Let me write about AI, tech, and the internet once again. Today, I chatted with some online friends. On the off chance that those online friends may see this, this is not a targeted attack or insult to any of them, but rather my observations and personal beliefs about my generations actions.
With these online friends, we chatted about AI slop, videos, and images. I relayed my frustrations with how my parents consumed lots of AI media, A lot of them agree, as they are artists: and it turns out the general consensus is one that is not too rare and commonly heard: AI has its uses, and images and videos are not one of it. Eventually, the topic got to one of my most interested: complacency regarding AI use and tech monopolies. I recall hearing a couple of these friends express how tech monopolies are so ingrained within our lives, and how AI being shoved down our throats was a result of the disproportionate reach these tech giants have. I personally agree a lot. I value consumer choice a lot: I want the decision to use this or that. I voiced that people should be more aware of what they consume, buy, and use. But this is where I branch off in this discussion.
While we discuss this issue, I notice a sort of helplessness within my friends’ words. Tech giants are massive, therefore we can’t avoid it, we can’t stop it. Here is where the title of this blog comes into play. As I recommend DuckDuckGo (because I love shilling for duckduckgo) I explain that DuckDuckGo allows you to turn off AI overviews and pushes significantly less Reddit than google search. This is where I faced pushback. A lot of people value the Reddit results, because of its convenience. Even after I told many about the OpenAI and Reddit partnership that sells user data to be trained, people couldn’t give up the convenience of it. I even explained that Reddit has not been good for years, because companies have long used bots to promote their products on Reddit, and Now do it with AI, but to them this was something not able to give up.
This is where we end the online friend conversation, and into my own thoughts. A lot of young people are aware for a need to change, and even are the frontlines of advocating for change. But they don’t want to change. The idea of losing their convenience, their entertainment, their luxuries, is scary to them. And I really hate to be that nerd emoji guy once again: but we all hate windows and microsoft, but nobody wants to try alternatives. No one wants to try Linux, because Valorant or League of Legends won’t run on it. No one wants to delete TikTok or Instagram, because the content and media it provides is too entertaining. This is despite everyone unanimously agreeing that short form media fries your brain, your attention span or whatever. We see so many people talk about how evil social media is, how evil Meta and X is. But we don’t delete the apps, and stop using the apps. Why? Those same advocates who want change are waiting for someone else to do it for them. For now, they will just wait and reap the spoon fed convenient rewards while someone else makes the change. A part of me can’t blame people for being sucked into these things, whether AI, short form content, or even Starbucks. These are things socially engineered to be addictive and to become habits. But that excuses the old boomers who are blissfully unaware. What about the aware, but complacent in their learned helplessness? A corporation, company, is only as powerful as it’s consumers, its customers. If the consumers move, if they stop consuming, the corporations fail. It’s oversimplified, but this is what I truly believe in. I am a libertarian type of person, I know you may not agree with me; maybe you’re more of a socialist, but at least we can hold hands and stop consuming slop.
I’m not a saint, and I know how this writing comes off as. I have used AI to do my homework before, and I have laughed at tung tung tung sahur or other slop before. I used to be a instagram doomscroller, with probably 2-3 hours on the app daily. And while I’m still not on any social media, I’m still on YouTube where I watch YouTube videos everyday, and embarrassingly so watch “Family guy funny moments” which are definitely content farms. And I still have an iPhone. Don’t make your life hell. You can’t degoogle everything or completely remove yourself from corporations we hate. But it’s the perfect time to be aware of what you use, how you use, and how you want to use. My recommendation to a random reader on where to start: deleting one of your social media apps for a day and seeing how it affects you.
If you are someone who wants to talk about social media, how it has affected you personally or affected those you know, I genuinely would like to hear and I love hearing other perspectives about it. If you’d like to chat, send me a email at akiaki31725@proton.me.
