Dead Internet Theory: Most of the Internet is Fake

:doodleDavid:This was theory was originally written by several anons on /x/ & wizardchan. :doodleDavid:
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TLDR: Large proportions of the supposedly human-produced content on the internet are actually generated by artificial intelligence networks in conjunction with paid secret media influencers in order to manufacture consumers for an increasing range of newly-normalised cultural products.

Hello. I would like to talk, or rather tell you about certain suspicions, hunches and experiences I've had and I'm sure some of you as well. Similar themes have been written about across imageboards quite a few times so I know I'm not alone in this.

My background is that of an oldfag. I've seen it all. I started going on 4chan in 2006, and followed all the natural roads this implies. I'm in my thirties and I remember when 4chan had a /l/ board, when /co/ was a trial board shunned by basically everyone, when #34 p*rn was an obscure interest with very few good artists and when moot changed the frontpage to that web 2.0 bullshit 4chan has to this very day. I was also among the first right wingers who were such before it was cool, and I've seen /pol/ rise and fall. I was there when it mattered, but rather than saying these things out of masturbatory pleasure I wish to stress that I've acquired a set of observational skills which other genuine oldfags share. I'm aware you have no reason to trust my "credentials" but I hope you'll read this in good faith.

Much of this falls squarely in the fringe territory with a healthy dosage of /x/ and conspiracy theory up the ass. My goal by posting this seemingly jumbled mess is to... how can I put it? I want you to think, I want you to be aware, to digest all this. Because on a basic level I love you all. I feel like we're all in this together, this dangerous game we did not choose to play and which I think is kicking into high gear. I do not hold many answers and don't have all the pieces of the puzzle, but I AM aware there is a puzzle. Please feel free to go wild with all of this. Post it wherever you want, on whatever site you want or use. I am a nobody like you, and what matters to me is only that this reaches you and as many people as possible. At worst you'll be entertained or kill time.

I tried to break this mess into points for brevity and because I touch upon many subjects. I imply more than I explain because if I go too deep this'll turn into an even bigger wall of text.

The Internet feels empty and devoid of people. It is also devoid of content. Compared to the Internet of say 2007 (and beyond) the Internet of today is entirely sterile. There is nowhere to go and nothing to do, see, read or experience anymore. It all imploded into a handful of normalfag sites and these empty husks we inhabit. Yes, the Internet may seem gigantic, but it's like a hot air balloon with nothing inside. Some of this is absolutely the fault of corporations and government entities. However! That doesn't explain the following:

- I used to be in perpetual contact with a solid number of people across multiple sites. Across the years each and every one of them vanished without a trace. None of them were into /pol/ stuff or anything even remotely questionable or controversial. Yet, they all simply vanished in a puff of smoke, no matter the site, no matter the communication platform. There was no "goodbye" or explanation.

- I've seen the same threads, the same pics and the same replies reposted over and over across the years to the point of me seeing it as unremarkable. Simply put thread A would be posted in say 2015 and would get its share of replies or pics, on say /co/ or /a/. Then that very same thread, with the same text, pics, and replies would appear in 2016 and beyond. This often happens in the same year multiple times as well. Of course /pol/ is getting shilled and botposted to death, but why recycle a completely innocent /a/ thread? Who is doing this and why? Stuff like this won't be noticed by your average poster perhaps, but I and other oldfags will inevitably notice it.

- I think I saw the same happen on other (non-imageboard) sites, but I can't vouch for it as strongly as the above because of the time I spend there (not much). What I do vouch for is the news. I've seen news about this or that "new and unusual" or "shocking" event year after year after year. But it's the same goddamn event, usually moons or asteroids.

- Roughly in 2016 or early 2017 4chan was filled with posts by someone or something. It wasn't spam. The conversations with it were in real time, across multiple boards and multiple threads simultaneously. Its English was grammatically correct but odd (I'm not a native English speaker and am thus sensitive to its misuse), similar to how a Japanese person may use it. A sense of childlike curiosity and a childlike intellect emanated from these posts. It posed a LOT of questions, usually as if trying to understand the emotions of the posters it was talking to, as if unfamiliar with human emotions. Communicating with this "poster" was an odd experience, I could sense something was off but not malicious. I am absolutely certain this was an AI of some sorts. This "poster" was active only for about a week, and as far as I know nobody has ever mentioned or noticed this Anon. Its replies were always on topic, but the above mentioned childishness clashed with the apparent knowledge it possessed - it was the knowledge of an adult person, so it wasn't a kid or something of the sort.

