AI Is Ruining Social Media

I want to delete all my social media accounts. From AI-powered bots to AI slop, I’ve had my fill of the integration of artificial intelligence, which is a misnomer since it lacks genuine consciousness. 

Without any discussion or my vote, the adoption has been rapid. The pervasive technology is used for automating tasks and increasing efficiency. But I’m not buying into this AI boom.

I don’t need help thinking and couldn’t fathom outsourcing my intelligence. Still, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, said at BlackRock’s Infrastructure Summit in Washington, D.C. on March 11, “We see a future where intelligence is a utility, like electricity or water, and people buy it from us on a meter.” 

Described as a kind of “metered future,” it is blatantly dystopian. I have no desire to pay to think or rather be given AI-provided answers, my mind becoming one extended commercial: “This thought was brought to you by…”

To think or not to think is the actual question. I rather enjoy the exercise of independent critical thinking, the search for meaning, and perspective. Consequently, I visit social media platforms for genuine and thought-provoking conversations. 

Recently, Every Day Is Juneteenth (@everydayisjuneteenth) posted as part of their carousel on Instagram: “Instagram feels like a dying mall” and I’ve never felt more seen. I’m tired of looking at my screen and nothing is appealing anymore. I don’t want anything from social media. 

“Go touch grass” is an online phrase meant to provoke someone to step away from the internet and engage with the real world. But when I leave, I won’t be coming back. I’m in or out like that.

AI is in everything and its aggressive marketing strategy makes it obvious that it’s looking for customers. Because who asked for “Shrimp Jesus,” animals recast in human roles, or fake historical photos? 

I despise small talk. So, why would I want to contribute to my own brain rot with absurd and nonsensical narratives? 

Holding a book in one hand and a phone in the other only reduces my attention span. This change in my relationship with social media might also be because I am a millennial and know life before the internet. 

I might be pining for “the good old days,” as it were, before my phone was connected to everything. But I’m not the only one who feels this way. “Analog is back and my millennial heart couldn’t be happier,” Tayo Bero wrote for The Guardian.

And not a minute too soon, because recently, TikTok unknowingly added a feature, a toggle turned on without my knowledge or permission: “Allow AI to remix content.” No. 

Over the course of a couple of hours, I turned the toggle off for all the videos I had posted for the past few years. There was no single switch to undo it and I assume this decision was to serve as a deterrent. It wasn’t.

The next day, I thought about checking the new toggle. It had been switched back on in video after video. 

So, I deleted all my TikTok videos. I don’t like social media that much.

I also don’t like for anyone to touch my things without permission. Besides, I would never consent to AI using my content. I don’t appreciate the assumption; the decision was made without my input.

But that wasn’t the end of it. This change on TikTok followed another prompt in the bottom-left corner of my screen to “create your AI Self.” But I don’t want to.

Then another was located in the top right corner: “New AI Cast.” The new feature would allow users to create AI-generated videos using their likeness or someone else’s. This “AI twin” could be cast in different scenarios. 

I don’t want to and better still, I shouldn’t be forced to make myself into someone other than who I am. I don’t want to play pretend or be a character in someone else’s world. This is just colonization by another AI-generated name.

And if the choice is to accept it or leave the platform, well then, I’ll see you all in the real world. You’ll find me walking barefoot in grass, also known as earthing. Because poet Kori Jane Spaulding continues to be right: “It’s those damn phones.”