How can unnecessary mobile data usage be reduced?

Lately every website seems to have video ads instead of still ads. Google search plays video thumbnails automatically without clicking them, and has images displayed at the top in the "Shopping" advertisement section, even when it used to just be text before. Basic web browsing has become massively data intensive and I feel this has snowballed in the last few years. I have considered switching back from an unlimited data plan with my mobile carrier to a fixed one, but the way things behave now, that might hinder me far more than it used to. I suppose I am also irritated knowing that server farms supplying this content, that I don't even want to see, are wasting electricity. Is there any way to get things to be more bare-bones? To stop images and videos from loading automatically in mobile browsers? I'm better at fixing physical things than being hacky, so I'm interested to hear what technologically inclined people have to say about this. Is there any hope for a simple, dare I say austere internet?