How The Internet and Media Became A Sea of Mediocrity And Bloated Junk
The Lost Art of Storytelling.
I recently watched The Black Widow movie from the 90s and was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it.
It took me a moment to figure out why, but then it struck me — the movie had a compelling plot, unexpected twists, and well-developed characters.
In contrast, many modern films focus solely on action and not on a solid storyline or interesting characters, making the movie difficult to watch.
I find myself scrolling and searching on Netflix, Primevideo, and sometimes even Disney Plus for hours, but nothing seems to catch my attention. I had hoped that subscribing to Disney Plus would give me access to National Geographic documentaries, but even those don’t seem appealing. It’s frustrating not being able to find something to watch, and it seems to happen every time I try to relax and unwind.
The trend seems to extend beyond just movies and into music and literature as well. I have found more success with books, at least. With the rise of the internet, it feels like the entertainment industry has become saturated with low-quality content. Even The Atlantic published an article on this topic in January 2024:
On TikTok, people filibuster, delaying their ultimate point, or divide their videos into needless “parts” — strategies to hook viewers and drive up valuable engagement numbers. All of this behavior is a side effect of our algorithmically powered reality. Yet in the process, they end up creating incentives for people to generate a lot of junk — and bloated junk, at that.
The internet is saturated with junk, making it increasingly difficult to find anything of quality. Social media thrives on quantity, and even young people are growing tired of the endless stream of glamorous influencers flaunting their lavish lifestyles. They seek authenticity rather than extravagant displays of wealth and materialism. …They too are becoming fed up with this excess and excessive consumerism being promoted online.
I have a strong preference for music and movies from the ’70s to the ’90s era. They often have better quality and deeper storytelling with potential lessons to be learned.
I can’t stand movies like Avatar, Game of Thrones, or Lord of the Rings as they are too fantastical for my taste. I am a realist and prefer watching down-to-earth films that I can relate to. Although, if I had to choose a fantasy movie, I would go with The Neverending Story from the ‘80s.
Despite the abundance of fantasy content on the Internet, it seems to be filled with mindless and excessive material. In summary, it is junk, garbage, or whatever you want to call it.
Last year, Amazon KDP introduced a new policy limiting authors to publishing only 3 books per day.
Even 3 is too many?
Perhaps the rule should be no more than one book per week to maintain quality standards.
The same goes for writing on Medium; instead of allowing daily posts, they should limit it to 3 articles per week.
It’s unrealistic to expect high-quality content every single day. What happened to the concept of taking time to write a book in a year?
I often find myself mindlessly scrolling and searching rather than watching, listening, or reading quality content.
This has left me feeling unsatisfied and unfulfilled, and I am considering returning to the traditional methods of searching for and reading books at libraries and bookstores.
Do you find the same issues with finding only junk on the internet?
