I feel like it’s a mix of quite a few things, social media is DEFINITELY a big part of the problem but the monetisation of EVERYTHING is the main problem.
When the Internet was becoming more mainstream around the world (late 90s) most people who put content on there didn’t do it for money, they did it just to share knowledge/thoughts or just be part of a small niche community.
This meant while there was less content it was more meaningful, and it got to the point quickly as it didn’t need to show you ads etc.
Recipie sites show this perfectly, people used to just post family recipes in cooking forums, now it’s all personal blogs riddled with ads splattered between the person’s life story and multiple requests to subscribe to related guff.
Ultimately the goal of the Internet shifted from “sharing knowledge/communicating” to “show as many ads as possible”. This makes 90% of each site filler to stop you getting to the 10% too quickly, so you get snagged on ads etc.
This is why AI is great for companies, they can put in the important 10% and have it make up the 90%, but it’s just adding more noise to the Internet.
Also pair this problem with search engines that now take advantage of the noise to provide “summary” blurbs which mean you don’t even visit the sites directly so they don’t get the revenue, the search engines do, I think there is a term for this “one click results” or something.
Its such a shame, I loved the Internet from like 1995-2005, you could search for something and get really good information and facts on the subject quickly. Now the same sort of things are lost amongst the filler sites that just aggregate information and regurgitate it as their own, or just out uninformed opinions (maybe even AI results) as content as if it’s from experts etc.
I could go on for ages on the subject as there are so many facets to the problem but I can’t see any real solutions, it’s just a midden heap.
The Internet used to operate fine before this ad riddled slop was spoon fed to us.
I’m pretty sure back in the day you would get some ads on geocities sites and other free Web hosts, and it was fine, I don’t expect ads to vanish, you are making out like it’s an all or nothing proposition.
The paradigms for “content” is all wrong now, rather than the ads being needed to fund the content, the content is produced as a way to keep eyes on ads.
There are literally design/ux guides around how to best waste a users time to get more ads shown without getting them to leave, click bait shouldn’t even be a thing.
Now you can say “this is why we need to support people so they don’t need to do this”, but I don’t feel they do NEED to, they choose to do this as it maximises income, but why do you need to get paid for every thing you do?
Its like people used to Stream and make YT vids because they enjoyed it, uploading new vids whenever there was a reason to, not because some algorithm required it.
I’m not against people making a living from YT or streaming, or even the Internet, but there is a difference between someone who enjoyed doing something and made it big vs people who just want to make money and YT is the vehicle for it.
Too much of society is focused on money.
The Internet used to feel like a university with clever people sharing knowledge and discussing all manner of topics, with some fun student bars to hang out and chat.
Now it feels like a noisy bazzar full of pick pocketers and stall vendors with fake smiles yelling at you to support them and buy their merch (and or their sponsors).
Its a cess pit.