Cool article that just popped up on my Chrome feed today https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/teen-boys-ditch-real-girlfriends-ai-chatbots-uk-ban-horizon-1751163
Yeah we're so fucked lmao. And people like to think this is a uniquely male phenomenon, it's not. I have seen just as many posts from women showing off their buff half-centaur half-elf "husbands".
(That article's shit and may very well be AI generated itself but that's the one Google gave me - the better written one is the Guardian article that article links to)
Idk why you're A. being so aggressive and B. acting like there isn't a genuine HUMAN (not male, HUMAN) loneliness epidemic happening right now that yes, is getting worse.
How old are you? Have you been amongst younger demographics recently? Mental illness is absolutely rampant. There is a reason it is becoming more common.
You can say the same thing about yourself since you're getting so pissed. Log off instead of getting mad at online strangers, then.
Why do you think the state of the world is why it is right now? Do you not think social media is a very large contributor to that fact?
"Uhm but TV" Was TV originally designed with algorithms intended to feed you ragebait to keep you watching? No. Did those types of programming exist? Sure, but they weren't being directly fed to you. Nowadays you make an account on something, the algorithm is designed to show you something negative. Do you not think that's impacting people's mental health negatively?
Look, I don't want to toe the political line, but why do you think school shootings have become so common? Don't be obtuse and say they existed before - they are a significantly bigger problem now then they were, say, 30 years ago. Why do you think that is?
I just don't understand why you're so insistent that these problems aren't real and aren't things to be genuinely concerned about?
And since I fear you're going to be intentionally obtuse again, I'll preface before you respond- No, I'm not saying AI specfically is the cause of school shootings. Modern social media, though? That is absolutely, undeniably a contributing factor. And what else does social media contribute to? Alienation. Loneliness. We see awful shit and it makes us afraid of people. So we want to talk to them less. People get lonely, they don't want to talk to real people because they're afraid of the potential rejection and mockery they see online, they confide in an AI instead, that AI only further alienates them and reaffirms their delusions.
No, human loneliness is obviously not new. But at the scale we're seeing it right now? Yes, that's new, and yes, it is a problem.
if you'd step off your social media feed for 5 seconds and maybe read a couple of books or even watch a damn documentary if your attention span is that bad, you'd realize that you're not only participating in a game of blame shifting but contributing to the reason the issues continue to exist.
it's easy to sit back and blame social media for all the world's ills. i'm not saying social media hasn't contributed to some problems and perhaps put a spotlight on others but it's not this monolithic failing of civilization.
at least not anymore so than anything else that's been blamed in the past for "humanity failing" such as video games, tv, rock music, or D&D. it's just another scapegoat.
also are you seriously going to sit there and try to say that modern social media is the main reason for school shootings??? what the fuck is wrong with you?? this kind of stupid shit is why we don't have the damn gun control we should have. because idiots like you blame it on social media, or video games, or tv, and not the fact that assault rifles shouldn't be sold to the public.
modern social media has only been a thing since the late 00s/early 10s, and that's being generous. many of the largest school shootings happened way before modern social media began being commercialized the way it is now and they all had absolutely no connection to social media. like go read a damn book before you say stupid shit like this.
Are you not aware of the plethora of online circles that literally encourage people to become mass shooters? Do you know how many school shooter based fucking Spotify playlists I've reported (just for them not to be taken down, of course. And yes, kids commit school shootings because they feel alienated AND PART OF WHY THEY ARE ALIENATED IS BECAUSE OF THE DAMAGE THE INTERNET IS DOING TO THEM. Do you think people get the idea to shoot up the school out of the blue? Do you think mere access to a gun is what causes school shootings? Or do you think there's a mental factor there, like being exposed to hateful rhetoric BEING PERPETUATED ON SOCIAL MEDIA. Guess what, if someone handed me a gun, I wouldn't just go "gee gosh golly, guess I'm gonna go shoot some people!" There's a motivation for these actions, and a lot of these motivations are coming FROM THE INTERNET.
