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Dead Internet Theory

kudmitry.com

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Re: Dead Internet Theory

#601

Post by StrauXX »

fullstop wrote: post #598
vlachen wrote: post #556

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having been out of university since before Discord was much of a thing, that's news to me. It also is eerily reminiscent of Facebook's beginning sign up requirements.

I guess that depends on the University and whether or not you get to keep your email address after you graduate. From what I understand from my college-aged kids, most people get kicked out of the hub after they graduate. It's similar in Apple's strategy of trying to get Macintosh into the classrooms (in the 80s/90s), and student discounts on Adobe products. I am not a huge fan of Discord, although I do use it. It's…

That is actually something I quite like about Discord. Whatever I write and post, while not "private" is not indexed or searchable by anyone other tgan those people that have been vetted (invited) by the respective community. Not that I'm mostly on small friendgroup Discords with 10 - 100 members.

Re: Dead Internet Theory

#602

Post by InsideOutSanta »

groundzeros2015 wrote: post #551
InsideOutSanta wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not the right thing to take away from this. This isn't about one group of people wanting to be angry. It's about creating engagement (for corporations) and creating division in general (for entities intent on harming liberal societies). In fact, your comment is part of the problem. You are one of the people who want to be outraged. In your case, outraged at people who think racism is a problem. So you attack…

> outraged at people who think racism is a problem. This is one level of abstraction more than I deal with on a normal day. The fake video which plays into people’s indignation for racism, is actually about baiting people who are critical about being baited by racism?

That's not what I said.

Re: Dead Internet Theory

#603

Post by InsideOutSanta »

MontyCarloHall wrote: post #516
InsideOutSanta wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> people really do want to be outraged No, they do not. Nobody[1] wants to be angry. Nobody wakes up in the morning and thinks to themselves, "today is going to be a good day because I'm going to be angry." But given the correct input, everyone feels that they must be angry, that it is morally required to be angry. And this anger then requires them to seek out further information about the thing that made them angry.…

>Nobody wants to be angry. I disagree. Why are some of the most popular subreddits things like r/AmITheAsshole, r/JustNoMIL, r/RaisedByNarcissists, r/EntitledPeople, etc.: forums full of (likely fake) stories of people behaving egregiously, with thousands of outraged comments throwing fuel on a burning pile of outrage: "wow, your boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife/father/mother/FIL/MIL/neighbor/boss/etc. is such an as…

As someone who used to read some of these subreddits before they became swamped in AI slop, I did not go there to be angry but to be amused and/or find like-minded people.

Re: Dead Internet Theory

#604

Post by butlike »

ryanjshaw wrote: post #443
raincole wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those subreddits label content wrong all the time. Some of top commentors are trolling (I've seen one cooking video where the most voted comment is "AI, the sauce stops when it hits the plate"... as thick sauce should do.) You're training yourself with a very unreliable source of truth.

> You're training yourself with a very unreliable source of truth. I don’t just look at the bot decision or accept every consensus blindly. I read the arguments. If I watch a video and think it’s real and the comments point to the source, which has a description saying they use AI, how is that unreliable? Alternatively, I watch a video and think it’s AI but a commenter points to a source like YT where the video was p…

I don't understand. In the grandparent comment you say you have a problem spending too much time on those subreddits and watching too many of those videos, but then you push back here.

Personally, I don't think that behavior is very healthy, and the other parent comment suggested an easy "get out of jail free" way of not thinking about it anymore while also limiting anxiety: they're unreliable subreddits. I'd say take that advice and move on.

Re: Dead Internet Theory

#605

Post by InsideOutSanta »

lazide wrote: post #533
InsideOutSanta wrote: post #505

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>If people seek out the thing that makes them angry, how can we not say that they want to be angry? Because their purpose in seeking it out is not to get angry, it's to stop something from happening that they perceive as harmful. I doubt most people watch Alex Jones because they love being angry. They watch him because they believe a global cabal of evildoers is attacking them. Anger is the logical consequence, not t…

The reason they feel that way (more) is because of those videos. Just like most people who watch Alex Jones probably didn’t start by believing all the crazy things. We can chicken/egg about it all day, but at some point if people didn’t want it - they wouldn’t be doing it. Depending on the definition of ‘want’ of course. But what else can we use? I don’t think anyone would disagree that smokers want cigarettes, eh? O…

I think most people have experienced relatives of theirs falling down these rabbit holes. They didn't seek out a reason to be angry; they watched one or two episodes of these shows because they were on Fox, or because a friend sent it, or because they saw it recommended on Facebook. Then they became angry, which made them go back because now it became a moral imperative to learn more about how the government is making frogs gay.

None of these people said to themselves, "I want to be angry today, and I heard that Alex Jones makes people angry, therefore I will watch Alex Jones."

Re: Dead Internet Theory

#606

Post by butlike »

notarobot123 wrote: post #362
padjo wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m really hoping that we’re about to see an explosion in critical thinking and skepticism as a response to generative AI. Any day now… right?

I think the broader response and re-evaluation is going to take a lot longer. Children of today are growing up in an obviously hostile information environment whereas older folk are trying to re-calibrate in an environment that's changing faster than they are. If the next generation can weather the slop storm, they may have a chance to re-establish new forms of authentic communication, though probably on a completely…

Haha, AGI happens because some future generation just 'forgets' that it was all bullshit slop before

Re: Dead Internet Theory

#607

Post by bigmeme »

spicyusername wrote: post #522
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…

divisiveness this kind of stuff will create I'm pretty sure we're already decades in to the world of "has created". Everyone I know has strong opinions on every little thing, based exclusively their emotional reactions and feed consumption. Basically no one has the requisite expertise commensurate with their conviction, but being informed is not required to be opinionated or exasperated. And who can blame them (us).…

> Everyone I know has strong opinions on every little thing, based exclusively their emotional reactions and feed consumption. Basically no one has the requisite expertise commensurate with their conviction, but being informed is not required to be opinionated or exasperated.

Case in point: if you ask for expertise verification on HN you get downvoted. People would rather argue their point, regardless of validity. This site’s culture is part of the problem and it predates AI.

Re: Dead Internet Theory

#608

Post by moregrist »

wongarsu wrote: post #518
gwd wrote: post #445

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this a generational thing? All my groups of this type are on WhatsApp (unfortunately).

Discord's initial core demographic was online gaming. From there it has radiated outwards due to being the best group messaging (and voice chat) solution out there. The more overlap your friend group has with gaming and adjacent groups the more likely they are to use Discord

When Bloomberg’s podcasts have a Discord channel (eg: Odd Lots), you know it has broken free of its gaming origins.

Re: Dead Internet Theory

#609

Post by vitaflo »

spicyusername wrote: post #522
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…

divisiveness this kind of stuff will create I'm pretty sure we're already decades in to the world of "has created". Everyone I know has strong opinions on every little thing, based exclusively their emotional reactions and feed consumption. Basically no one has the requisite expertise commensurate with their conviction, but being informed is not required to be opinionated or exasperated. And who can blame them (us).…

Nothing wrong with being a Luddite these days. It’s the only way to not have your mind assaulted.

Re: Dead Internet Theory

#610

Post by ezekg »

Spend a few days on Threads or on Instagram and you'll see the majority of viral posts on Threads are generated by AI, and the majority of descriptions on Instagram are generated by AI. It makes me incredibly sad, because I've used the internet for human connection my entire life. I always loved meeting new people, or reading other's perspectives. But it all just feels so ... empty ... now. I hope the pendulum swings the other way soon.
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