Are VPNs a good idea for most people? It depends on needs, of course.

Some use VPNs if they're on untrustworthy wifi a lot, but nearly everything uses https so that's not usually necessary.

If you don't trust your ISP, you might use one. But then, do you trust your VPN provider that much more, really?

It could make sense to get around censorship by government. But, though the government will not see your specific activity, they certainly be able to tell that you are using a VPN (which could possibly be bad).

VPNs slow down your transfers and they are often costly.

The only time I used one was to stream the olympics for free in the nation that was hosting them, and for that, it was great (if a little slow).

Still, for most folks, it's probably not worth it.