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Dead Internet Theory

kudmitry.com

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131–140 of 735 posts

Re: Dead Internet Theory

#131

Post by dartharva »

LexiMax wrote: post #129
viccis wrote: post #73

>which is not a social network, but I’m tired of arguing with people online about it I know this was a throwaway parenthetical, but I agree 100%. I don't know when the meaning of "social media" went from "internet based medium for socializing with people you know IRL" to a catchall for any online forum like reddit, but one result of this semantic shift is that it takes attention away from the fact that the former typ…

> the former type is all but obliterated now. Discord is the 9,000lb gorilla of this form of social media, and it's actually quietly one of the largest social platforms on the internet. There's clearly a desire for these kinds of spaces, and Discord seems to be filling it. While it stinks that it is controlled by one big company, it's quite nice that its communities are invite-only by default and largely moderated by…

I'd say WhatsApp is a better example

Re: Dead Internet Theory

#132

Post by JKCalhoun »

kelseydh wrote: post #68
rsch wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can’t be the only one who has ever read https://practicaltypography.com/hyphens-and-dashes.html

This would have been very helpful three years ago, before I permanently stopped using em-dashes to not have my writing confused with LLM's.

I suspect whatever you try to do to not appear to be an LLM… LLM's also will do in time.

Might as well be yourself.

Re: Dead Internet Theory

#133

Post by JKCalhoun »

chao- wrote: post #47
f311a wrote: post #44

> The use of em-dashes, which on most keyboard require a special key-combination that most people don’t know Most people probably don't know, but I think on HN at least half of the users know how to do it. It sucks to do this on Windows, but at least on Mac it's super easy and the shortcut makes perfect sense.

I don't have strong negative feelings about the era of LLM writing, but I resent that it has taken the em-dash from me. I have long used them as a strong disjunctive pause, stronger than a semicolon. I have gone back to semicolons after many instances of my comments or writing being dismissed as AI. I will still sometimes use a pair of them for an abrupt appositive that stands out more than commas, as this seems to t…

I still use 'em. Fuck what everybody else thinks.

Re: Dead Internet Theory

#134

Post by jasonhansel »

makingstuffs wrote: post #120

Think the notion that ‘no one’ uses em dashes is a bit misguided. I’ve personally used them in text for as long as I can remember. Also on the phrase “you’re absolute right”, it’s definitely a phrase my friends and I use a lot, albeit in a sorta of sarcastic manner when one of us says something which is obvious but, nonetheless, we use it. We also tend to use “Well, you’re not wrong” again in a sarcastic manner for s…

Em-dashes may be hard to type on a laptop, but they're extremely easy to type on iOS—you just hold down the "-" key, as with many other special characters—so I use them fairly frequently when typing on that platform.

Re: Dead Internet Theory

#135

Post by JKCalhoun »

dang wrote: post #61
bakugo wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now I'm actually curious to see statistics regarding the usage of em-dashes on HN before and after AI took over. The data is public, right? I'd do it myself, but unfortunately I'm lazy.

Someone did just that! Show HN: Hacker News em dash user leaderboard pre-ChatGPT - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45071722 - Aug 2025 (266 comments) ... which I'm proud to say originated here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45046883 .

Ha ha, my first use of an em-dash on HN was 2016 which was the year I started my account.

I'm safe. It must be one of you that are the LLM!

(Hey, I'm #21 on the leaderboard!).

Re: Dead Internet Theory

#136

Post by JKCalhoun »

malfist wrote: post #25
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use them -but I generally use the short version (I'm lazy), while AI likes the long version (which is correct -my version is not).

You don't use em dashes then, you use en dash.

(Looks more like a tee-dash to me.)

Re: Dead Internet Theory

#137

Post by JKCalhoun »

chongli wrote: post #49

I prefer a Dark Forest theory [1] of the internet. Rather than being completely dead and saturated with bots, the internet has little pockets of human activity like bits of flotsam in a stream of slop. And that's how it is going to be from here on out. Occasionally the bots will find those communities and they'll either find a way to ban them or the community will be abandoned for another safe harbour. To that end, I…

Lets all just get together and go bowling, shall we?

Re: Dead Internet Theory

#138

Post by [deleted] »

jasonhansel wrote: post #134
makingstuffs wrote: post #120

Think the notion that ‘no one’ uses em dashes is a bit misguided. I’ve personally used them in text for as long as I can remember. Also on the phrase “you’re absolute right”, it’s definitely a phrase my friends and I use a lot, albeit in a sorta of sarcastic manner when one of us says something which is obvious but, nonetheless, we use it. We also tend to use “Well, you’re not wrong” again in a sarcastic manner for s…

Em-dashes may be hard to type on a laptop, but they're extremely easy to type on iOS—you just hold down the "-" key, as with many other special characters—so I use them fairly frequently when typing on that platform.

[deleted]

Re: Dead Internet Theory

#139

Post by JKCalhoun »

therobots927 wrote: post #13
secretsatan wrote: post #10

I’m a bit scared of this theory, i think it will be true, ai will eat the internet, then they’ll paywall it. Innovation outside of rich coorps will end. No one will visit forums, innovation will die in a vacuum, only the richest will have access to what the internet was, raw innovation will be mined through EULAs, people striving to make things will just have ideas stolen as a matter of course.

That’s why we need a parallel internet.

Internot.

Re: Dead Internet Theory

#140

Post by alex1138 »

seiferteric wrote: post #116

My parents were tricked the other day by a fake youtube video of "racist cop" doing something bad and getting outraged by it. I watch part of the video and even though it felt off I couldn't immediately tell for sure if it was fake or not. Nevertheless I googled the names and details and found nothing but repostings of the video. Then I looked at the youtube channel info and there it said it uses AI for "some" of the…

Next step: find out whether Youtube will remove it if you point it out

Answer? Probably "of course not"

They're too busy demonetizing videos, aggressively copyright striking things, or promoting Shorts, presumably

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