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.

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.

My wife mutes them, I just ignore them.

I’d have to pay closer attention to the ads if I wanted to mute them at the right times. My mother in law does the mute thing and either forgets to unmute it until halfway through the scene or gives the silent ads her undivided attention.

I avoid ads religiously but when I can't avoid them I mute and look away

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.

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.

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

You’re not a freak, they’re something that you don’t wanna pay attention to but they’re literally made to grab your attention, so it drives you crazy. Nothing wrong with muting them

Commercial breaks wouldn’t drive me so crazy if every third ad wasn’t for a medication with legitimately gruesome side effects

I have a TV but don't have cable, completely replaced normal TV with yt, Netflix, and anime. I use brave browser so I don't get ads

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.

I don't know what normal people do but people like me don't see ads because they use the appropriate protections from the invasiveness of the internet.

Pihole. Firefox. ublock origin, privacy badger, decentraleyes...

It also helps if you don't participate in systems that attempt to intrusively shove ads down your throat, but you do you.

I watch regular tv so little, it mostly doesn't happen. We used to DVR a show, but it's been off the air for a while now (or my settings broke when I moved), and fast-forwarded through them. Now, it's generally only very rarely watching the news and I suppose I let them play.

You will never see ads skipped through where I am. What's the issue with them?

I mute them unless I’m interested.

Most ads are obnoxious and feel like I’m getting a headache listening to the same repetitive, obnoxious voices/music.

Why you askin Lemmy what normal people do?!

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

I use YouTube premium and Twitch turbo to have no ads at all.

Mute the entire TV and use the closed captions when watching the programs. I do this.

"Normal people" sit all the way through ads and are having receptacles installed in their carotid arteries for Amazon to pipe petrochemical runoff directly into their blood-brain barriers.

Me? I don't own a working television, I haven't turned on a radio in years, and all of my digital devices run a FOSS operating system I installed on them with layers of ad blockers.