Ever get the feeling you are being watched?

It is targeted algorithms- I remember being on Facebook around my 50th birthday (a long time ago) and being inundated with things for over-50s. I then removed my birthdate from my profile,
I also never 'like' anything for same reasons. Your 'likes' send a message to the advertisers, just as when you on-line shop.
The thing to remember is you are still in control, you do not have to look and you do not have to buy.

When you open up Google, if you click on the 3 little dots top right one of the menu items is 'New incognito window'. If you open this up and use this to search this stops a lot of the tracking and also those annoying cookies and should stop the adverts. You might be prevented from navigating to some parts of the websites though.

I once made an online enquiry about paints but left off the i and despite quickly correcting I then for a few days got adverts for pants.

my adverts seem to think i want to buy a bar for the garden

Targeted advertising. You are not anonymous at all online.

Have you ever tried simply discussing a product or country and then watching the adverts you get on your smart phone?

Such a lot of our information is collected and shared through loyalty cards, subscriptions and our every on line purchase its no surprise that we are targeted with advertising.

There isn’t any. You put yourself out there every time you go online. That is what cookies are, they record what you look at and that is why this happens. If you don’t want it, don’t go online and don’t use SM.