The Internet has become Stale

Anything I searched for returned results from people who are genuinely interested in that subjected. Whether it was someone writing about their favourite interest on their personal website, their YouTube channels or even on news articles.

That was the state of the internet in the late-2000s. Everything was less commercial and search engines were better at ranking good content above SEO spam (Google appears to have stopped caring about web-spam after Matt Cutts left).

Even news websites would publish interesting stories about the local areas that newspaper represented. That’s before newspaper websites turned to click-bait (Looking at you “Reach plc” who took over many local newspapers).

Unfortunately, the internet we have today is different, in a far worse way.

• social media accounts replaced Personal websites and blog. Well, thought out web-pages, replaced with fewer-than 240 character “posts”. That are poorly thought out, lack detail or nuance.

• A focus on monetization of content has ruined YouTube. When I first watched YouTube after getting my laptop in 2006, people uploaded videos they wanted to create, not what made money. You could find anything you want on YouTube back then… Unfortunately, nowadays everyone is a Mr. Beast clone or an old YouTuber who keeps posting the same content for over a decade until your popularity declines from being stale (example; Ashens).

• News websites used to be a fantastic resource for finding detailed information about your local community. Unfortunately, budget cuts to newsrooms, caused by ad revenue and newspapers sales declines, meant cheaper and easier to produce articles that attract clicks became the norm. Leading to articles written without real-life site visits and many clickbait articles.

• Google and other search engines now suck. Part of that is independent websites closing. In part from the rise of social media and in response to actions by search engines. As independent websites closed, SEO spammers took over and Google’s attempt (copied by other search engines) to stop appeared to rely on automation. A lack of (or not enough) manual review allows enough web spam past that for many queries Google is utterly useless. Why do you think many put “Reddit” at the end of a search query?

The internet has become less interesting and factual. The internet has simply become a place for memes and TikTok “Pranks”. Actual good content online appears to be in terminal decline.

There is no straightforward solution, unless society stops seeking the quickest dopamine rush.

Published: 23rd September 2023