well, you’ve read it already – i’m absolutely fed up with the problematic world that the current web (or web 4.0, agentic web, whatever) is heading towards. the ‘dead internet theory’ is no longer a theory when you’re scrolling past 75% bot-created soulless posts on each and every social platform (shoulda been called parasocial by now).

i’ve never considered myself the type of person to write my thoughts and opinions down, especially in a simple blog-esque format, ready for anyone to read. but, unemployed as i am, i’m exposed to depressive content on a daily basis, to the point i’m required to start journaling in a way.

yes, blogging isn’t inherently the same as that, but who really cares as long as i get my dose of – well – calming down ig

u r complaining about humanity yet not giving a single argument!

shut up. do i need to provide any further proof that we as a society or as a species are fucked? there’s numerous wars going on right now. i would’ve never guessed that i would witness such an event, especially with the way history is presented to us – but humans never learn from their mistakes. i would’ve never thought companies would capitalize so much on the internet, spreading aids ads, trackers, and unhealthy / unethical algorithms wherever the eye can see. i would’ve never imagined the world to be controlled by what is basically a single cult, which even after being debunked, won’t face any real consequences.

i’ve grown up in this place. i was one of those kiddos trying to befriend every single pixel i could see, because that’s what social media was about back then. it’s sad to see that spirit slowly dissolve into corporate greed.

and don’t even get me started on all of the ‘age verification’ bullshit. i should not be required to provide any website with my legal ID just to see more ads. kids were always on the unfiltered internet, and, groomed or not, most of them were safe enough to live through it.

k so now what?

considering the hostility of mainstream media, i guess us people (who truly want to connect with eachother) are supposed to migrate to alternatives, or even head back to good ol’ IRC (which we won’t. it’s hard to convince most people to). but what other options do we have? the bigoted (x|sh)itter alternative also known as bluesky? old-style sites like spacehey? decentralized stuff like mastodon or other likewise activitypub-based services?

these kinds of sites weren’t made just to host news or fame. they were made as a safe space for certain communities (e.g. furry community), but went out of hand when they realized that they were in a growing deficit. and those communities have spread far and wide, some members migrating to other services, whilst others straight up ran off the internet and touched some long-overdue grass. how would you collectively convince them all to switch to something like pixelfed, to post up all of their pictures of their cats? or convince them to connect with you via signal or matrix instead of telegram or discord?

Humans are highly social, with individual humans tending to belong to a multi-layered network of distinct social groups – from families and peer groups to corporations and political states. As such, social interactions between humans have established a wide variety of values, social norms, languages, and traditions (collectively termed institutions), each of which bolsters human society.

— “Human”, wikipedia

we (as in, you, i, and the rest of us) have a desire to create connections with one another. if everyone is faking themselves online nowadays, then how are we supposed to find people of common interest anymore? and what about those who have generally quit the entire social aspect of the internet? maybe you or i would share at least some stuff in common with them, but now we have no way of contact in the first place

the rise of AI

as if this wasn’t enough in itself, we’ve now got the almighty ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE keyword breaking social cues too. while the word tends to be overused in all of the wrong contexts (cuz of corporate greed and insider trading), there’s plenty of places where it’s used to describe LLMs.

don’t get me wrong, i’m not at all against the development of AI tools (e.g. claude code, codex, or any other model via something like cline^{(not sponsored)}, or other practical implementations of them for example in the medical field), but LLMs are now available in every single fucking app. open whatsapp –> “Meta AI”, open twitter –> “Grok”, open motherfucking google messages to read an sms –> “Gemini”. it’s everywhere. and it doesn’t stop there.

start-ups have noticed that human loneliness has reached new levels, and realised that many people might as well act out some kind of role play with some other human on the webs, in order to at least feel some sort of connection. but they couldn’t just hire a team of people to engage in such an activity for hours on end, with multiple customers at a time. so they did the next best thing – they created services that allow users to role play with AI. they preyed on people’s loneliness and creativity, and abused it to sell a service, to make a profit.

but it doesnt stop there, no no! it would’ve been alright if it were just start-ups that were doing this. but no! of course the big corpos have to hop onto this trend too! people were talking their lives into AI applications (e.g. chatgpt) already, but this was a whole new realm of (data collection) possibilities! and why not shove it in every corner of their apps too?

take instagram’s AI chats for example, which any teenager can easily access by just the tap of a button. or even better, grok’s ‘dating’ or ‘valentine’ or ‘sexy’ modes. there’s no easier way to harvest user data than engaging in intimate conversations or (text-based) acts with them, is there? could even become blackmail material if those companies would work with the govt. oh! would you look at that? openai already does. but that’s besides the point.

people no longer feel the need to communicate with others, to have a real physical partner anymore (see the dumpster fire of r/MyBoyfriendIsAI, especially with the deprecation of gpt-4o). they see AI as fulfilling enough for that spot. understanding enough, even.

yada yada yada, i get it

no you don’t, but we’ll pretend you do so i can continue yapping about this shit

okay, companies deprived us of human connection, but we can live through it, right? oh they’re taking our belongings too? oh we’re now only allowed a subscription-based ’license’ to watch movies that used to be a one-time purchase on physical DVDs? oh they’re laying us off or underpaying us in order to attempt to replace us with AI models? wait, how are we supposed to pay for our subscriptions to access our gaming cloud then, since no one can afford a physical tower anymore? it’s fine i’ll just- i’ll just go outside, meet other people, right?

oh.

the park got replaced by a data center. whoopsy-daisy! at least we can still spend some time on the streets, sitting down on public benches to chit-chat or something, right? oh- hostile arhitecture that doesn’t help anyone except add another hundred thousand dollars to the mayor’s wallet. but we can still breathe, right? right?…

what now

fight back. protest.

they start shoving ads into subscriptions? cancel them, and pirate the media instead. their loss, not mine.
“but artists / creators won’t make any money this way!! it’s harmful!!” then pay them personally, not through a stupid service that barely gives them a cent every 100th time you play their album or watch their show.

they start shoving ’laptop subscriptions’ so they seem ‘appealing’ to the general public instead of purchasing once and owning the thing? buy a second hand device. 90% of the time, you don’t need the latest and greatest either way, since modern software makes them just as slow as 2000s hardware.

they force AI chat bots instead of proper customer support? jailbreak them, have some fun, and maybe even get them in legal trouble for something the bot has said.

they attempt to extend their ‘oh so important’ datacenters to your local area? push them away, write up petitions, and decline their requests democratically, if not by force.

we need to teach companies a lesson regarding all of this matter. it’s annoying, it’s anti-consumer, and it’s all over the place nowadays. hit me up if you’re on the same page as me.