If you’ve been online in the past three years, you know that the internet is kind of dead. Sure, we all use the web every single day, but the internet itself is dead. There are bots everywhere, cheap stuff is being sold, and kids are even sexualizing themselves over the internet sometimes. Worst of all, the content is bad, even the nonsexual stuff. The internet in 2025 is filled with crappy reaction channels, spammy content, and outright lies. It’s bad for the average consumer, and yet we all continue to consume. So why is internet content so bad? And why are we still ok with watching it? I try to explore this question in this article.
The internet is growing in size, and having a platform is lucrative
Garnering even a small internet audience beats having a day job in most poor countries. If you can get a big audience, you’re making big money, no matter how you slice it. The internet is getting bigger and bigger with each passing day, and more and more consumers are being brought on board. What’s more, is digital ad space is likely to become more and more valuable with each passing year. Inflation. Right now, spitting out content is a good way to spend time and money. It’s all about going where the eyeballs are.
Lots of people are watching YouTube, but not all countries have lucrative audiences
The same applies to blogs and display ads. Different locations have different payout rates for display ads. Getting traffic from Tier 2 and 3 countries doesn’t necessarily pay you much. This means that in order make a living, a lot of people need to make as much content as possible as fast possible. It’s impossible to spend a bunch of time worrying about quality while working under these circumstances. You won’t get paid enough.
AI is in its infancy
This is a lot of what’s going on. There are a lot of people experimenting with AI tools and trying to make more and more content. If you want to do this, you need to accept that you’re going to be making stuff that’s pretty subpar. The tech isn’t quite there yet. That being said, AI will soon be able to replace a lot of lower-level writers, actors, voice actors, and models. Watch out for this in the future.
People are poor, so their standards are low
This is the unfortunate reality of living in today’s world. People are pretty broke. This is actually ok. Everyone being broke is actually a massive improvement on 3 years ago. If you look at how society’s been changing, people around the world are beginning to experience “middle class” lifestyles for the first time ever. This means that people who work hard can live great lives nowadays. Anywhere. But it does mean the masses are poor and bored. It takes a lot of traffic to make money off of these people. As such, the content is trashy and made for the purposes of shock value. Anything to get engagement.
People’s standards will rise as time goes on
I’m an optimist. I think AI will get better, and as people get richer, they’ll set higher standards for what they’re willing to consume. This applies to all forms of media. It’s all going to get a lot better and sleeker due to AI. It’s also going to be easier to make, so there’ll be more of it.
Short video is “what’s hot” right now
This is just a moment in time. TikTok is a fairly recent invention, even in 2025. Give it 15 years, short video apps are going to be a lot less interesting as a business project, I’m tentatively willing to bet. Short video is new, and so there are massive gaps in the market. If you can grow with young people who like to watch TikTok, there’s a good change you can become rich. On the flipside, we’re seeing a lot of people trying to get people hooked onto junk content. That’s because everyone’s focused on short video right now.
Content sucks right now, but it’s going to get better. It’s already better if you’re willing to pay for premium services. I have no complaints about apps such as Netflix or Crunchyroll when it comes to production quality. I predict that everyday content creators are going to improve alongside services such as these. Before long, the “AI garbage era” will be a thing of the past, as our entertainment options continue to improve.
Thanks for paying attention.
