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THE DEAD INTERNET TRENDS

As 2025 dawns with rapid change in the political world, global economy, the daily utility relied upon by billions of people may be slowly turning into a digital quicksand. The internet was created to share information between humans. It became a public forum for sharing personal ideas, interests, thoughts, art and news. The Internet quickly grew into a commercial hub for business and consumers. It was alive with practical implications. It promised to give anyone access to the world's collective knowledge at the tap of a smartphone button.

The Internet has always had its Dark Side. Whether it was side channels to transact illegal activities, to boiler rooms of computers selling likes or views to manipulate click rates for websites. But those infections were directly controlled by humans. But now, for some, the Internet has lost its human mainframe.

The Dead Internet Theory is the belief that the vast majority of Internet traffic, posts and users have been replaced by bots and AI-generated content, and that people no longer shape the direction of the Internet The theory was floating around 4Chan in the late 2010s, but it was solidified and amplified in 2021 after a lengthy post describing the theory on the forum Agora Road's Macintosh Cafe. Writing about the theory for The Atlantic, Kaitlyn Tiffany described the post as the basis for the theory to come. Tiffany even managed to contact the original poster, a Californian man who claimed to earnestly believe the words he wrote. His post describes a sense of unease, paranoia and loneliness, expressing deep disappointment at the state of the modern Internet He suggests that AI has successfully drowned out the majority of online human activity, reshaping the Internet into a more controlled, algorithmic form that exists only to sell products and ideas. Proponents of the theory believe these social bots were created intentionally to help manipulate algorithms and boost search results in order to manipulate consumers.

There is some objective evidence to support this theory. In 2016, the security firm Imperva released a report on bot traffic and found that automated programs were responsible for 52% of web traffic. Imperva's report for 2023 found that 49.6% of Internet traffic was automated, a 2% rise which was partly attributed to artificial intelligence models scraping the web for training content.

On social media platforms, the rise of like bots, algorithms that trigger likes and supportive comments to boost creator's image, status and followers has caused concern. On YouTube, there is a market online for fake views to boost a video's credibility and reach broader audiences. It is a manipulation of YouTube's own algorithms for user suggested content. At one point, fake views were so prevalent that some engineers were concerned YouTube's algorithm for detecting them would begin to treat the fake views as default and start misclassifying real ones. YouTube engineers coined the term the Inversion to describe this phenomenon.

In 2024, Google reported that its search results were being inundated with websites that “feel like they were created for search engines instead of people.” In correspondence with Gizmodo, a Google spokesperson acknowledged the role of generative AI in the rapid proliferation of such content and that it could displace more valuable human-made alternatives. Bots using LLMs are anticipated to increase the amount of spam, and run the risk of creating a situation where bots interacting with each other create self-replicating prompts that result in loops only human users could disrupt. This same concept has infected AI learning programs that take bot-created false information posts as true (apparently convinced by the amount of automatic likes) to further replicating the falsehoods in its AI generated outputs adding to the increase in AI hallucinations.

Regular X users have long been complaining about the amount of inane, irrelevant and clearly AI-generated replies that have infested X, especially lately; a swarm of bots have descended on the site like flies on a turd, turning reply chains into endless, pointless pleasantries between no one. Social media is slowly losing the human social interaction to one of a landmine field of unwanted interjected posts, links and false stories.

Instead of protecting the platforms from the increasing bot horde, some platforms are giving up. At Meta, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that third-party fact-checking organizations would no longer have the power to suppress disfavored speech on Facebook, a major, positive step toward restoring free expression and robust debate on the platform. But this eliminates a gatekeeper to stop the bot misinformation from overwhelming a human user shield.

The Internet is no longer a computer based communication network. Google's new AI-based top-of-the-page generated search answers is another symptom of bots's infection against human verified information immunity. No one is immune from the data mining, content scraping, and the manipulation of information on your screens.

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AI DETECTOR NEWS

Who created this art image?

Because of its basic color and shapes, one could conclude that it could be an AI generated image. But it is not. It was a painting created in procreate with digital art tools by our publisher/artist Ski.