- Raptor Jesus, who went extinct for our sins. First it was this reptilian messiah, then foul bachelor frog, and then Pepe. Am I the only one who sees a clear evolution, a link? It's as if this meme or entity or... whatever the fuck was on 4chan since day one, and has grown within it from the tiniest seed. Yet Raptor Jesus was fully just a joke, there was nothing serious or mystical about it (reminder: I was there). Remember that Ted guy with the right wing talk show, cca prior to 2010, whom 4chan ruined for the lulz? Remember Anonymous vs Scientology? Remember that fake bomb threat aka exploding yellow van?

Compare that with what Anon did through /pol/, and the "terrorist" accusations thrown at Anon today, as well as the "reasons" why 8chan was taken down. Why does this too feel as if we were all trained, groomed, LED towards where we are now? Why and how did moot so utterly vanish into Google Inc. as an employee with very vague descriptions of what he actually does? On that note, do you remember the "other moot" who was often posted for the lulz? The one with the glasses who so often ran away with donations into Mexico? I do. Maybe that was the real moot, the real guy who used his mom's credit card and was killed by someone, and an impostor we know as moot took his place.

- Innocent sexual perversion and the horrible reality it spawned. Anon is a pervert and always was one. I am into loli and feet for instance. Why is it that real life and the real world seem to emulate our sexual interests, with a time lag? "I wish to be the little succubus" became an actual thing that actually happens. Pedo activism is also gradually becoming accepted, as is virtually every fetish that was once either a joke or a fantasy of Anons. As said I'm a footfag. When I became aware of it few others were with me, now it's as common as can be, with gigantic number of people who are into it, with huge mountains of hentai and #34 with it etc. Why does the real world bend over backwards to accommodate our weirdest fetishes? It's as if everything is going "Look, look! I created this for you! I made it real!" in an effort to keep us within this world. The results of this are devastating to society, to people, to civilization. Simply put, trannies are a thing because Anon fapped to doujins of cute boys in dresses. Once it was an impossible fantasy, not to be taken too seriously. Now it's grim reality. Again: it's as if the real world is using imageboards as a template on what to be and what to do.

- Algorithm fiction. Do you like capeshit, Anon? How about other Hollywood stuff? Music perhaps? Have you noticed how sterile fiction has become? How it caters to the lowest common denominator and follows the same template over and over again? How music is just autotunes and basic blandness? The writer's strike never ended. Algorithms and computer programs are manufacturing modern fiction. No human being is behind these things. This is why anime looms so large - even a simple moe anime has heart because there's actual people behind it, and we all intuitively feel this.

- Fake people. No, not NPC's. Youtube people who talk about this or that, and quite possibly many politicians, actors and so forth may not actually exist. In fact I am sure of it. CGI and deep fakes are far more advanced than we are led to believe, and we can't trust our eyes anymore. Many people, events, news and so on may be wholly fictional.

- The Internet on your smartphone is not the same internet as on your PC. Try it out for yourself. Go to a "popular" website with a lot of traffic. 4chan, faceshit, plebbit... any site with a massive userbase and fast content will do. Spend a few days randomly checking it out on your PC and your phone. You will soon notice that from time to time, at irregular intervals (as far as I've witnessed) the same site as seen on your phone will be wholly different than the version on your PC. Entire threads, numerous and well-replied, will be on one but not the other. The whole board will be different.

- My last suspicion is easier to take in. I have a feeling we're in a strange kind of civil war. An internal one. I think Zuckerberg and other tech guys were all on 4chan as Anons at some point, maybe even now. They drew from the same well as us, but went in their own direction.

Roughly in 2016 or early 2017... I am absolutely certain this was an AI of some sorts

Now you're thinking where I am too, anon. Here's the timeline as best I can see it:
2004: DARPA's Lifelog project was "cancelled." Facebook came into being soon after.
2004-2012: NSA picked up DARPA's project under the "Total Informational Awareness" project. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/23/opinion/whos-watching-the-nsa-watchers.html
2012: Smith-Mundt Modernization Act gives the U.S. government full legal authority to use propaganda against its own populace. Undoing rules put into place after Operation Mockingbird's discovery and the Church Committee. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/23/opinion/whos-watching-the-nsa-watchers.html
2012-2016: Shittons of DARPA/NSA contracts were given to Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc..
2016: Leaked memos dating back to 2016 (found in 2018) of Google's Selfish Ledger project. https://invidio.us/watch?v=LUSZfEBTwRc
2016: Google released a bunch of neural-linguistic machine learning programs in 2016 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Neural_Machine_Translation
2017: deepfake leaks start to become released.
2018: confirmed that for decades now, >redditcostanzayeahrightsmirk/Youtube/etc. vote and view counts are fake and completely manipulated. http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/12/how-much-of-the-internet-is-fake.html

I think it's entirely obvious what I'm subtly suggesting here given this setup, but allow me to try to succinctly state my thesis here: the U.S. government is engaging in an artificial intelligence powered gaslighting of the entire world population.

