I agree, there is plenty of good stuff still being created. But it has to compete with a firehose of sewage, so the ratio is way off.

Exactly. And the noise, in all forms, has been exponentially increasing. In every medium there is “good” - even in like the “TikTok and its clones” category… but it competes with idiotic rage bait and engagement bait like the “life hacks” that intentionally make no sense, uncreative political BS, advertisements for only fans models, and of course, AI-generated everything that masquerades as content but is actually devoid of meaning or usefulness.

I blame the ad-supported model for everything.

Ad-supported is what made the Internet’s adolescence, in the early 00s, so impactful, because it paid the bills, or at least promised a path to profitability to VCs who paid the bills.

But once the adtech got good enough and everything went mobile, ad revenue became the ultimate bad incentive driver for everyone. Nobody at NBC in 1950 could dream of getting viewers to spend 8 hours a day watching TV, but that kind of watch time is 100% possible today and the TikToks, IG and YouTubes of the world won’t rest unless average watch time reaches 24.00 hours per day.

there are some small sub reddits and forums dedicated to niche topics.

stumbling into great forums and blogs while searching for something is a rare thing now.