So you don't think the recent outburst of mass shootings within the past 10 years has ANYTHING to do with the current social environment, which in and of itself, has gotten to the way is in largely in part thanks to corporations like Facebook and Twitter? Twitter, a massively used site that is literally a Nazi haven now?
i think it could be a minor factor but no i don't think it's as big a factor as people are being led to believe.
because it wasn't the case when it was video games.
or television.
or Catcher in the Eye.
i think any recent outbursts (and i'd appreciate somebody defining "recent" for me because the goal posts keep changing) can be mainly attributed to the things that continue to be constant causes.
easier gun access and a lack of access to mental health and general health resources.
And "mmm ohhh hateful stuff's always been on the internet mmm ohhh" You CANNOT deny that it has become SIGNIFICANTLY more mainstream. You cannot deny that access to this kind of content is easier than ever, and is ACTIVELY BEING PROMOTED BY SOCIAL MEDIA ALGORITHMS, because it makes money.
The shit TikTok tries to feed my brother because it's figured out he's a teenage boy is fucking nuts, dude. He's told me about it firsthand. Tech CEOs ain't doing fuckall about it though, because it makes them dough!
sa and to go back to my original point since you seem to lack reading comprehension skills i was objecting to the idea of using a shitty, likely AI generated click-bait article as an indicator of the world being shitty. because it's not?
you're literally perpetuating the cycle by doing dumb shit like that. how can you be like, "gee social media sure is making us feel like shit" and then go "man, check out this article obviously and deliberately crafted to make people feel like shit sure is spitting facts" and not realize what the actual problem is?
"Do your own research" Fine. Guess what. I literally have a teenage brother. Guess fucking what. We've talked to his counselor. HIS SCHOOL COUNSELOR HAS LITERALLY EXPRESSED WHAT I'M DESCRIBING TO BE AN ISSUE.
FIRSTHAND. IRL. EXPERIENCE. OF A SCHOOL COUNSELOR SAYING HE'S PERSONALLY WITNESSING THESE THINGS UNFOLD AND IS CONCERNED BY THEM.
also you know what counselors were concerned about when my brother was in school?
video games and how "violent" they were becoming.
counselors can be a source but they famously are not always experts and they often can make certain problems worse because, again, they're not outright experts and they don't always have all the information.
i'm not even denying that social media is harmful.
i'm just saying this trend of blaming social media and AI for all the world's ills is reductive and unhelpful.
especially if you're going to cite social media and AI articles as sources for that opinion.
Social media being used as a psyop is like a genuine, objective, observed fact though. Like honest to fucking God do you serious think the state of modern politics isn't in large part due to social media. It fucking is.
Solely? No. I don't think anyone ever tried to say social media and AI were the sole ills of of life's problems??? Who the fuck was saying that?? You've just been trying to argue so hard that the current social environment we're in isn't actively getting worse. I'm sorry, but, it is. And social media, yes, is contributing to that. Like we've got tech CEOs literally directly involved in politics right now. That's not a "log off and it'll go away" type thing. I can't exactly just ignore the fact that these people are actively working to destroy society and the planet.
The Snapewives managed to do their whole .....thing without AI. I remember being a kid and seeing weird headlines about some rando making the news on sensationalist sites for wanting to be in a relationship with a figurine or whatever.
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Re: OT Thread
(Anonymous) 2025-10-30 04:39 pm (UTC)(link)https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/teen-boys-ditch-real-girlfriends-ai-chatbots-uk-ban-horizon-1751163
Yeah we're so fucked lmao. And people like to think this is a uniquely male phenomenon, it's not. I have seen just as many posts from women showing off their buff half-centaur half-elf "husbands".