If China with its social credit score is recreating Psycho Pass, then the U.S. government is perfectly recreating Metal Gear Solid 2.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1ClbkTeCyw&feature=youtu.be

And an excerpt:

The Problem: Outline the basics of what appears to be happening.

There is a large-scale, deliberate effort to manipulate culture and discourse online and in wider culture by utilising a system of bots and paid employees whose job it is to produce content and respond to content online in order to further the agenda of those they are employed by.

Already we've seen this in foreign nations influencing elections by manipulating advertising algorithms on social media in order to push specific candidates.

As I see it is due to a "positive feedback loop"

I blame facebook and twitter.

The internet is a fast way to get info, and info is what moves the mind, and the thing is, the mind likes recognition. When the "likes" were introduced without negative feedback they created a copy-feedback subconscious, they made it so only "positive" opinions be propagated (also accepted), and in it's way negative opinions to be obsolete.

Now everyone is too cowardly to have an opinion so they copy others they like, they are more likely to follow trends and say what others said, you can also see it with the paranoia of always wanting to listen to experts.

The fast feedback system of the net created a human obsession to be in with trends, getting away from it makes it so you always feel like you are missing out, to play it safe in a trend is more easy as you can copy what already is accepted.

In this way, the internet and social media, which was supposed to democratise media by allowing users to create whatever content they wanted, has instead been hijacked by a powerful few.

Creation of original content is how the internet used to work. Anonymous people were willing to express their opinions and try radical or experimental things. More truly original content, uninfluenced by bots or paid influencers, was created due to anonymity as protection against negative feedback. On the old internet, you could start anew every time you posted something.

Now add bots to this.

Make it so an opinion be repeated more and more, they are faster than us, so the positive feedback makes is so we copy the bots, and anonymity can't do anything against it because we can't influence the bot like we would a human, this is an easy weapon to manipulate people, so anyone with an agenda can use a bot, is designed in a way compared to how clickbaits are made,most won't read the content, this creates tv-like propaganda where they aren't influenced by the user and that puts bots at a great advantage over any other opinion because it wont change, and we are copying that.

I believe google is one of those that makes bots, after all they work like a search engine, where they get the most accepted content first, Is the same as doing an ad.
1609887293897.png

Narrative science was the name of one of the first companies to make this possible. it gets interesting when you follow the money. pic related. huge funding from a company called In-Q-Tel, literally named after Q from James Bond. i wonder if anything else AI-related shares that name? :LeDoritoFace:

Conclusion: The key points of what we know, the consequences, and how we might respond.

Internet may have slipped out of our control. Need to raise public awareness of this.

Possible solutions may be increased reliance on encrypted peer-to-peer communication software, or using less centralised networks like the idea of a p2p internet or 'meshnet'.

Imageboards and their "wild west" attitude have allowed for the free exchange of ideas to flow more or less uninhibited (barring jannies, pedos getting banned, etc.). As a result, conscious or otherwise, the cream of the crop of the content that originates here disseminates to the normies in a gradual, stratified way.

The structure and culture of imageboards has also made it difficult for traditional structures of power and influence to subvert effectively, which is why imageboards are pretty much the only vestige of old web type content.

In an attempt to circumvent this, TPTB are trying to push bots and shills on us in a last ditch effort to drown out our own voices with ones they have more direct control over.

Moreover, even if the majority of anons dismiss or call out bots or shills, it's inevitable that trolls or just low IQ anons will imitate their posts and mannerisms for attention, effectively doubling these efforts reach.

There's a pretty powerful impulse in us which, when we hear something huge that could change our view of everything, rejects it to protect ourselves. No-one wants to have their whole world-view, which they've built a life upon, blown apart.

One anon started up a text doc to compile information, for those of you who would like to do some reading up.


Additionally, there are ongoing threads on the /x/ boards when this was posted.

UPDATE
Heres a relevant image I found on image board bots
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index.php


Related to Dead Internet Theory
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kona

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I don't know if this falls into the same realm as all the matrix and dead internet theory, but I have this issue that seems to occur to me constantly. That is:

I will go to 4Chan on my phone, just to scroll through threads rapidly. Mostly and most often, I just use a 4chan browsing app to speed through boards that are primarily about posting pictures (not discussions of such) so that I can speedily save pictures to my phone (which I use more often to view pictures than PC).

