I had to unfollow most generic hashtags because it was just random people talking about anything and using the tags, often in foreign language, or it was some personal stuff I don’t care about. It really gave me a bad first impression since it made mastodon look more like facebook or sth where people dump their personal stuff online, rather than a valid news source.

I’d instead recommend just following news or publications or groups that actually curate their content.

True, it depends on the hashtag. Stuff like #woodworking & #dadjokes have worked out well for me.

#Videogames is just a barrage of Youtube spam & people saying that they’re streaming on Twitch.