So I’ve been noticing something lately, and now ive seen it i cant unsee it. Not in a “tech is scary” cliché way but in a “I think we’re slipping into a new normal without realising it” way.
The online world is getting unbelievably unsafe, and we’re all pretending it’s manageable. I dont mean physically unsafe as such but more of a place where you cant let your guard down ever now.
Here’s what I mean:
You know how you used to be able to trust that a voice call from your mum was actually your mum? Or that a video of your boss was… your boss? Oooor that the person arguing with you online was at least a real person?
Yeahs, that’s gone now.
Not “going.”
Gone.
The tech has leapt so far ahead, (and is still advancing) that regular people, especially older people are being wiped out by scams using AI voices and videos that are basically indistinguishable from the real thing. I’ve read stories of people sending thousands because a cloned voice of their son or daughter called them crying. And honestly… I think its easily done.
Meanwhile the institutions that used to protect us or told us there did, like the banks, social platforms, regulators, are doing the equivalent of catching shoplifters while organised crime is emptying the vault downstairs.
More and more it feels like they’re going after the easy wins, posting warnings, putting up little “be careful” signs, and staying quiet about how outpaced they actually are. It feels like they don’t want to admit they’re two or three steps behind. But they do enough to cover their own asses from a liability point of view and thats basically it. unless theres a real cost risk it just gets a band aid fix.
And what really hit me is how normalised distrust is becoming.
Even on Reddit now, people call out “slopGPT” at the drop of a hat, like a modern version of the Salem witch trials. You can say something perfectly human and still get accused of being AI. Innocence doesn’t matter any more. Everyone online is starting from a point of suspicion, like the scene from an old cowboy film when he walks into a saloon and the music stops lol, but again, i get it.
And I don’t blame anyone, because the whole internet feels like it’s filling with synthetic people, synthetic news, synthetic drama, synthetic everything. If I’m honest, I’m already second-guessing stuff I never questioned a year ago.
But here’s the strangest part and maybe the only hopeful bit in all of this:
If everything online becomes unreliable, maybe people will start valuing what can’t be faked (yet).
Face-to-face conversations.
Friends you actually meet.
Small groups of trusted friends become gold again.
People you know in real life are the preferred option for talking and communicating not discord, not forums and not social media (which i think is showing signs its also had its day).
Almost like this chaos forces us back toward each other, sort of every action has an opposite and equal reaction, only social this time.
I hope it does, genuinely.
More detail: Burstcomms.com
Posted by leemond80
2 Comments
We will know what we are doing is complete when the American people don’t know what is true anymore. Or something like that the quote goes. When everything we see and hear is false or we can’t tell the difference is when they have done their job.
The latter is definitely the best route for us all. The digital age (internet, social media) is rapidly progressing in a way that feels… Inorganic?
I’m admittedly at fault of this, and I see it from many of the people around me, that the individual in society is becoming increasingly more isolated, and being glued to these devices more and more, can become toxic for regular social interactions.
There definitely needs to be balance in everything. But as it gets harder to connect in day to day interactions due to various conditioning, it’s also very easy to fall back into the whirlpool that had a great deal in causing those difficulties.
The excessive variety of psychological stimuli, the increasing hardships to maintain income for a stable life, and the division heavily pushed upon us in society… Just sometimes feels like the human condition is being attacked from all angles.
But history has shown that there’s a pendulum effect. So although things may be swaying this way right now, perhaps there’s hope we correct and steer ship the other way, and adapt to these things in a way that benefits us all.