I am online too much. I know for a fact, that this creates a biased point of view and distorts my perspective. But I feel like I need to tell you something. If you like me, are online too much, and lost in a sea of “content”, you might have heard.
The Internet is dead.
Bleak. Eek. There I go being negative. I don’t mean to. I want to be real about this, no sugar-coating. I’m going to try to touch on a few important topics, and if I’m lucky, I’ll end up at a solution.
Welcome to my Ted Talk, today we will be talking about the internet. Primarily social media, blogs, and the search for genuine content.
- How the internet started from a Millennial’s point of view.
- Where it is now:NPC Slop
- AI Slop
- Solutions??
Back In My Day
I was a 90s kid. I was born smack dab in the middle of the 80s. My first memories took place in the 90s. It was cool. Video game consoles were becoming a real thing. The internet was taking off. It was an exciting time to be a kid.
I was homeschooled through middle school and high school. My family bought an IBM home computer to help facilitate learning. It was the highlight of my childhood. I’d spend hours browsing through the Britannica Encyclopedia CD-Rom we had. I’d hang out with Mavis Beacon, working on my typing skills. I’d sweep the heck out of Mines. (TBH I still don’t understand how Minesweeper works.)
Eventually, my family, like others at the time, signed up for AOL Internet. This changed my life. I would spend my days on Yahooligans. I’d create my own websites about my favorite Pokemon on Geocities. I’d find random message boards, and eventually start making websites for other people.
There was always something new and exciting to discover. There was something to learn with every mouse click. So many people I met online were creating their own original content and sharing what they loved.
As I grew older into my late teens, social media became a thing. I’d find myself on Myspace, crafting my page to match the exact mood of Can’t Be Saved by Senses Fail. If I needed a distraction, I’d open up StumbleUpon, and find the next most fascinating website.
The internet had “matured”, but it still had horizons waiting to be discovered. Social media allowed even more people to create and share their thoughts and passions.
The great thing about the internet is that the tools to communicate with the rest of the world, the world outside of your bubble, are at your fingertips. It is a beautiful thing. It can help broaden your perspective. It’s changed my life. It changed all of ours, whether we realize it or not.
Social media has been a part of this. It was a place to share your thoughts, and ramblings. Talk to others. Get a different perspective. Genuine communication and connection.
How did it end up like this?
Social media took over. More and more people found themselves online. They were looking to connect and share. I’m not sure how this happened, as I had just turned 21 and those memories are a little hazy. But somehow in the whirlwind of a decade. Social media and websites became more about pushing an ad in front of your face, and stealing your personal data, so they can push even more relevant ads to you.
Despite all of the ads, we got used to it. You learned to scroll past an ad, so you could see the photo your friend posted of their new apartment. You scrolled past banners, so that you could get to the chocolate chip recipe you wanted to bake for girls night.
You were slowly shown more and more ads, and less and less of your actual friends’ content. Now your feed was full of ads, and random posts from accounts you didn’t follow, but were similar enough to your ad profile, that you might be interested in what they posted.
Fast forward even more years into the future. (Honestly, I don’t remember where I’m at in time now. Modern day? Yeah, I think so.) Social media is all ads. Social media is all videos. Social media is all about showing you the latest, trendiest video, so that you feel compelled to scroll onto the next ad, over and over.
NPC Slop
Your social media feed is now full of fake, disingenuous content. People are constantly recreating content that they see as popular, so they can get more likes. If something is popular or funny, the first thing NPCs do is recreate it, and post it. You now see dozens of the “same” video from different people, all acting like they’re so original.
If by chance, you create original content that becomes popular, it will only mean that you get lost in a sea of people recreating your content, and eventually getting more credit than you’ll ever see.
Social media is now pushing ads harder than ever as well. You scroll through video after video trying to find real, genuine content. Instead you only find thousands of generic videos of white men sitting in silence pointing at a video above their head, nodding their head and agreeing, or acting shocked. Wow. So genuine. So unique. Peak content.
You’ll see thousands of videos of some 20 something woman with a song playing in the background, making heavy, accentuated hand gestures to every word of a song, as if she wrote it. The lyrics will be the most basic, unimaginative lyrics. Can’t you relate? Isn’t this so original?
You have to scroll through ad after ad, to get to another actual video. You end up on someone’s live video. It’s some wife trying to sell you generic knock off cologne, that she swears made her jump her husband’s bones after he sprayed it on his Costco jeans. Or some dude shoveling some cheap, Chinese Bluetooth headphones, making the most contrived expressions of excitement, like he’s never heard sound this good. All with an affiliate link below their videos. You’ll see a live video of someone panhandling for “roses” and if you gift them this sticker, they’ll rate your profile photo. Or they’ll tell you what they think of your name, or give you a bogus tarot reading.
Video after video, it’s all the same, regurgitated content.
Touch some grass (AI Slop)
You grow tired of the overwhelming dose of generic content. You need to touch grass. Do something offline. You decide you want to bake. You bring up Pinterest and try to search and find something else.
You find a recipe for chocolate chip cookies. You find a blog by some Suzie Bake-something. You read through her spiel of how she used to bake cookies with her grandmother on their farm, and how you might not think it, but farm fresh eggs make these cookies so mu…..AD……x to close… much better…. AD… x to close, full screen video ad. It’s a farming game. Wait 30 seconds, close. You skim past the long-winded cookie story, and just get to the… AD…. x to close…. the recipe.
You pull out all of the ingredients.
You haven’t made THAT MANY chocolate chip cookies before, so the measurements don’t look THAT OFF. The dough comes together in a weird gelatinous paste. You decide to trust the process. You bake for 20 minutes, turn on the oven light and check.
It’s still a pile of mush.
Each ball of cookie, ends up merging together to look like a mess of something unidentifiable. You check the website again. Maybe you got something wrong. NOPE. You followed the recipe exactly.
Maybe this lady doesn’t know what she’s doing, you scroll up and tap on her profile photo and it takes you to her bio. She was raised on a farm(cool), was a model and a scientist, before starting the homestead life? (Impressive.)
You tap her profile photo again to enlarge it. Her hands are at her waist. One hand has 4 fingers… odd. Her other hand has 6. Interesting. You look closer, before realizing it’s an AI photo. You copy the recipe into an AI checker, yup, it’s AI. You check another recipe of hers, same thing.
You got got.
You give up on the now burnt cookie sludge. You go back to scrolling social media. Hey, look, it’s a bear on a trampoline. How cute.
Wait, that wasn’t real? At least this yeti doing cocaine is genuine.
Solution?
I sound negative. I know this. But it is all so irritating. It is hard existing in a world full of fake people, where your source of escape(the internet), is also full of fake people.
I know the world has some genuine people, as does the internet. It’s just that finding this content is like mining through sifts of fool’s gold, hoping for something real.
It’s important to remember that your algorithms are built around what gets your attention.
If you find genuine, real content, interact with it. If you feel at all like I do, if you’re shown generic, fake content, hit “Not Interested,” “Not Relevant.” Don’t tap like on everything you see.
I don’t know if there is a way to bring back the “internet that was”, but there might be some small way to redirect social media a little.
Side note: This website was created in my attempt to put something real and genuine into the world. I’m not the only one trying. There are other creators out there building their own indie websites. There are people posting genuine videos, looking for an audience to truly connect with.
Real is rare, not extinct. Keep sifting peeps.