noticing it more and more. i like to play retro video games but i don't actually do it that often. 5 years or so ago i got a SNES mini and a playstation classic and one of those anbernac handhelds in the span of a year or two, so I was spending a lot of time reading lists online of games people thought were notable, underrated, good games for genre newbies, etc.
i have been playing games again recently so i have again been looking up games and the difference in content you get now is astounding. five years ago if you searched something like "best nes RPGs" or "obscure ps1 games" you would find lovingly handcrafted lists and articles by people who were passionate about it and wanted to share, make readers laugh, or ignite interest in something. Now there's like 20 different sites that each have ai generated "best (genre) games for (system)" lists for every system and genre combination possible, with generic game descriptions, list orders likely cribbed from one of those ranking sites, and nonsensical filler copy ("every RPG enthusiast loves the N64" type words just mashed together)
photographs are also no fun to take or look at anymore, accelerated by new ai image generation but honestly ever since smartphone cameras started automatically editing the shot out of your picture before it even showed it to you.
when i was a kid i wanted to be an author, glad i just got depressed and useless and never pursued it, considering what that space looks like today.
internet was a mistake
Good luck finding a recipe on the internet without sifting through mountains of SEO-focused treat printed imaginary stories about the heart-warming and life-changing experiences that lead up to the recipe.
Ugh and they're always thinly veiled advertisements for cookbooks, utensils, etc.
I love to get my STANDARD CITIZEN ISSUE spatula and dollop STANDARD CITIZEN ISSUE sauce on top of my STANDARD CITIZEN ISSUE pasta.
Seriously fuck Orwell with his boring monochrome dystopia bullshit. The real shit is festooned with bright colors and committee-approved names and fake anecdotes and that makes it even more haunting. All of the iron-heeled liberty crushing with gaudy infantalizing Stepford wives aesthetics. The people responsible should all be blindfolded and shot.