How do you find worthwhile content nowadays?

[Inlusione]

Content has become so ubiquitous that it is often taken for granted. It is everywhere and it's useless. I feel like it's so hard to determine which content is worthwhile today because everyone has access to making/producing it. You were lucky to own someone else's writing 500 years ago and nowadays there are billions of articles, videos and books available that are so easy to reproduce and spread that they just lost their entire meaning. In the past, reproducing and sharing written content was a tedious, time-consuming process. And people were dedicated completely to that endeavour. Now, it takes mere seconds to disseminate information. We are drowning in a sea of meaningless creations not having time nor inclination to find the pearls hidden in the clusters of oysters. In short, the internet made everything obsolete nowadays and I'm thinking seriously about finding my escape in the past as things made back then still hold a certain charm that it's impossible to replicate today.

Today, you'll always feel like there's something better out there. That your time reading or watching a certain thing could've been spent more wisely with something else. And this way of thinking was almost inexistent before our era(2000-2010). People used to focus and meditate on what they had, because their resources were limited and they had to take out everything they could from them. Now you have it all the time but you know you missed something else, so you have to finish that as soon as possible and move on to the next interesting thing. The information will never settle. Since it was taking way more time and effort to obtain that piece of knowledge back then, finding it was much more satisfying. Fifty years ago, people had increased civility and critical thinking due to the amount of time spent processing information. Individuals would take a step back, think about what they've learned, ask pointed questions, and form measured, rational conclusions. Nowadays, with the pressure of staying constantly updated and an overload of information from multiple sources, people often miss the luxury of careful consideration. This makes it increasingly hard to retain our attention on one particular issue due to the countless ones demanding our immediate action or the stockpile we had gathered in our "backlog", "watch later", "read later" lists, always asking us to move faster to get to them. Rather than fostering critical thinking, it pushes us more towards delayed reaction and quick assessment. This shift poses crucial questions about the nature of our digital age, particularly in light of the distinction it draws between modern times and the more reflective eras of the past.

I feel like I can reject this loop of always asking for more immediately only if I'll start to consume mostly works from the past. Today there is way too little worthwhile content and there's always an enormous volume undergoing production so you'll never be able to find what you're looking for and most of the time you won't even be surprised by the quality of most things. There are indeed quite a few gems emerging amidst the relentless tide of media, but curating these among the countless mediocrity often feels like an impossible task. I have a profound appreciation and longing for the relative simplicity and undeniable quality-standards of the works of the past because I no longer feel the rush to skim through those old-fashioned books and movies and everything. By immersing myself in them, I can, perhaps, rekindle that unparalleled magic in ways the contemporary content will never be able to. In my whirlwind race to consume everything, I can't grasp the sheer joy of completely losing myself in a single piece of art. I feel like I'll never be able to anymore. All that remains is to throw myself in the past, telling me that this is all there is and hopefully I'll believe that for a while. I came tot he conclusion that you can't curate anything as everything will feel so shallow nowadays. So overdone. So saturated. I'll just travel back in time with books, and movies, and people... to feel everything they ever felt.

[starbreaker]

I know this is going to sound like a needlessly pedantic exercise in semantics, but I honestly think that thinking of other people's creative work as "content" is part of the problem.

If you see a video somebody put hours of effort into shooting and editing, or an article, essay, or book that somebody hours of effort into writing and editing, or an artwork that took hours of effort into creating -- none of which counts the hundreds or thousands of hours of effort necessary to learn how to create any of these works in the first place -- it honestly seems to me like you are reducing each of these from works that only a particular individual could create in their particular way to mere commodities that anybody could create, even a machine.

I think the whole "content" mindset is part of the problem. Instead of looking for "content", I try to find people with interesting perspectives, ideally people whose personal websites have RSS feeds, and add their feeds to my feed reader so I can periodically see what they're up to.

