bobcat
Well-known Member
- Location
- Northern Calif
I had noticed for years that most of what you hear on the news is negative. I think we humans just have a penchant for paying more attention to negative information. I suppose our brains evolved to scan for threats, not good news. So, when we scroll, we’re more likely to click on fear, outrage, or conflict, and now that tendency is being exploited more than ever.
We’ve quietly crossed a threshold. For the first time in the internet’s history, bots outnumber humans online. This milestone signals a deeper shift in how content is created. Those bots crawl the net searching for material to craft for story content. AI agents are already crawling, scraping, synthesizing, and increasingly generating content at a scale no human workforce could match—reshaping the web in real time. Within ten years, we may see hundreds of billions - perhaps even close to a trillion agents operating online. Then they are used to evaluate success in clicks and reader time engagement. More clicks equal more revenue. They don't care about truth or balance, only engagement.
The bots quickly learned the same thing that news stations learned. The negativity bias is alive and well. However, the downside no one thought about or cared about is how it is shaping society. It's very easy to come away with a distorted picture of reality.
I think it takes conscious effort to reconnect with the real world. Offline life is where nuance, kindness, and perspective live. The internet magnifies threats and anger, but our daily life can be different. It's not about ignoring problems. It’s about refusing to let a distorted information ecosystem define your worldview. We can still care about the world without drowning in the dark side of it. The world is still full of good people, good stories, and good moments. They’re just quieter - and we have to choose to listen for them. We are what we eat.
We’ve quietly crossed a threshold. For the first time in the internet’s history, bots outnumber humans online. This milestone signals a deeper shift in how content is created. Those bots crawl the net searching for material to craft for story content. AI agents are already crawling, scraping, synthesizing, and increasingly generating content at a scale no human workforce could match—reshaping the web in real time. Within ten years, we may see hundreds of billions - perhaps even close to a trillion agents operating online. Then they are used to evaluate success in clicks and reader time engagement. More clicks equal more revenue. They don't care about truth or balance, only engagement.
The bots quickly learned the same thing that news stations learned. The negativity bias is alive and well. However, the downside no one thought about or cared about is how it is shaping society. It's very easy to come away with a distorted picture of reality.
I think it takes conscious effort to reconnect with the real world. Offline life is where nuance, kindness, and perspective live. The internet magnifies threats and anger, but our daily life can be different. It's not about ignoring problems. It’s about refusing to let a distorted information ecosystem define your worldview. We can still care about the world without drowning in the dark side of it. The world is still full of good people, good stories, and good moments. They’re just quieter - and we have to choose to listen for them. We are what we eat.
