the stream and leave the tab.
I usually only make it through a couple runs of ads before bailing on the stream.

I don't watch many things that have commercials. Only if I really want to see something and nothing else is more convenient or it's just for background noise while working on a project.

But since so many streaming sites let the ads be super loud compared to the content, yes, I usually mute it a couple of seconds ahead of time to avoid the jump scare.

If its a State Farm ad, its definitely getting muted.

For the few cases I watch live TV over the antenna, I will either lower the volume or leave it be. Muting to silence is usually too jarring but the same could be said about the ad itself

record everything. skip the commercials.

the need for having them in an ad supported environment is understood. but it's long since gotten out of hand as to how many there are. 8-10 minutes per hour when i was a kid to 20-22+ per hour now.

I don't watch television in a way that exposes me to commercials. Same with YouTube and Spotify.

I fast forward through ads during podcasts assuming my hands are free enough to do so, but will listen through them if I'm driving. I don't absorb much from them, I'd be hard pressed to recall any I heard even within the last hour. I think I've been hearing one on repeat lately about subscribing to a service to tell you what services you're subscribed to; couldn't tell you the name of the company though.

I mute them habitually and very regularly wish muting was kept as a metric so "they" could know just how much I truly loathe them.

No, I never muted them. How else are you supposed to know when the series continues?

when an ad is on I take the time to stand up and do whatever small tasks I have to

You're in good company here.

I expect most people who decide to watch cable or a comparable streaming service would watch ads with the volume on. A lot of people grew up with cable and constant ads and don't see a problem with it.

I don't watch cable TV. I get free Disney plus which includes ads. For these I do in fact mute them. I find ads annoying.

Use a DNS adblocker on your router and mobile network. 10x easier than it sounds. I haven't seen an ad on my screen that I didn't want in years.

Oh yea, I mute that shit before they start.

When I was a kid my father would always mute the ads, which was annoying to me because the images still demanded my attention and it was frustrating not knowing what they said. Now I don't watch TV and know how to use adblockers so it's a mute point.

I record everything I watch. Record now and watch later. Then I fast forward through the commercials. If something seems interesting I'll go back and actually watch it.