[glitchlynx]

How do I look for worthwhile content? Short answer - I don't, and I'm okay with that. I've spent a lot of time leaving and coming back to various social media websites, and what I've found is that it's never mattered that I missed a few weeks of information. There's so much stuff out there that I am going to miss out on most of it, and trying to find and consume all the best movies / books / tv shows / viral videos / songs sounds way more tiring than simply... being okay with not seeing it. Too much information wears me out very quickly, so I all but make an effort to miss out on stuff on purpose. I'd rather read through one person's blog at a slow pace, and not worry about if it's a great blog, than read through a hundred tweets trying to find the cleverest writer.

I am assuming here that when you say content, you mean entertainment. Trying to find educational content is a whole other problem. (I'm not sure where I am going to go for some hobby related questions if reddit goes away...)

Practically, when it comes to entertainment, I try not to let a 'watchlist' build up, unless I know for sure that I am going to come back to the piece of media I saved in the near future, say in a few hours or days. Because when I do have a watchlist, either I never actually go back to those pieces of media, or it becomes a chore to clear it out. I've also started collecting cassettes recently - it's much easier to give full attention to a physical piece of media, modern or old. I could listen to the same songs on spotify, but then there would be a hundred other things I could also be doing on my phone or computer. I'd just end up browsing the internet while music played in the background, more likely than not. For some reason, when the music is an object I own instead of a file I'm renting I'm much more likely to just sit and listen, even though the audio quality is objectively worse and the selection is very limited.

[wygolvillage]

I really agree with the point that viewing creative work as part of the Content Churn is part of what makes it seem like it's hard to find more. Before I challenged this idea I was constantly scrolling through tags looking for more and more stuff to "consume" but now that I've become more social media critical I notice myself doing it less...

When I want to go looking for something interesting I use search engines like Marginalia, or use the "random search" on Neocities, or try to follow link pages and such and just see where I end up. I also second using RSS feeds since it's nice to have a curated "gallery" of creators whose work I enjoy.

I also started focusing more on what I can put out on the net rather than what I can be "fed" by it... It's sort of hard to explain, but it's this idea of an outwards presence rather than an inward one. Or something.

[Guest]

There's two main sources that I use for finding decent content to read.

#1: Word of mouth from friends and others in chatrooms:
This is self explanatory for the most part. I'm active in about a dozen channels on IRC and as a result I often see people post links to sites they've read recently or discuss about. Some of them are a great read, others meh. It's a mixed bag in regards to quality, but it gives new and interesting content reliably.

#2: Hacker News:
Hacker News is a link aggregator. I just lurk on there, but I can say it's a decent place to find tech related blogs though the less said about the comments the better. It doesn't always give new and interesting content reliably, but it's still better than trying to deal with SEO spam.

[starbreaker]

Hacker News is a link aggregator. I just lurk on there, but I can say it's a decent place to find tech related blogs though the less said about the comments the better.

I've read the comments over there, because something I had posted had gotten posted and ruffled feathers, and JWZ had it right when he characterized HN as "a DDOS made of finance-obsessed man-children and brogrammers". I think of HN as a collection of College Republicans who majored in computer science and have so poor a grasp of the humanities that they read dystopian SF as instruction manuals.

[shevek]

I think my answer may sound a bit vague and isn't super universally applicable, but I have a few loose guidelines or observations that may not work for everyone, but usually lead me in the right direction. They may not (or can't) all apply at the same time, but what helps me is..

1. Seeking out smaller spaces. There is less shame in posting things there that are niche and interesting, passionate and earnest. I see this forum and some link collections on neocities sites as a good example, but also as above mentioned, some smaller or slower link aggregator sites).

2. Avoiding spaces whose main focus is news, politics, celebrities or gossip. Avoiding places that limit post length, and that have paywalls and an algorithm. Avoiding spaces that post sensationalized and clickbait content (thumbnails, titles..); I am immediately turned off when I read headlines such as "Person Y SLAMMED Person X on Instagram" and similar language.

