YouTube (and the Internet as a whole) was much better when people were producing content as a hobby instead of a "job"

Back in the day you would go to YouTube and watch videos made by people that had a passion for a subject and wanted to share that with the world. They would be in their basement or garage with poor production quality, but you could tell they were doing it because they loved their subject. It could be guitar lessons, or some people playing D&D, or people just reviewing nerdy stuff they bought. It was all such a new thing at the time that even the crudest of content could be entertaining.<br><br>You would also go onto forums and see people chatting about common interests and sharing their personal projects. Everyone was there because they loved the subject matter. You would make friends based on shared hobbies. It was a great time to be alive.<br><br>People started to make YouTube channels because they saw that if they were good at making videos they could make a lot of money off of ads. Even if they didn't actually care about a subject they could pretend to because they knew it would make them money. Now the videos are overly produced, with professional sets, editing, and effects. It's basically just TV but sometimes worse because you know that the person making it only cares that they are getting paid.<br><br>The Internet as a whole also suffers from this. In my opinion most "Creative" type chambers are filled with people who want to make it big. If you go to something like r/rubyjokes the content is mostly crap and the people posting are just other redditors or people who have never seen the show before and are just trying to ride the coattails of something that is currently popular. <br><br>I long for the day when people could go on the internet and make content that wasn't purely commercial.