Sometimes, though, I will stumble upon a thread I wish to reply to. If such is the case and I am near a PC, I will quickly hop to the browser site and search for the thread. Once I find it, I will post my reply, stay on the page, and refresh it every so often to see if a reply has come up. 99.9% of the time I do this, the thread goes completely dead. Not just no replies to me, but 0 replies. Not a single reply. And this is on front page threads. The currently most popular ones. Ones that, seconds ago, literally had a reply every 5 seconds on them. And the very moment I choose to post, it goes completely and utterly dead.

Makes me paranoid as fuck. Does this happen to anyone else? Is this somehow related?
Womp womp. See first image. 4chan has been incredibly clean the last couple days as well. I don't use FB, twitter, >redditcostanzayeahrightsmirk, so idk how they are. I'm sure there is more than one of these going on at any one time, anyway.

And to the person who didn't read my posts but replied anyway, and the people who responded to them, I'm on mobile I can't reply to you all: I've noticed that a lot. Most of the people who seem to want to disagree with me don't want to read, or watch, whatever I post/link. Not all of them, and not saying they're bots. Mental laziness I guess, I'm not sure. Usually I just ignore them, especially cases like this, there wasn't even an attempt at rebuttal or any information presented. Just dismissal. Pure leddit tier.
Like cool, you think my posts are all garbage, you really contributed a lot to this thread with your insightful post.
As someone else said, you probably should go back.
 

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Sweet n' Comfy

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I don't know if this falls into the same realm as all the matrix and dead internet theory, but I have this issue that seems to occur to me constantly. That is:

I will go to 4Chan on my phone, just to scroll through threads rapidly. Mostly and most often, I just use a 4chan browsing app to speed through boards that are primarily about posting pictures (not discussions of such) so that I can speedily save pictures to my phone (which I use more often to view pictures than PC).

Sometimes, though, I will stumble upon a thread I wish to reply to. If such is the case and I am near a PC, I will quickly hop to the browser site and search for the thread. Once I find it, I will post my reply, stay on the page, and refresh it every so often to see if a reply has come up. 99.9% of the time I do this, the thread goes completely dead. Not just no replies to me, but 0 replies. Not a single reply. And this is on front page threads. The currently most popular ones. Ones that, seconds ago, literally had a reply every 5 seconds on them. And the very moment I choose to post, it goes completely and utterly dead.

Makes me paranoid as fuck. Does this happen to anyone else? Is this somehow related?
So you're telling me that my rad ability to kill threads with just posting one simple post on them doesn't come from the fact that I'm the wizard who decides the fate of every thread but rather that most traffic on halfchan is fake and they get afraid when there's real activity and are quickly to bury it when it's best to shut it down?
 
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kona

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Womp womp. See first image. 4chan has been incredibly clean the last couple days as well. I don't use FB, twitter, >redditcostanzayeahrightsmirk, so idk how they are. I'm sure there is more than one of these going on at any one time, anyway.

And to the person who didn't read my posts but replied anyway, and the people who responded to them, I'm on mobile I can't reply to you all: I've noticed that a lot. Most of the people who seem to want to disagree with me don't want to read, or watch, whatever I post/link. Not all of them, and not saying they're bots. Mental laziness I guess, I'm not sure. Usually I just ignore them, especially cases like this, there wasn't even an attempt at rebuttal or any information presented. Just dismissal. Pure leddit tier.
Like cool, you think my posts are all garbage, you really contributed a lot to this thread with your insightful post.
As someone else said, you probably should go back.
So you're telling me that my rad ability to kill threads with just posting one simple post on them doesn't come from the fact that I'm the wizard who decides the fate of every thread but rather that most traffic on halfchan is fake and they get afraid when there's real activity and are quickly to bury it when it's best to shut it down?