3. Focusing on things created by people I know, and their friends, and the clubs and orgs they are interested in that are usually fairly local. Creation not just in form of drawings/paintings or professional articles and videos, but also creating stories and characters together in roleplaying games, or being invested in their miniature painting updates, reading their longform posts, listening to their presentations, ordering their zines, word of mouth through them bringing cool events and talks to my attention. All these may be online, or they aren't, but for me they mostly are. They are not neatly in a feed gathered together, and they may not happen often enough to check back for new content every hour or so to consume, but that's fine with me.

4. If I find a creative gem by someone, I look at all their connections or what is recommended to me based on them (if it is accompanied by a recommendation at all; think YouTube). Who are they linking to or following or re-whatever-ing? Who is re-whatever-ing them, and following them? The others engaging with that might be worth looking into. And go whereever they go in terms of online spaces.

5. Cultivating very specific taste, high standards. In my experience, this squashes the feeling of missing out, of feeling like there may be something better out there that I could have experienced, done, owned, seen.. no matter if it's events, games, articles, socials, people.. being picky in a good sense means knowing my time is spent the best way it can right now because I know nothing else satisfies me like this.

6. Somewhat related to 5 because of the very decisive judgement: a cutthroat mentality when it comes to what I am seeing online gave me sort of a tunnel vision and clear mindset of what I wanna see and has brought more of it into my life. I have stopped sticking through content just because I clicked on it, thinking it will get better, giving it a chance, or finishing it because it's better than nothing. I allow myself to not consume something for arbitrary and petty reasons and just because. Blocking liberally. People, entire sites, site elements. Mute, hide, never visit again, forget. Makes everything else I might like pop out more. But I don't train algorithms, that is a waste of time.

7. Making time, any way realistically possible. I get the most stressed about the quality of content I consume and how I spend my time when I have so little of it. When I am in that scenario, everything can feel like trash and not good enough for the 3 hours I have. I feel like I have to make sure every second counts and is acceptable under the productivity cult, and is making me a better person, culturally sophisticated, is something to add to my CV, an experience I can tell others next time I see them and is also making me rich - all at the same time. This feeling goes away when I make time, and have time, and am able to demolish the work boss in my head.

8. Being earnest, open, passionate, vulnerable in public (/online), creating outside of the spotlight, creating weird and niche stuff, creating decidedly unmonetized stuff is a great combination of bringing this type into your life usually. I find myself attracting that type of energy if I cultivate it myself.

[j]

something I had posted had gotten posted and ruffled feathers

just wanted to start with this: pretty good read.
ironically, this is what put me off going for a career in programming
when i could have fun in retail and program for fun in my spare time :P

anyway...

a take i wanted to add is that content is simultaneously a good and bad thing.
for instance: Twitter (despite its many flaws) is a great source of raising
awareness about important stuff - like issues arising in minority communities.
it gives you a short summary of something happening (that could be pure
misinformation); it should then be your job to go research and fact check stuff!
at least - that's my approach to news as a whole.

unfortunately: content has its downsides because it's tied to money.
i'd hope that YouTube would be a far better place if content creators weren't
paid.
the issue i see here is that content becomes less about authenticity
and reliability, and more about being as clickbaity as possible so that the
creator can get the most views for the highest net profit.
this then harms some people watching because they see YouTube (or any platform)
as a place to make money, gain popularity or stir the drama pot (amongst other
things; i'm trying to avoid absolute statements but it's a hard habit to break).
ergo: you get a bunch of people trying to become content creators themselves,
who then become discouraged and question their self-worth because the original
content creators have inadvertently induced a surplus of content on the platform.
i think this is the definition of content that starbreaker was alluding to
in their first reply: content in exchange for something,
as opposed to content aligned with a moral compass or set of virtues
(correct me if i'm wrong!).

do i know a fix to this? no.
i like video essays and lectures posted on YouTube about maths, physics and
computer science. educational content is usually shared to inform others
and prompt discussion; though i'm cagey about college lectures surrounding
some humanities subjects thanks to experiences at college myself.