The debate about AI generated images continues with an increasing cancel culture mentality. Digital artist Sam yang recently reported on his channel about a person accusing an artist's post as being a fake, AI generated piece. It contained a few minor technical errors that most new artists would make in physical proportions and perspective. It turned out to be a false accusation, which left the young artist deleting her account due to the hate comments she received. The accuser tried to back pedal and apologize, but it was too late.

Before one makes an accusation, you should at least try to determine with some basis of fact, that the image is AI. (This goes beyond the debate of whether the Internet needs a mob of vigilante pure art keepers attacking suspect posts.)

There are at least eight AI image detectors that assess whether an image is human or AI. We decided to try one out.

This illustration was entitled Squid Game, Home Edition. It was uploaded to IG an FB. It as hand drawn in a cartoon style in a digital art program. As you can see the result is correct, it is not an AI generated image.

The next image was a Pop Art drawing created with the same digital tools and freehand strokes. This image registered a o.1 percent chance that it was an AI generated image. We wonder if the style of being a pop art piece was influenced by that style in the vast image bank of known artists.

Then we tried an actual photograph taken by Ski of a hawk eating a pigeon. This too, came back with a 0.1 percent change of being an AI generated image. So far, so good.

The basic color and shapes may have put the detector noticing an AI trait, but it still only scored a 2.3 percent chance of being an AI image.

The final image was a digital painting created using procreate oil brushes. Apparently, the textured background and visible brush strokes caused more concern for the detection program. But it still got it right than wrong by saying it was only a 12.9 percent chance of it being an AI generated image.

Even AI generator detectors are not perfect. But in a variety of style examples, there is at least a real tool to give pause for unwanted cancel culture accusations in the Internet art communities.

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TICK TOCK NOT NEWS

On the day before the Presidential inauguration, TikTok went dark. As the NY Post reported, heartbroken TikTok users went cuckoo. The 170 million U.S. users were angry about the loss of their popular video-sharing platform. A podcaster with more than 1.8 million followers named iJustine helped lead the hysteria on X: “It's been 15 minutes and I''m already going through TikTok withdrawals. THIS IS A CRIME.”

It was not a crime, it was the enforcement of a law ironically championed by Trump himself in his first term. It was a means of punishing China for its aggressive behavior against US interests. The base line reason, upheld by the Courts, was that the program was a national security risk since the Chinese government can data mine American users data and personal information. It could also interfere with US government and elections through propaganda and targeted message bots.

It was divest or die. TikTok's US based company decided to die on its sword to go dark. But Trump jumped on the outcry backlash to make himself look BIG and powerful with his bold proclamation that he would cut a deal and save the platform from extinction. It is ironic that his two bet billionaire bros who own X and Meta platforms would want to save a competitor in the hope that TikTok users would return to YouTube or Instagram or X.

TikTok may be back, but that not prevented other Chinese competitors from gaining users. In the lead up to a ban on TikTok, which only lasted a day with Trump reprieve, several other video apps rose through the ranks and now dominate the App Store's Top Charts. The Chinese app RedNote (which is listed on the app stores as Xiaohongshu) became the No. 1 app in the US followed by video apps like Clapper, Flip, and others. After TikTok's restoration of service, RedNote retained its No. 1 spot on the App Store, after having attracted some 700,000 new US users. TikTok users' move to RedNote was meant to send a signal to US lawmakers and Meta alike that they would rather join another Chinese app similar to TikTok than return to Instagram Reels.

The irony for the rush of TikTokers to Chinese apps like Red Note was that Red Note is not a TikTok clone. It is so far away from the influencer content reel generator as it could be. Red Note is an English language app used by middle class Chinese to share information, hobbies, interests, information, travel and vacation tips in a nonpolitical bubble of community helping others. Red Note users posted videos sarcastically welcoming TikTok refugees to their platform. The burn was short-lived.

Red Note keeps growing because it is intentionally not trying to be a thorn in the Chinese government's side. Its apolitical themes allow its users to have the freedom to live their lives, share their interests and not be held hostage by official mandates and censorship. In some respects, it may be the only rose in the vast Internet desert.

But because the Chinese government controls all social media, it could data mine Americans through Red Note or any other Chinese app as well as TikTok could. All of this was a political power play by global schoolyard bullies.

