Wikipedia survives without advertising and has some of the best content available anywhere. Some sites paywall, and for specialist content that’s actually valuable, that will continue to be a viable model. And static sites are cheaper than ever, keeping plenty of niche content available. Affiliate advertising is still a viable model and there are even more ways to monetize content that don’t require display advertising. Clickbait might die a miserable death, and thank God for that. Valuable content will survive.

We don’t live in a world of Faustian bargains where we have to put up with excessive pollution—either of the informational or physical sort—as an unavoidable byproduct of value. There are better solutions out there, and all it takes to realize them is to take the minds that are wasted on tricking people into seeing or clicking on ads and put them to work on more useful endeavors.