anyway, the last point i wanted to raise is why people make things.
if we differentiate between the types of content hitherto mentioned,
and focus on entertainment particularly: then something i think a lot of folks
forget is that stuff put on the web isn't always /for them/.
blogs, for instance. i had a conversation with someone about this recently;
mentioning that a blog of someone's site is a conversation for the duration
that someone is reading it.
that doesn't mean that the blog's for me - it could be for them, or for both.
maybe they've chosen to write to come to terms with their own thoughts
(i know a musician who recently released a whole albumn about how tying their
self-worth and esteem to the responses they get from their music has
pushed them further into depression, and how liberating it is to just make
music for themselves).
it doesn't stop you from being the other half of the conversation:
guestbooks and emails are a great way to share your thoughts about somebody's
blog; as long as you remember that people make things for a range of
different reasons - so expecting content to be any one thing is a pretty
awful thing to do; you're asking someone else to create for your
expectations.
(i know someone who writes fan fiction in toki pona; i can't expect
them to provide a translation just because i've never learnt the language!)

[grovyle]

I think part of this disenchantment with "content" (I agree with what was said in previous comments about the word, but it's not the point of my post) has to do with romanticizing the past.

People used to focus and meditate on what they had, because their resources were limited and they had to take out everything they could from them.
(...)
Fifty years ago, people had increased civility and critical thinking due to the amount of time spent processing information. Individuals would take a step back, think about what they've learned, ask pointed questions, and form measured, rational conclusions.

Fifty years ago, my grandma from bumfuck nowhere in south america had to hide the romance books she bough from her husband and her father because they didn't want her to read. She would've bought other kinds of books, specially educational ones about biology, but she couldn't because they didn't get printed+sold in a 500km radius. My friend's dad just didn't read because he didn't like scifi and scifi was the only kind of "boy book" that made it here. My own dad had to give up on his dream career because the resources to pursue it weren't sold here (think as essential as if he wanted to program and there were no computers being sold). And my mom didn't get into reading until I was 15 because she didn't like classic books from 30+ years before she was born, which was everything they had in the house and she couldn't afford to buy anything else.
And that's the "academic" people I know. Most people didn't spend time processing information, thinking about what they've learned, asking pointed questions and forming rational conclusions. They just woke up at 5 AM, went to work at the farms or train stations, came back home to beat their wives and children to near death or have a smoke with the neighbor, went to sleep, repeat. Romanticizing the good old days in this case does nothing but make us feel bad for something that isn't really true unless you were John Smith living a comfortable life in the geopolitic north. Access to more entertainment options CAN be a bad thing, we're seeing the strikes happen in US media and I'm extremely critical of the streaming service model churning out more stuff with less quality, but it also has given broad accessibility to movies and shows and musics that were such a hassle to access just ten years ago. And having less stuff was fine if you liked what you got, but if you didn't, tough luck. Guess you're too stupid for books, too poor for the cinema, too latinx for videogames, too uneducated for untranslated media, too woman for everything really, etc etc etc.

I personally like having the option of putting on the first episode of a tv show, deciding I don't like it within the first five minutes, turning it off and forgetting about it forever. If it were 15 years ago and I'd bought the dvd, I would be stuck with something I don't like. Yes there's more objectively worse stuff, but there's also never been easier to just quickly jump to the next thing, no strings attached, if you don't like what you see. Finding communities or friends or random guys on the internet that like the same stuff you do ALSO has never been easier, and is my main source of recommendations. I also don't beat myself about not getting on board with the brand new shiny thing early enough, there's shows that I really really really want to watch for example that came out 10+ years ago and the hype has died down, but I don't care! I'll get to it when I get to it!

[Inlusione]

I use the word "content" just to not say books, essays, articles, video games, videos, movies and what not all the time. I tried to find a word that encompasses them all and I couldn't find a more appropiate one. I know it has a different meaning today, so I'll take that as my fault anyway. I didn't want to say "media" or "entertainment" either because I wanted to also encompass philosophy books and similar works.

