"I might need to get away from AI.
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"I might need to get away from AI. I watched a ghost video. Decided to look at the comments to see what people thought. They were all agreeing it was a real ghost. But, I couldn't tell if any of the comments were real."
-Friend who doesn't get why I don't like AI.
Why do we "look at the comments" on a video, news story or post? I think it's to compare our own impression against "other people" to see if our opinion is "normal" -- With so much generated content this feature is broken.
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If there is something manipulative on social media only a "social media user" is at risk right?
I think the opposite is true. People who "try to avoid it" and who don't post or comment much are at a greater risk of not knowing when they are encountering bots, for example.
My mom almost never posts anything on any of her social media accounts. **But she still reads them.**
She has dismissed my concerns because (unlike me) she "doesn't really do all of that."
Bots and manipulative content have become to pervasive that even casual users have started to notice.
I guess I can understand why, if you didn't use social media much, "OH NO! They are posting *fake* comments." wouldn't seem like a serious problem. After all, what kind of weak-minded person cares about the comments of random strangers like that?
"I don't use social media so there is no problem. If you think there is one you should stop like me."
I encounter this often.
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I know that "was" should probably be "watched" but, the thought of a self-aware video is intriguing in an AI sort of way.
Who among us has not "been a ghost video" from time to time?
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I worry "Dead Internet Theory" gives people permission to just dismiss anything that bothers them as "bots" --
Real interactions are valuable even to people who claim they "never read the comments" and who say "I don't use social media"
But the slop has gotten so bad and become so ubiquitous that more people are starting to notice. Both my mom and friend mentioned this topic to me WITHOUT my prompting.
I had given up on getting either of them to care. But it's getting bad out there.
"...gives people permission to just dismiss anything that bothers them as "bots"..."
I struggle with this point the most. There have been too many instances where I am tempted to just give up. It's hard to stay vigilant, but everything depends on us not giving in to the "bots".
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"...gives people permission to just dismiss anything that bothers them as "bots"..."
I struggle with this point the most. There have been too many instances where I am tempted to just give up. It's hard to stay vigilant, but everything depends on us not giving in to the "bots".
The way I see it a bot still represents what *someone* thinks, just communicated in a more desperate and less honest manner. A bot is a person speaking with money or intent to manipulate.
Bots are an extension of human expression in this way.
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If there is something manipulative on social media only a "social media user" is at risk right?
I think the opposite is true. People who "try to avoid it" and who don't post or comment much are at a greater risk of not knowing when they are encountering bots, for example.
My mom almost never posts anything on any of her social media accounts. **But she still reads them.**
She has dismissed my concerns because (unlike me) she "doesn't really do all of that."
I am pretty sure you tried this but just in case not...
Maybe if you sit down with your mom and show her, or send this article and explain it to her, it might convince her to pay attention to what she is reading(I know the person who wrote it)
Bots, trolls, deception and the hacking of the human brain - CCPA
None of us are immune from efforts to deceive us. It's important that we learn how to recognize those efforts.
CCPA - (www.policyalternatives.ca)
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I am pretty sure you tried this but just in case not...
Maybe if you sit down with your mom and show her, or send this article and explain it to her, it might convince her to pay attention to what she is reading(I know the person who wrote it)
Bots, trolls, deception and the hacking of the human brain - CCPA
None of us are immune from efforts to deceive us. It's important that we learn how to recognize those efforts.
CCPA - (www.policyalternatives.ca)
I have been a living info-dump of all of this in her life for years. She agrees then says "well I don't use social media"
But then later she says something about something she saw on facebook.
She is convinced that all of this is happening but doesn't see how it could impact her, or how it might be one of the reasons she doesn't find social media more useful and enjoyable.
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I have mixed feelings about "Dead Internet Theory"
Your friends and family on facebook and X are immersed in bot content and only some of it is obvious.
If not bots? Then it is false actors who have rapidly adopted LLMs to make plausible posts as political and influencer personas. (See the recent exposure of 'All American' right-wing accounts on X. These accounts fooled millions.)
I worry "Dead Internet Theory" makes many people just give up. eg. "It's all bots"
@futurebird Looking up recipes the other day (as one does before Thanksgiving) I realized that most of the "cooking sites" have a lot of AI involvement. So I do a bit more work to get advice from real people.
