"While full of trash & fake news, the Internet is not dead. You must search like a chaotic flea market."
I paraphrased my title from this exact line:
"Because while it may be full of trash and fake news, the Internet is not dead. You just need to know how to search, like in a chaotic flea market."
I read that line in this Blogpost:
https://my-notes.dragas.net/2025/12/19/what-if-i-were-twenty-again-thoughts-on-my-46th-birthday/
I like his analogy a lot, seems accurate.
One can easily spend 1 or even 3 hours wandering around a flea-market, and though you might see a few interesting things, even those may well not be anything you would want to keep, nor remember. Most things at any flea-market would even be a detriment to acquire.
But then you find one or several things you really need or want or that even help you, often things you could not get anywhere else, and certainly not at that price, and those things makes the entire trip worth it and even pleasant.
The internet certainly is chaotic. But just like almost every specific flea-market I visited various times, you can see through and mitigate that chaos. At a certain point you know where the stands and sellers are that are much more likely to be worth your time.
After some visits, you recognize which sellers are professionals that may well be more expensive, and which other sellers are there mostly to declutter & to have a good time and don't much care about trying to get every last euro.
You begin to see at a glance which stands are of no interest, perhaps too niche or just not for you.
For the internet and my personal tastes, that would include the "stands" that feature certain social media, a pay-walled garden, AI and other unpleasant sites that are just out to get all your data or flogging you a subscription or keeping you on their site for as long as possible, ideally angry or outraged,..
Just stop going to those. Find the good ones. Enjoy your time.