When I was talking about the past I didn't mean "what happened back then" and the negative implications of it. It was merely an example about the volume of available information(or should I say the lack of it) and the fact that being conscious about what you'd have was the only thing you could do. Even if only a bunch of people were actually "educated" enough to be able to behave in that "romanticized" manner that I was referring to, they still produced the most amazing works of fiction and philosophy and art in human history. With way less than we have. It's just the decision paralysis that is dragging us down and I guess it depends a lot on multiple factors. For example, back then I was watching movies and then I was searching about them all over the internet for days or weeks, mostly searching in forums and fansites - all of these creations that made the whole process so authentic and personal and fulfilling. That content that made all of that research enjoyable is gone and to find something similar nowadays is way harder. So just having more with less depth is like reading 10 essays instead of one, I don't know how else should I put it.
And you see how this is going? Watching a movie meant reading about the movie and then writing about it and maybe making something about it too(a website, a drawing, etc). Now everyone around me seem so impatient that they skip the whole process and they just jump to the next movie or book or whatever they want to do most and recently I started to do the same. It's a habit that I really want to get rid of.

[shevek]

Now everyone around me seem so impatient that they skip the whole process and they just jump to the next movie or book or whatever they want to do most and recently I started to do the same. It's a habit that I really want to get rid of.

I see a similar development at times, depending on spaces and people. For me, I see it as a byproduct of living in a system that tends to encourage consumption over creation.

A lot of forces at play there; less time due to more work and education to get for a better job; less money to put into hobbies; scared of wasting the money we put into our hobbies on something that isn't good enough and afraid to make costly mistakes; the addictive nature of online feeds that can keep us occupied for hours and that make stopping and actually creating something seem difficult and unsatisfying; the pressure of feeling like you have to create something that is feed-worthy or sellable; the prolific identification through consumed media especially online (fandoms, stan culture, and tying ones favorite group, artist, book, game, movie or series to ones identity) and therefore needing to keep up on the newest favorite of the internet spaces you're in so you're in on the memes, and memes move fast.
Barely anyone asks about what you have created, what you are currently creating or planning to, but people ask if you have watched the latest Black Mirror episode yet (not a roast, I like Black Mirror). People rarely meet up to create together, but we often meet up to consume together - be it food and drinks or watching things together. And it's understandably always different things.

The only exception I see is creation fueled by fandom, like fanfics and fanart, which is great.

But yeah, I think this phenomenon you pointed at is also why so many people have been complaining online about "game burnout" or however you wanna call it - they keep buying games but playing almost none, finishing them never usually. The amount of choice has ruined their hobby for them. With age, money and agency being limited, lots of us only had a handful of games at best that we got a lot out of - I remember I played Crash Bandicoot and Spyro a ton as a kid because they were the only PS games we had, and I finished them multiple times, over 100% completion in the games where it was possible. There was no giving up or moving on, because if I felt like playing a game, that was all there was, so I had to make do. I think a lot of special memories happen that way, and many of us got used to this and miss this type of relationship with media now.

[arcus]

To answer your question directly, in most situations, I look at what my friends show me, and what people with similar interests to mine enjoy.  I don't browse YouTube or corporate social media (aside from looking at art through Nitter). Instead, I look at what my friends link me. That way, I get to have something to talk about, too. Time spent with friends is never wasted.

Today, you'll always feel like there's something better out there. That your time reading or watching a certain thing could've been spent more wisely with something else.

I don't. I watched Morbius twice and enjoyed it. No, not the movie itself, I dislike how parts of it were written. But rather, the experience of watching it with friends, making headcanons about it, and seeing what other people said about it? Superb.

(No, I didn't pay for it.)

I don't view quality as a binary. There are many reasons and ways to enjoy things. Back to the Morbius example, there were interesting shots and compositions, and I enjoyed the lighting. I still got something out of the movie.

Fifty years ago, people had increased civility and critical thinking due to the amount of time spent processing information. Individuals would take a step back, think about what they've learned, ask pointed questions, and form measured, rational conclusions.

Do you have a source for this? I highly doubt that any study on this wouldn't be incredibly biased. If that's true, there would be a lot less wars to begin with.