I guess the idea is, put up a site, let the AI write it, you get some pennies when people click on it?
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@futurebird Looking up recipes the other day (as one does before Thanksgiving) I realized that most of the "cooking sites" have a lot of AI involvement. So I do a bit more work to get advice from real people.
I guess the idea is, put up a site, let the AI write it, you get some pennies when people click on it?
It could also be about recommending brands, or to generate traffic to make other more synthetic content seem more legitimate.
So much of the internet feels like a potemkin village...
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I have been a living info-dump of all of this in her life for years. She agrees then says "well I don't use social media"
But then later she says something about something she saw on facebook.
She is convinced that all of this is happening but doesn't see how it could impact her, or how it might be one of the reasons she doesn't find social media more useful and enjoyable.
@futurebird @SnowyCA I've come across this with a few people I know IRL as well, they don't consider themselves to "use" social media despite reading/watching stuff on it for significant chunks of time, I've never been able to get what the distinction is supposed to be out of them
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@futurebird @SnowyCA I've come across this with a few people I know IRL as well, they don't consider themselves to "use" social media despite reading/watching stuff on it for significant chunks of time, I've never been able to get what the distinction is supposed to be out of them
@Nerts @futurebird @SnowyCA I suspect the distinction is participation vs observation.
"Use" implies both active participation and an intended goal - staying in touch with friends via two-way communication, making a living, deciding what to buy.
You don't "use" tv or a book. You "read" or "watch". It's one-way interaction.
I don't use Substack. I follow writers on Substack - I read their work and sometimes the comments, but I don't contribute.
The writers use Substack.
So maybe the key is to identify the different ways people participate and tune the approach to that? For people who don't "use" social media, treating it like TV might work: "You know the whole product placement thing tv shows use to manipulate you? Facebook has So Much of that, and half the time you can't even see it if you know what you're looking for!"
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Bots and manipulative content have become to pervasive that even casual users have started to notice.
I guess I can understand why, if you didn't use social media much, "OH NO! They are posting *fake* comments." wouldn't seem like a serious problem. After all, what kind of weak-minded person cares about the comments of random strangers like that?
"I don't use social media so there is no problem. If you think there is one you should stop like me."
I encounter this often.
@futurebird One thing that really helped me was using UBlock Origin. UBO is not only for blocking ads, you can also use it to block that annoying comment section of your local newspaper
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@futurebird One thing that really helped me was using UBlock Origin. UBO is not only for blocking ads, you can also use it to block that annoying comment section of your local newspaper
But I want to read the comments.
Although that's a neat trick I didn't know it could do that.
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If there is something manipulative on social media only a "social media user" is at risk right?
I think the opposite is true. People who "try to avoid it" and who don't post or comment much are at a greater risk of not knowing when they are encountering bots, for example.
My mom almost never posts anything on any of her social media accounts. **But she still reads them.**
She has dismissed my concerns because (unlike me) she "doesn't really do all of that."
@futurebird by far the most frequent targets of social media manipulation are politicians and journalists, so if you're within reach of law enforcement, you're at risk.
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F myrmepropagandist shared this topic
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I have been a living info-dump of all of this in her life for years. She agrees then says "well I don't use social media"
But then later she says something about something she saw on facebook.
She is convinced that all of this is happening but doesn't see how it could impact her, or how it might be one of the reasons she doesn't find social media more useful and enjoyable.
@futurebird @SnowyCA with my parents, the trick is, after explaining at length maybe a few times, get someone else to suggest the same thing, maybe an older family member or one of their friends. I think they subconsciously think that you're still just a kid and they know better, but when it comes from a different source they take what they already know and actually pay attention to it.
The number of times I've had various people explain to me things I told them ages ago.. I don't even feel bad anymore.
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@futurebird @SnowyCA with my parents, the trick is, after explaining at length maybe a few times, get someone else to suggest the same thing, maybe an older family member or one of their friends. I think they subconsciously think that you're still just a kid and they know better, but when it comes from a different source they take what they already know and actually pay attention to it.
The number of times I've had various people explain to me things I told them ages ago.. I don't even feel bad anymore.
