riri’s webpage

a blinky image saying 'sleep deprived'

is the internet dying?

estimated reading time: 4 - 5 min

by now, i am sure we've all hear about the dead internet theory. but is it true? well, yes, but actually no. let's have a talk. lately, my views on ai have been shifted. and while it was used on my other website(not this one), i don't think it is right, i just couldn't do any better right now. i never really had much against the ai, until relatively recently. my first time bashing on it was last year, on my previous main blog. i've quickly fallen back onto my old ways, unfortunately. but now, now i'm right on shitting on that ai bullshit. as much as i thought it is cool, useful, impressive, or whatever the fuck else, the truth is, its no longer you and me talking, its beep-boop and me, boop-beep and you. it's hard to be sure what is human made, and what is bot-made. this ai slop is killing our belowed interwebs and it needs to be stopped.

so, is internet dead? not yet, but it seems like it is dying. it "dying" is actually a really creepy idea. i have lived with the internet my entire life, and just thinking about the stuff that could be gone and overrun by bots is scary. and now i can't even know if you're a bot or a human. llms have became scarily human-like. the only way you can figure out ai slop of a text is by coldness in the writting and lack of any kind of mistake. according to this imperva article, the number of bots steadily increases year, after year, after year, meaning theres more and more bot traffic, and less and less human traffic. but hear me out: what if there aren't any less people, but just more and more bots? like for every real human, there is 10000 or so bots? as i said, i've grew up on the internet, and i haven't felt the warmth of the internet in so, so long. everything felt boring, and dead lately. while i do embrace modern technologies, social media and even brainrot, and believe we shouldn't dwell on the past, something still, does feel missing. the internet has lost it's charm. can we get it back? who knows, maybe. but majority of us would have to try.

a screenshot from serial experiments lain, tv show

the idea of the dead internet theory was first proposed by a random 4channer back on /x/ (paranormal board). but i think this is no longer a just a theory-- but very close to reality. the op was likely seen as just another scizoposter talking nonsense, but oh boy how right they were... the internet is full of ai slop to the point it's not even funny anymore. youtube is already full of both fake bot-made creators, as well as tutorials of how to do this kinda bullshit yourself... it's youtube, not robottube, people!! the saddest thing is, those ai-slop videos have hundreds of thousands, if not million of views. who even watches this bullshit? why stop there? there are tons of fake images over facebook and twitter (not calling it x, fuck off), fishing the engagement from our parents and grandparents with slop like "jesus did x", "allah did y", "little kid made a out of b incredible!!", all those images so obviously fake to us, seem so real to them, so they help with those spreading; they simply don't know better.

here's an example of this shit:

an example of ai generated image, tricking older generations on social media

why stop there? there's two whole subreddits of chatbots talking to each other: /r/subredditsimulator/, /r/subsimulatorgpt2/. speaking of reddit, let's actially move to tiktok. tiktok is full of fake reddit stories, being reas by text2speech. they feel like a reddit story, but it's completely ai generated. don't you see now what they're doing to our beloved internet? the internet, meant to be very human thing, is losing it's humanity. and the bots... the bots arent even trying. they're perfectly docile, never arguing. what humans act like that!?

the ai slop isn't only used to trick the seniors, but to try and control the narative of younger people, they're also used as propaganda. bots have been caught failing successfully on twitter, qute a few times. heres a screenshot i found online:

a screenshot of a bot account replying to a news' article with 'sorry, but i can't generate a response on the prompt you provided'

on first glance, a regular account owned by a regular person, but the post was so clearly automated. hadn't it failed, we wouldn't've known it was a bot. many websites, and especially social media are filled with accounts like those... don't you see what they're doing? don't you see how they're trying to kill our beloved internet from within?

so what can we do about this? make a goddamn webiste! the best time to have a website was in 2000. the second best time is now. you should have one, no matter what. you don't even need a reason, just do it. having your own space is better than whatever the fuck algorithms are doing. "but no one is gonna visit my website" so? who cares? you likely only get 10-30 likes on your shit anyways, so what is the difference? except, if you have your own space, you have freedom, a place where you dictate what can and can't happen. as long as you don't do something too hateful, there is a place for you. and even if you want to be a total asshole, there is a place for you, too. you can set up a server from your own home. who ever you are, wherever you are, i am begging you-- just have a website. even if you won't update it often. even if you don't think you need it. just do it! we can't let the internet die...

maybe it's time to spend more time outside. maybe its hypocritcal for me to judge this as i do/did use ai ocasioanlly. maybe we're all doomed. who knows. save the internet. this is our last chance.


got more to say? email me: hi[at]riri[dot]my

posted on: 2024-10-07 04:20 AM