Nowadays, with the pressure of staying constantly updated and an overload of information from multiple sources, people often miss the luxury of careful consideration.

I don't experience this, since what I'm missing out wouldn't be the media itself. That will (hopefully) stay around, but the context its in, and what people think about it at the time, is apart of the experience and what I'll remember in the end.

If something is important, someone will tell me, or I'll find out eventually. People tend to talk about what they like. Forums give me enough news, and even then, I'm fine with being out of the loop.

This makes it increasingly hard to retain our attention on one particular issue due to the countless ones demanding our immediate action or the stockpile we had gathered in our "backlog", "watch later", "read later" lists, always asking us to move faster to get to them.

I'm in no hurry with my backlog. I've had Oracle of Ages on my backlog for two decades now. I tend to prioritise media my friends enjoy or what people around me are talking about.

I will say however, that I used to, and still do, put off certain things intentionally. If there's something I know I will really enjoy in a language I'm studying, I prioritise it after things I doubt I would enjoy as much, so when I do get around to enjoying it, I'll enjoy it more.

For example, back then I was watching movies and then I was searching about them all over the internet for days or weeks, mostly searching in forums and fansites - all of these creations that made the whole process so authentic and personal and fulfilling. That content that made all of that research enjoyable is gone and to find something similar nowadays is way harder.

It is harder to find, but it's not all gone. It's scatted on Mastodon, Tumblr, Ao3, Twitter, Discord, Dreamwidth, and various other sites. The major issue with this in particular, is that sites aren't indexed as well these days, and search engines are unusable for smaller scale posts thanks to SEO spam. Algorithms are another major issue, with many posts being buried with shorter posts being unfairly prioritised.

The only exception I see is creation fueled by fandom, like fanfics and fanart, which is great.

Fanart is sadly effected by this. A lot of artists these days have more pressure to be popular, with many focusing on drawing for popular series, especially if they are planning on a career in art.

Fanfiction on the other hand, tends to have more lax communities, since that hasn't been exploited on a massive scale yet.


To end this all off, while I'm not effected by this, I do know what you're talking about. It's an issue with the dark patterns of social media, streaming services dumping whole seasons to create that fear of missing out, and the pressure to be productive. I say productivity over a lack of time, since it goes hand in hand with the concept of wasting time.

[starbreaker]

just wanted to start with this: pretty good read.

Thanks.

ironically, this is what put me off going for a career in programming
when i could have fun in retail and program for fun in my spare time :P

You're more sensible than I was. If being a janitor paid as well as being a programmer I'd still be mopping floors and scrubbing toilets. Either way I'm still cleaning up after other people.

i think this is the definition of content that starbreaker was alluding to
in their first reply: content in exchange for something,
as opposed to content aligned with a moral compass or set of virtues
(correct me if i'm wrong!).

I was thinking of "content" as commoditized art, but I also tend to be needlessly pedantic about things. So if you want to distinguish between content created for the market and content created for self-expression, education, or to illustrate an ideal I won't argue the point.

anyway, the last point i wanted to raise is why people make things.
if we differentiate between the types of content hitherto mentioned,
and focus on entertainment particularly: then something i think a lot of folks
forget is that stuff put on the web isn't always /for them/.

Oh, hell yes!. I actually got an email late last night from somebody who was offended by some of the fiction I write. In particular, they disliked a particular character and insisted that a woman couldn't be both a singer and a swordfighter. I was tempted to reply and point out that my character has historical precedent in Julie D'Aubigny, that the same fiction also featured a male lead who was both a musician and a swordfighter, and that I don't think he'd ever tell Bruce Dickinson that he can't be a singer and a swordfighter (not to mention a licensed commercial pilot and screenwriter), but decided against it. Arguing with misogynistic chuds just isn't worth it; its not like I'm writing for him anyway.

I'm writing for me. My stuff's online in case others are into it, but it's not for them. It doesn't have to be for the same reason I don't run ads or collect telemetry I'm not trying to make money online because I have a day job.