See article. Sept 10th this program (or this arm of the program) gets shutdown. Sept 10th, 4chan opens up jannie applications. It certainly might be a coincidence.
Screenshot from 2021-09-12 18-36-22.png
 
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Crabbelly

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The internet may be dead, fake and full of bots but it's changed us as a society over the years, specifically social media. Someone mentioned the like buttons and then the subsequent dislike/reaction buttons and also how aggressive and opinionated people started to become over time, I think that's what those features were designed to do, or at least the likes of Facebook and Twitter started to see what was happening and how much money they could make off of everyone's data and the power in playing on thousands/millions of peoples emotions, aka control. What's the most popular way of accessing social media nowadays? On your smart phone. Smart phones are addictive, I think they were invented for surveillance, just like the internet, or maybe they've just been hijacked by government, intelligence agencies and corporations. Just seems incredibly coincidental that all of this stuff has been predicted by different people, George Orwell etc. Everywhere I look someone's glued to their phone screen, walking around transfixed by them like mindless automatons. They've become hooked in and big tech and the government have exploited that for their own negative purposes. Social media claims to make us more connected but it's made people more disconnected from themselves, others and reality itself. It's essentially virtual reality. I actually feel anxious about coming online now because you never know what's around the corner, harassed/doxxed for saying the "wrong" thing, smeared by the mainstream media, being hacked and spied on, there's no separation between the internet and real life anymore and that's a bit scary.
 
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hyprstorm

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The main issue I see with this is that it's focused on forums and boards. I feel like this theory may just be misplaced nostalgia for what the internet was like. It's a very interesting theory though. Maybe this will happen as AI obtains more and more privileges.
 
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Controller of Planet X

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The Matrix is real. It is a web of lies we're trapped in. The Big Lie is 'representative democracy' and it is important to the plutocrats that voters believe they influence policy despite there being no evidence* that this is the case. No matter what the average person votes for, all we ever get is what rich people want. The top 10% have reason to still believe that 'democracy' is real because they still get what they vote for. As an added bonus, when the serfs get pissed that the world is such a clusterfuck, plutocrats get to say 'its your fault, you voted for this' which is expert level gaslighting.
(Gilens & Page, 2014, Testing Theories of American Politics)https://archive.org/details/gilens_and_page_2014_-testing_theories_of_american_politics.doc

The proper designation for the American system is a theocratic oligarchy.

By definition, a theocratic oligarchy is neither "liberal" nor "democratic". It uses force to defend itself from disturbing ideas, and is a fortress against populist politics.

In America, the blue state cultural milieu creates the Brahmin class.
 
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kona

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The proper designation for the American system is a theocratic oligarchy.

By definition, a theocratic oligarchy is neither "liberal" nor "democratic". It uses force to defend itself from disturbing ideas, and is a fortress against populist politics.

In America, the blue state cultural milieu creates the Brahmin class.
I think this was certainly true around G. Bush 2's reign. I think we're moving towards, or are already in, an inverted totalitarian state. Every single part of our lives has become politicized. This is really bad, in my opinion. There are other indicators besides that of course, but that should be alarming enough.
Anyway who even cares. What you want to call it, whatever it actually is, something is completely wrong with our current society, culture, ect. What can we do? Besides survive.
I'm all out of hope.
 
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CapnGreenGenes

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Blow Your Mind GIF by Justin Gammon
well this whole thread and ensuing links has mind fucked me for a bit, stuff like this makes me grateful to have stumbled onto here. Really kind of bothered by that HRT shit and them talking about wanting coordinated attacks to dump it in the water supply to sterilize testosterone out of society. Or putting it in family members or other unsuspecting victims food...
 
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Controller of Planet X

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I think this was certainly true around G. Bush 2's reign. I think we're moving towards, or are already in, an inverted totalitarian state. Every single part of our lives has become politicized. This is really bad, in my opinion. There are other indicators besides that of course, but that should be alarming enough.
Anyway who even cares. What you want to call it, whatever it actually is, something is completely wrong with our current society, culture, ect. What can we do? Besides survive.
I'm all out of hope.

That's a real Doomer/Black pilled perspective. Don't worry, those with power may be "powerful", but they're not that bright.

"Every single part of our lives has become politicized"

This certainly feels true. It is important to recognize that our power structures (main stream media, the universities, government) are historically biased towards one side: progressivism. The opposite of progressivism is merely the same political ideology with a 30 year lag time.

The best way to engage with current politics is to act as though you are an ex-pat. Your relationship with power should feel as though you are a foreigner in your own country.
 
