I agree, and I have already left using reddit. What's the alternative to some random content consumption (like reddit)? Like hacker news but for non-technology topics.

I can suggest wiby.me 's random button to discover new sites with modern opinions.

There's various Lemmy [1] instances. Maybe one of them works for you?

[1] https://join-lemmy.org/

+1 for Lemmy. The project still has quite a lot to improve on, but it is already really great! I'd love to see the community/network grow and evolve :)

disclaimer: I run lemmy.pt and use the platform on a daily basis

On desktop you can choose to remain on the old format.

On mobile you seem to need to do old.reddit.com every time.

Never installed the app on mobile.

How does the new design push people to mindlessly meme share? Reddit has been like that for a decade or more at least IMO.

They only show a few comments on certain pages, which deemphasizes discussion. I'm not aware of any other changes to new Reddit that would do that.

Although other changes might have made things better, like changing how default subreddits work (although this applies to new and old reddit).

With the exception of a few subreddits that have made explicit rule changes (either encouraging or discouraging memes), I haven't really noticed a significant long term trend in meme-posting within subreddits.

I've had to banish a good 40+ subreddits off my feed manually using RES to just deal with the politics spam.

And even then, browsing /r/popular is just awful. Elimination games. People blatantly asking for personal information from teenagers. "Tell me your favorite X and we will judge you" Dumb NSFW 'questions'. Repost bots for content from years ago. Misinformative titles. "Unpopular opinion" threads.

It's a mountain of trash to wade through to get any decent content.

I always stay away from /r/popular. The subreddits that appear there like /r/PublicFreakout are selected for display so you can get angered, join the echo chamber in the comments and boost engagement metrics.

Watching many of those short anger-inducting videos can make even a calm person change. The sort of stuff Reddit PMs have signed off on in the name of engagement is despicable.