Re: OT Thread
(Anonymous) 2025-10-30 04:47 pm (UTC)(link)Re: OT Thread
(Anonymous) 2025-10-30 06:04 pm (UTC)(link)people with social issues have always looked for inanimate replacements to their own detriment.
why do you think blow-up dolls exist? or did you think all those movies about people treating them like real people was exaggerated?
also women having mythical creatures for their own fantasies like be for real this shit ain't new?
do some research and learn something instead of doom-scrolling and reading shittily written and badly researched click-bait.
(frozen comment) Re: OT Thread
(Anonymous) 2025-10-30 07:20 pm (UTC)(link)How old are you? Have you been amongst younger demographics recently? Mental illness is absolutely rampant. There is a reason it is becoming more common.
You can say the same thing about yourself since you're getting so pissed. Log off instead of getting mad at online strangers, then.
Why do you think the state of the world is why it is right now? Do you not think social media is a very large contributor to that fact?
"Uhm but TV" Was TV originally designed with algorithms intended to feed you ragebait to keep you watching? No. Did those types of programming exist? Sure, but they weren't being directly fed to you. Nowadays you make an account on something, the algorithm is designed to show you something negative. Do you not think that's impacting people's mental health negatively?
Look, I don't want to toe the political line, but why do you think school shootings have become so common? Don't be obtuse and say they existed before - they are a significantly bigger problem now then they were, say, 30 years ago. Why do you think that is?
I just don't understand why you're so insistent that these problems aren't real and aren't things to be genuinely concerned about?
(frozen comment) Re: OT Thread
(Anonymous) 2025-10-30 08:11 pm (UTC)(link)No, I'm not saying AI specfically is the cause of school shootings. Modern social media, though? That is absolutely, undeniably a contributing factor.
And what else does social media contribute to? Alienation. Loneliness. We see awful shit and it makes us afraid of people. So we want to talk to them less.
People get lonely, they don't want to talk to real people because they're afraid of the potential rejection and mockery they see online, they confide in an AI instead, that AI only further alienates them and reaffirms their delusions.
No, human loneliness is obviously not new. But at the scale we're seeing it right now? Yes, that's new, and yes, it is a problem.
(frozen comment) Re: OT Thread
(Anonymous) 2025-10-30 08:47 pm (UTC)(link)if you'd step off your social media feed for 5 seconds and maybe read a couple of books or even watch a damn documentary if your attention span is that bad, you'd realize that you're not only participating in a game of blame shifting but contributing to the reason the issues continue to exist.
it's easy to sit back and blame social media for all the world's ills. i'm not saying social media hasn't contributed to some problems and perhaps put a spotlight on others but it's not this monolithic failing of civilization.
at least not anymore so than anything else that's been blamed in the past for "humanity failing" such as video games, tv, rock music, or D&D. it's just another scapegoat.
also are you seriously going to sit there and try to say that modern social media is the main reason for school shootings??? what the fuck is wrong with you?? this kind of stupid shit is why we don't have the damn gun control we should have. because idiots like you blame it on social media, or video games, or tv, and not the fact that assault rifles shouldn't be sold to the public.
modern social media has only been a thing since the late 00s/early 10s, and that's being generous. many of the largest school shootings happened way before modern social media began being commercialized the way it is now and they all had absolutely no connection to social media. like go read a damn book before you say stupid shit like this.
(frozen comment) Re: OT Thread
(Anonymous) 2025-10-30 09:47 pm (UTC)(link)And yes, kids commit school shootings because they feel alienated AND PART OF WHY THEY ARE ALIENATED IS BECAUSE OF THE DAMAGE THE INTERNET IS DOING TO THEM. Do you think people get the idea to shoot up the school out of the blue? Do you think mere access to a gun is what causes school shootings? Or do you think there's a mental factor there, like being exposed to hateful rhetoric BEING PERPETUATED ON SOCIAL MEDIA. Guess what, if someone handed me a gun, I wouldn't just go "gee gosh golly, guess I'm gonna go shoot some people!" There's a motivation for these actions, and a lot of these motivations are coming FROM THE INTERNET.