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not saying that AIs aren't roaming the internet, i've met about 5, but i think what makes the internet more devoid of interesting people more what content is encouraged nowadays

open YouTube(HELLSITE) on a different computer and watch what comes up, mostly compilations (you could make a case for these being made by AI), reactions and incredibly derivative videos (see: MrBeast), stick around instagram for long enough and you will see the same 5 pictures being posted every few months by countless shitty meme accounts & twitter is heavily regulated and most gimmick accounts are lazy reposting of images/clips (two gimmick accounts, lyricshitposting and dudes down bad were run by a brand manager) and tiktok was practically made for lazy short content

Firstly, what's common with all of these is that they do incredibly well and I think sometime in the late 2010s people started realizing this and started creating accounts upon accounts of gimmick accounts, meme accounts, youtube compilation channels, etc, etc and monetizing them (big insta meme pages commonly do promos for x amount of money & twitter pages get sponsorships from VIBRATORFUCKER2000 (link in bio!) for $100 or so), this gives people incentive to make boring, derivative, relatable, beige, lazy content that they can profit off of, this can feel like AI, but they are ran by equally soulless, but very real, people looking for that sweet "$500 for promos". There's 0 real personality in these accounts because they're made to be painfully relatable to garner as many likes as possible.

Secondly, UI, ease of posting & the amount of user control over accounts & postings has changed a lot since sites like facebook established themselves, you can't personalize your pages much on most social medias, limited to banners, profile pictures, "about me" sections and not much else (this has lead to the rise of sites like carrd in twitter circles, which give users, albeit limited, more than what's usually offered to them in terms of user customization) this lack of personalization most definitely makes the internet far more void of character, with every account looking extremely similar. Sites like instagram & twitter actively discourage long/detailed posts with instagram's boxed in UI (present on its pc version as well) making long posts much longer than they seem ( who wants to read all that ??? ) and twitter's letter limits encourages shorter posts, though this is usually combatted with threads (but twitter's feed usually only shows single posts), whereas with forums or similar formats usually do not discourage or make you go through additional steps for posting long forum posts.
Tiktok is the worst out of the bunch, encouraging short videos tailored to you, with most of the content being similar to vine, being as short as possible, making most of the content fairly lazy (i've seen people just copy other unfunny skits exactly with no variation) ,the site completely unfit for discussion (anyone attempting serious discussion at tiktok is either trolling or stupid) and threatens attention-spans of children worldwide. The lack of detailed posts, original content & constant barrage of 30 second clips, has also made its mark on how novel the internet is.

Thirdly, regulation and promotion of content has also contributed to the internet becoming incredibly devoid of character, anyone of slightly controversial opinions on either end of the spectrum (which I must add I don't really care for) has probably experienced a shadowban, its possible to get banned completely from twitter for mentioning "kill" among other things, even normal people regulate eachother with prominent people in communities calling out other prominent people in communities for asinine things (heroically quelling the moral injustice of being problematic) and constructing echo chambers has also made the internet seem very devoid of interesting content (most people don't want to do anything transgressive anymore), Though this isn't a new thing (call out culture has been talked about since 2013), but its certainly become an increasingly used tool & is mentioned more in the media. As for promotion of content, another post on this forum demonstrated how google & probably other search engines curate a lot of its search results, so you're more likely to find curated websites rather than forums or personal websites, which in turn usually support the status quo. Sites like YouTube and Instagram promote constantly posting somewhat soulless and derivative content (some channels do post infrequently, but that's usually only after they've posted lots of derivative content, so lots of the content on those sites is devoid of character, Youtube also heavily regulated what is posted to fit Google and advertisers ideas on what content should be like. I do believe most of what I've mentioned (barring other people regulating eachother) is done by AI, as this post suggests.

Lastly, the internet isn't inhabited by hobbyists anymore, most normal people don't want to make personal websites or switch over from the big sites. Social Media is convenient, all your friends are on it, most big brands, celebrities are on it, Youtube is a usual go-to source for entertainment and information, no-one wants to use alternatives because they're seen as largely inhabited by fringe conspiracy theorists and Neo-Nazis. No one wants to move their shit onto different websites where nobody they know is and then manage their accounts on all those different websites, and they certainly cannot be bothered to set up their own, now imagine trying to introduce them to p2p and alternative networks like zeronet or gemini and then imagine convincing them to give up bandwidth for a p2p network. They won't like any of the hassle and return to regular sites, but the worst bit is that they most likely know about the issues with these sites, its been a big thing in most media for a while now, yet they don't much about it because of the huge monopoly of these sites have and how easy it is to use them. The people that would've had the effort to do so don't make up most of the internet anymore.


There's AI out there, but you don't need them for the internet to become as beige as it has nowadays honestly, I think AIs manage a lot of things (like moderation on big platforms), but the internet becoming more and more devoid of content is more of an issue with whats promoted and what people bother to make nowadays.