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QUICK BYTES CYBERCULTURE

YOU ARE YOUR OWN MEME. US President Donald Trump has been criticized for launching a meme-coin while saying he “doesn't know much” about the cryptocurrency. The digital coin called TRUMP appeared on his social media accounts ahead of his inauguration and quickly became one of the most valuable crypto coins. The value of a single coin shot up to $75 within a day, but since has fallen to $39. But the launch of the so-called meme-coin, a cryptocurrency with no utility other than for fun or speculation, has been widely criticized by industry insiders. “Trump's comments about not knowing much about the coin back up my opinion that he is making a mockery of the industry. It's a stunt,” said Danny Scott, CEO of CoinCorner. Of course Trump knows nothing about cryptocurrency but he only knows how to sell himself to his sheepish followers. This is worse than selling a worthless NFT. It set back real cryptocurrency exchanges who are still struggling to get regulatory and public approval of its currency.

THE BOTS ARE COMING THE BOTS ARE COMING. ArsTechnica reported that after three weeks into 2025, the Internet has been over run by DDoS bots. Reports are rolling in of threat actors infecting thousands of home and office routers, web cameras, and other Internet connected devices. The algorithm is the parasitic pandemic of the digital age; bot programs are running free in the wild auto-executing malware indistinguishable from utility programs. We know this is coming, but are we too lazy to care?

ZOMBIE PRESIDENTS. Joe Biden left office in his hubristic manner by pardoning his son, preemptively pardoning Trump critics and his own family members from political prosecutions by Trump, and saying the ERA amendment is law because he says so. The ERA amendment failed in the 1980s when it was not ratified in time. But as we see with Trump first 100 days, the Constitution and laws are irrelevant when a president can sign any crazy executive order and deem it the law of the land. Both Biden and Trump are brain dead leaders spewing their own truth far from reality. The US is sinking faster than a third world banana republic.

WORM IN THE APPLE AI. BBC reported that Apple has suspended a new artificial intelligence (AI) feature that drew criticism and complaints for making repeated mistakes in its summaries of news headlines. The tech giant had been facing mounting pressure to withdraw the service, which sent notifications that appeared to come from within news organizations' apps. The feature had inaccurately summarized headlines from Sky News, the BBC, the New York Times and the Washington Post, according to reports from journalists and others on social media. AI has long been accused of hallucinations when an AI model makes things up is a real concern for news organizations. Any misinformation by AI towards news organizations further damages trust in the news media.

iToons

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FOUND BUT NOT LOST ON THE INTERNET

In the chaos of world politics, nasty elections, and crazy figurehead leaders, this diagram popped up in one's feed as a clear political statement of where we are in the current world geo-politics. You need a literary reference point in order to get the gravity of the situation. That itself begs the question: do schools still require students to read such classic books?

Source: facebook/The Writers Circle

Oh, what a good boy. A dog asleep on the floor. But it is not a dog, but a dog rug created by Emily O'Leary. The one thing the Internet has shown us that there is a vast array of talented artists all over the world. But their work is merely a drop in the ocean of content.

Source: neatorama

For the first time, an Internet based entertainment platform has risen to the top of the television ratings system. YouTube has surpassed Disney as the most watched entertainment channel. It shows the continue downfall of traditional media channels and the death spiral of cable. Traditional media continues to hang on by the the thread of showing live sporting events. But those are slowly being picked off by streaming platforms like Apple and Amazon Prime.

Source: YouTube /Rick Beato

Mindless game action itself has taken it to the most basic level: a game that is just about clicking the click button. Pavlov's dog would have been worn out by now. Just click instant simulation. The more you click the more stimuli. Is that no different than having someone swing a pocket watch in front of your face and tell you you are getting sleepy?

Source: neatorama

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THE WHETHER REPORT

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STATUS

Question: Whether the United States current 1.24 debt/GDP ratio drag the economy into a recession?

* Educated Guess

* Possible

* Probable

* Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

* Doubtful

* Vapor Dream

Question: Whether South Korea's political turmoil spread to other Asian countries?

* Educated Guess

* Possible

* Probable

* Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

* Doubtful

* Vapor Dream

Question: Whether artificial intelligence's practical defects will slow down the AI surge?

* Educated Guess

* Possible

* Probable

* Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

* Doubtful

* Vapor Dream

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