The modern web is facing a broad crisis of trust and usefulness, the source argues, as privacy violations, addictive platforms, generative-AI spam, online extremism and declining content moderation erode the internet’s social and cultural value. Although online communities once offered meaningful connection and creative exchange, the article says that promise is increasingly being overwhelmed by manipulation, exploitation and automated content.
The web’s growing social costs
Major companies such as Meta and Google have faced large consumer lawsuits over privacy violations and alleged mental-health harm linked to addictive platform features. Schools and governments are also responding: several states are considering or imposing a ban on smartphones in schools, while several countries have introduced social-media restrictions for people under 16.
Parents increasingly worry that children may want careers as social media celebrities, become lost in a vast ecosystem of online casinos or join an extremist movement. These concerns reflect a growing belief that online systems are not merely distracting but can actively shape harmful behavior.
Generative AI adds to the web’s problems
Generative AI was once viewed as an interesting emerging technology. The article now describes it as a “turbocharged slop engine” that is filling feeds and comment sections with useless or grotesque material. At the same time, people are encountering headlines about AI that could take their jobs, while researchers warn that overreliance on AI can blur fantasy and reality.
The source also points to concerns about declining cognitive function and argues that the technology’s consumer appeal is increasingly being replaced by anxiety. The data centers needed to support AI are becoming increasingly unpopular and politically radioactive.
Manipulation, rage bait and weaker moderation
Many people now see being online as an experience of continuous manipulation and exploitation. In December, Oxford University Press named rage bait its word of the year and noted that use of the term had tripled over the previous 12 months.
The spread of the term reflects growing recognition that monetized social-media accounts can promote malicious or extreme content to generate hostile engagement. The source also cites research into the use of generative AI to create rage bait.
At the same time, the article argues that billionaire technology owners have opened the floodgates to illegal activity, conspiracy theories and hate speech by choosing to roll back moderation.
Is the internet becoming less human?
By 2026, the source argues, spending time online is increasingly difficult to justify. A decade ago, a sense of community, joy and artistic or intellectual exchange may have offset the toxic material on the web. The article says that balance no longer exists.
This does not necessarily mean people themselves are getting worse. The dead internet theory—the proposition that most online interactions are fake and that bots are communicating with other bots—has recently gained supporting evidence. “The proposition that the vast majority of interactions on the web are fake and that bots are talking to other bots has recently gathered more supporting evidence,” one cybersecurity firm concluded this spring.
Another report said AI bots already outnumber human users and that their traffic would soar 8,000% by 2025. Against this backdrop, it is understandable that people may find themselves scrolling through a wasteland of “brain rot” and asking, “What the hell am I looking at?” The deeper question is whether the internet will always remain this way.
Source: www.wired.com