(Also, the point about "Pedo Activism" becoming more accepted is bizarre to me, if that's referring to the MAP thing, that was shunned by virtually everyone in the community they were trying to inject themselves into and the other point about trans people is a thing that transcends the internet in my opinion)
 
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not saying that AIs aren't roaming the internet, i've met about 5, but i think what makes the internet more devoid of interesting people more what content is encouraged nowadays

open YouTube(HELLSITE) on a different computer and watch what comes up, mostly compilations (you could make a case for these being made by AI), reactions and incredibly derivative videos (see: MrBeast), stick around instagram for long enough and you will see the same 5 pictures being posted every few months by countless shitty meme accounts & twitter is heavily regulated and most gimmick accounts are lazy reposting of images/clips (two gimmick accounts, lyricshitposting and dudes down bad were run by a brand manager) and tiktok was practically made for lazy short content

Firstly, what's common with all of these is that they do incredibly well and I think sometime in the late 2010s people started realizing this and started creating accounts upon accounts of gimmick accounts, meme accounts, youtube compilation channels, etc, etc and monetizing them (big insta meme pages commonly do promos for x amount of money & twitter pages get sponsorships from VIBRATORFUCKER2000 (link in bio!) for $100 or so), this gives people incentive to make boring, derivative, relatable, beige, lazy content that they can profit off of, this can feel like AI, but they are ran by equally soulless, but very real, people looking for that sweet "$500 for promos". There's 0 real personality in these accounts because they're made to be painfully relatable to garner as many likes as possible.

Secondly, UI, ease of posting & the amount of user control over accounts & postings has changed a lot since sites like facebook established themselves, you can't personalize your pages much on most social medias, limited to banners, profile pictures, "about me" sections and not much else (this has lead to the rise of sites like carrd in twitter circles, which give users, albeit limited, more than what's usually offered to them in terms of user customization) this lack of personalization most definitely makes the internet far more void of character, with every account looking extremely similar. Sites like instagram & twitter actively discourage long/detailed posts with instagram's boxed in UI (present on its pc version as well) making long posts much longer than they seem ( who wants to read all that ??? ) and twitter's letter limits encourages shorter posts, though this is usually combatted with threads (but twitter's feed usually only shows single posts), whereas with forums or similar formats usually do not discourage or make you go through additional steps for posting long forum posts.
Tiktok is the worst out of the bunch, encouraging short videos tailored to you, with most of the content being similar to vine, being as short as possible, making most of the content fairly lazy (i've seen people just copy other unfunny skits exactly with no variation) ,the site completely unfit for discussion (anyone attempting serious discussion at tiktok is either trolling or stupid) and threatens attention-spans of children worldwide. The lack of detailed posts, original content & constant barrage of 30 second clips, has also made its mark on how novel the internet is.

Thirdly, regulation and promotion of content has also contributed to the internet becoming incredibly devoid of character, anyone of slightly controversial opinions on either end of the spectrum (which I must add I don't really care for) has probably experienced a shadowban, its possible to get banned completely from twitter for mentioning "kill" among other things, even normal people regulate eachother with prominent people in communities calling out other prominent people in communities for asinine things (heroically quelling the moral injustice of being problematic) and constructing echo chambers has also made the internet seem very devoid of interesting content (most people don't want to do anything transgressive anymore), Though this isn't a new thing (call out culture has been talked about since 2013), but its certainly become an increasingly used tool & is mentioned more in the media. As for promotion of content, another post on this forum demonstrated how google & probably other search engines curate a lot of its search results, so you're more likely to find curated websites rather than forums or personal websites, which in turn usually support the status quo. Sites like YouTube and Instagram promote constantly posting somewhat soulless and derivative content (some channels do post infrequently, but that's usually only after they've posted lots of derivative content, so lots of the content on those sites is devoid of character, Youtube also heavily regulated what is posted to fit Google and advertisers ideas on what content should be like. I do believe most of what I've mentioned (barring other people regulating eachother) is done by AI, as this post suggests.

Lastly, the internet isn't inhabited by hobbyists anymore, most normal people don't want to make personal websites or switch over from the big sites. Social Media is convenient, all your friends are on it, most big brands, celebrities are on it, Youtube is a usual go-to source for entertainment and information, no-one wants to use alternatives because they're seen as largely inhabited by fringe conspiracy theorists and Neo-Nazis. No one wants to move their shit onto different websites where nobody they know is and then manage their accounts on all those different websites, and they certainly cannot be bothered to set up their own, now imagine trying to introduce them to p2p and alternative networks like zeronet or gemini and then imagine convincing them to give up bandwidth for a p2p network. They won't like any of the hassle and return to regular sites, but the worst bit is that they most likely know about the issues with these sites, its been a big thing in most media for a while now, yet they don't much about it because of the huge monopoly of these sites have and how easy it is to use them. The people that would've had the effort to do so don't make up most of the internet anymore.