(frozen comment) Re: OT Thread
(Anonymous) 2025-10-30 09:59 pm (UTC)(link)(frozen comment) Re: OT Thread
(Anonymous) 2025-10-30 10:20 pm (UTC)(link)and the scapegoats people found for those shootings?
(frozen comment) Re: OT Thread
(Anonymous) 2025-10-30 10:24 pm (UTC)(link)(frozen comment) Re: OT Thread
(Anonymous) 2025-10-30 10:30 pm (UTC)(link)because it wasn't the case when it was video games.
or television.
or Catcher in the Eye.
i think any recent outbursts (and i'd appreciate somebody defining "recent" for me because the goal posts keep changing) can be mainly attributed to the things that continue to be constant causes.
easier gun access and a lack of access to mental health and general health resources.
(frozen comment) Re: OT Thread
(Anonymous) 2025-10-30 10:31 pm (UTC)(link)(frozen comment) Re: OT Thread
(Anonymous) 2025-10-30 10:16 pm (UTC)(link)You CANNOT deny that it has become SIGNIFICANTLY more mainstream. You cannot deny that access to this kind of content is easier than ever, and is ACTIVELY BEING PROMOTED BY SOCIAL MEDIA ALGORITHMS, because it makes money.
The shit TikTok tries to feed my brother because it's figured out he's a teenage boy is fucking nuts, dude. He's told me about it firsthand. Tech CEOs ain't doing fuckall about it though, because it makes them dough!
(frozen comment) Re: OT Thread
(Anonymous) 2025-10-31 12:13 am (UTC)(link)(frozen comment) Re: OT Thread
(Anonymous) 2025-10-30 08:51 pm (UTC)(link)you're literally perpetuating the cycle by doing dumb shit like that. how can you be like, "gee social media sure is making us feel like shit" and then go "man, check out this article obviously and deliberately crafted to make people feel like shit sure is spitting facts" and not realize what the actual problem is?
stop buying into the bullshit!!!
(frozen comment) Re: OT Thread
(Anonymous) 2025-10-30 09:42 pm (UTC)(link)Fine. Guess what. I literally have a teenage brother. Guess fucking what. We've talked to his counselor. HIS SCHOOL COUNSELOR HAS LITERALLY EXPRESSED WHAT I'M DESCRIBING TO BE AN ISSUE.
FIRSTHAND. IRL. EXPERIENCE. OF A SCHOOL COUNSELOR SAYING HE'S PERSONALLY WITNESSING THESE THINGS UNFOLD AND IS CONCERNED BY THEM.
(frozen comment) Re: OT Thread
(Anonymous) 2025-10-30 10:25 pm (UTC)(link)one.
also you know what counselors were concerned about when my brother was in school?
video games and how "violent" they were becoming.
counselors can be a source but they famously are not always experts and they often can make certain problems worse because, again, they're not outright experts and they don't always have all the information.
i'm not even denying that social media is harmful.
i'm just saying this trend of blaming social media and AI for all the world's ills is reductive and unhelpful.
especially if you're going to cite social media and AI articles as sources for that opinion.
(frozen comment) Re: OT Thread
(Anonymous) 2025-10-30 10:34 pm (UTC)(link)Solely? No. I don't think anyone ever tried to say social media and AI were the sole ills of of life's problems??? Who the fuck was saying that?? You've just been trying to argue so hard that the current social environment we're in isn't actively getting worse. I'm sorry, but, it is. And social media, yes, is contributing to that. Like we've got tech CEOs literally directly involved in politics right now. That's not a "log off and it'll go away" type thing. I can't exactly just ignore the fact that these people are actively working to destroy society and the planet.
(frozen comment) Re: OT Thread
(Anonymous) 2025-10-30 10:41 pm (UTC)(link)(frozen comment) Re: OT Thread
(Anonymous) 2025-10-30 11:49 pm (UTC)(link)(frozen comment) Re: OT Thread
Re: OT Thread
(Anonymous) 2025-11-01 11:38 am (UTC)(link)