On lemmy, I just browse “all” then filter out anything I don’t want instead of the opposite. I don’t use Mastodon much, or any twitter-style platform. As for videos I still use YouTube, just through the FreeTube application on desktop.
Edit: one thing I do follow is the gaming news posts by this person, who puts a whole lot of effort into them: @PerfectDark@lemmy.world
Honestly that’s kind of what lemmy is, in a roundabout way. I think you are right, but actually getting people to engage with that would be difficult. Today, word of mouth with younger people mostly revolves around individual things inside centralized platforms like a TikTok meme or something. I think in addition to independent sources of content, there needs to be a cultural change in how everyone accesses content. That’s the hard part.
Yes you said it better than I could have. Not only the perverse incentive, but also just the way ads have annihilated the usability of the internet for the average user. I know some sites can’t exist without ads, but the web now is an unusable mess of for-profit click bait SEO slop and the average non-profit oriented enthusiast with a website for something has a harder time than ever existing because of it.
I am not smart enough to know what to change, but I know something has to change. Short of a complete upheaval of the current web, the ones profiting off the current model will do everything in their power to make sure nothing changes.
This is why I’m conflicted. AI destroying ad revenue is that upheaval that could be fast and powerful enough to disrupt the status quo, but at what cost?
Yes, but that’s besides the point.
On one hand, I don’t generate ad revenue for anyone in the first place and would love to see the ad-supported web model collapse. On the other hand, I don’t like that AI is destroying things. I’m conflicted.
They really do! It’s nice to read something that’s clearly hand crafted and high quality, especially the big news roundups that you do, as opposed to the usual SEO slop most news sites have. It’s a treat every time a new one comes out.