Honestly, UFOs and aliens are the element of the paranormal that I have become most skeptical of... for whatever reasons I find it easier to accept the idea of say ghosts. I think all of the phony claims just burned me out. The more you pay attention to some of this stuff, the more it unravels.
But, UFOs and aliens are also very intriguing.
I think I got interested because it was a big topic when I was a kid in the 1970s. I watched In Search Of... and Project UFO faithfully. Bigfoot totally fascinated me, and the Bermuda Triangle. I grew up in Ohio, near Wright Patt - in fact, because my dad was in the military I went to Wright Patt for my medical care when I was young. Eventually hearing the stories that there was a recovered saucer at Wright Patt, well, it used to drive me crazy wondering if it were true.
Another thing that made UFOs seem more real to me, a family friend gave me a bunch of UFO magazines in 1975 or so. It turned out that one of them had a photo in it that the father of one of my neighborhood friends had submitted - the dad of a girl who lives across the street. And he had taken the photo in our neighborhood. I can't even remember the picture now, it was just lights in the sky, I feel like maybe one was on a triangular looking object. Nothing earth shaking, not even a great picture probably, but to the kid I was it made UFOs seem real.
I go through cycles of interest in the paranormal and about 10 years ago I got really into podcasts and found myself reading a lot again about UFOs. It actually wound up making me less of a believer rather than more. But like I say it's still interesting stuff. I can certainly imagine or hope there is life somewhere else out there, and I find the thought it may have visited Earth in the past especially intriguing. Of course it has to be said if we're talking aliens / ETH, I feel like aliens could be to us the way we may be to some insects, just a different order of life, incomprehensible.
OK sorry for the long-winded post! It's interesting stuff but I have found a lot of claims and stories ultimately disappointing.
I have never had any personal experiences with sightings or the like; if I had I think I would be much more interested.