There's AI out there, but you don't need them for the internet to become as beige as it has nowadays honestly, I think AIs manage a lot of things (like moderation on big platforms), but the internet becoming more and more devoid of content is more of an issue with whats promoted and what people bother to make nowadays.


(Also, the point about "Pedo Activism" becoming more accepted is bizarre to me, if that's referring to the MAP thing, that was shunned by virtually everyone in the community they were trying to inject themselves into and the other point about trans people is a thing that transcends the internet in my opinion)

This is an excellently written post, thank you for your contribution to this thread. You summed up perfectly the issues between the monopolization of social media, the lack of convenience with going outside of the major social media websites, yet the issues of depersonalization, hostile interpersonal communications, and hobbyists being replaced by those who do it for profit that are influenced by A.I or A.I like marketing schemes. However, there still stands a question I have in mind:

For those who are dissatisifed with the current state of social media and the internet, who want to express their creativity and want to write, read in peace without having details conspiciously shortened in the most obnoxious ways possible, but also want to connect with other masses of people who will see our content in intelligent, fun ways, what shall we do?

I miss having the space to personalize my account, post my content, and create a mini community of like minded people who love talking to other people and connecting with them like I do. The old internet was like being a little artist with everything being in your hands, it was amazing for creative and empathetic people. With the focus of STEM and Computer sciences these days, is there seriously no one willing to invest the time in programming a website and fund advertisement money towards it?
There can be a balance between braindead hyper normie masses and fringe group schizoids with extremist views like there WAS on the internet and like there IS in real life.

I don't believe that this is a completely lost cause, so, I'm wondering who's actually gonna finally step up and try to say, make an community similar to old Deviantart (without the degeneracy) or old Youtube with their skills and time. Unfortunately, I don't have the time or resources available, so it's really a matter of people like me waiting for others to do it (which isn't a good thing) but since this issue is unfortunately very grave and it requires something bigger than individuals to incentize towards it otherwise it's a waiting game.

Though, I know a lot of people who browse this forums or like communities have IT experience and a good amount of funds. But then there's other issues, how easily it is to be deplatformed, shadowbanned, have your company bought (or bullied off for not wanting to play their game), ect. Seriously wonder if its not gonna take a country outside of the US passing some kind of law against corporations monopolizing the internet.
 
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cybercola

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I don't believe that this is a completely lost cause, so, I'm wondering who's actually gonna finally step up and try to say, make an community similar to old Deviantart (without the degeneracy) or old Youtube with their skills and time. Unfortunately, I don't have the time or resources available, so it's really a matter of people like me waiting for others to do it (which isn't a good thing) but since this issue is unfortunately very grave and it requires something bigger than individuals to incentize towards it otherwise it's a waiting game.
people are doing that, though. There's new microblogging platforms like mastodon that by it's nature will always continue to exist in some capacity. Small forums like this that have a niche carved out. HTML hasn't vanished, any schmuck can still make a website and put it on a server somewhere. New sites popping up for people to share art. Alternatives for almost every major social media website exist currently, often dozens of them. The only exceptions I can really think of would be video hosting sites like youtube and twitch, and that's mostly because video streaming is incredibly expensive and risky.

The issue really is just, why would most people leave the biggest sites to go to a much smaller one? That's the issue that has to be overcome, not the actual building of it. Building it is easy. But there's no gold rush, there's no natural resources to be found on uncharted territory. If you want money and fame, stick with a big site. If you want the biggest chance at finding like-minded people, stick with the place with the most people.

That's not to say it's impossible, could never happen or anything like that. I honestly hope it does. I just think that the point we're at now, we're never gonna have a half-mainstream semi-popular alternative to the big names. It's either the biggest sites or small niche communities and personal sites with no real in-between. but there are definitely plenty of go-getters already trying to make the next big thing, or at least a site that has just a bit more than themselves and their closest friends.
 
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ThePower

Sometimes when I smoke cannabis, I get paranoia and I always come back to the same idea "This is a simulation". When the feelings of paranoia fade away, I eventually think "Well there is not much I can do about it, if it is" and go about my life always trying my best to live a meaningful life regardless. I think I share the same sentiment with this fake internet suspicions. It sounds like a lot of good evidence, even this post could be fabricated for some other motive. How am I to know? I prefer to just keep my mind off of it because that what makes me happy and if that means I am taking the blue pill ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
who says cannabis?