Latest / The imuRgency Room / The AI Media Literacy Crisis
Transcript
- 0:00Did you know that martial law can be enacted if the government
- 0:02shut down for more than a week? Did you know that Red 40 turns
- 0:04your internal organs red and that if you breathe really,
- 0:06really fast, you can give yourself a heart attack?
- 0:09Well, no, you didn't, because none of these things are true.
- 0:13None of it's true. It's beer.
- 0:15Hey guys, slips emergency welcome.
- 0:16Welcome back to my channel. As you may have gathered this
- 0:18video will be talking about the phenomenon online that seems to
- 0:20be the accumulation of the rise of anti intellectualism, spread
- 0:24of misinformation and the bad faith actors that profit off of
- 0:27this. Do not trust every influencer
- 0:29you see tell you something online just because they say it
- 0:31confidently and that includes me.
- 0:32And I really hope with this video we learned that we owe it
- 0:34to ourselves, keep ourselves informed and make educated
- 0:37opinions and to have discernment and if anything do out of spite
- 0:41of the powers that be that benefit from ignorance and
- 0:44Internet rage bait. But it's time we talk about the
- 0:46rise of misinformation online. Misinformation online is nothing
- 0:49new really. But as technology and social
- 0:51media platforms evolve, so do the channels in which
- 0:53misinformation also evolve. And it's becoming harder and
- 0:56harder to disprove. And actually not just harder to
- 0:59disprove. It feels like a certain genetic
- 1:01qua in the air that people just aren't as compelled to Fact
- 1:04Check what they see online. And as we will get into, there
- 1:06may be a few factors as to why it's also important to
- 1:09understand the media landscape that we're dealing with right
- 1:11now. According to the Pew Research
- 1:13Center, one in five Americans not regularly get their news
- 1:15from TikTok, which is surprisingly up from 2020.
- 1:18But like, when you think about it, the app the administration
- 1:21right now threatened to ban unless they control it is now
- 1:24the source, not a reliable one, but a source nonetheless for
- 1:27something that people are taking to be true regardless of its
- 1:30credibility. Anyone could say anything on
- 1:32TikTok. And the loss of credibility is
- 1:34at an all time high. And you could see it in all
- 1:36spheres, like we live in Times Now where now a man who's lived
- 1:39in his mother's basement and hates women can start a podcast
- 1:42about knowing about women and how you should treat them.
- 1:44And people will still listen. Like, where are the credentials?
- 1:47And obviously, this isn't some elitist BS, but you have to have
- 1:50some sort of experience or at least education or
- 1:52apprenticeship to know how to do certain jobs or else you end up
- 1:55with the slap of information that we've been getting.
- 1:57And this goes for any news topic, kind of like that
- 1:59discourse that was happening a while ago about influencer
- 2:01interviews for, like, movie press junkets or like, red
- 2:04carpets, where they would ask insane, boring or just generally
- 2:07inappropriate questions. And to that I say, yeah, no duh,
- 2:10that happened because a lot of them aren't journalists.
- 2:12Some of them are and some of them are very teeth, but the
- 2:14majority of people taking those jobs at that time were not
- 2:16journalists or have any experience doing that sort of
- 2:19thing. Like that's a whole profession.
- 2:21And it just feels like a few things are happening right now
- 2:23that definitely inform each other.
- 2:24For one, namely the public court of TikTok opinion.
- 2:26The whole making of a spectacle public opinion has been a thing.
- 2:30I mean, just think of the tabloids back in the day.
- 2:31But now what we have is a whole slew of opinions readily
- 2:35accessible right in the palm of our hands.
- 2:37And no shade, usually these opinions are a little lackluster
- 2:40in the nuance department. And then we have that combo with
- 2:42the fact of just general LAX fact checking coming both from
- 2:45the individual and large scale social media companies.
- 2:48I mean sure when people want to doom scroll and or brain rot I
- 2:51guess you won't pull out the academia in you and look up
- 2:54every single thing you see. But when it comes to fact based
- 2:56information I wouldn't take what we see online specifically on
- 2:59TikTok and Instagram too seriously.
- 3:01Because these platforms are seriously biased, skewed, and as
- 3:04we've seen time and time again, rage bait is really the currency
- 3:07to farm engagement. Which of course in turn creates
- 3:10profitability regardless of how factual the information actually
- 3:13is or as ridiculous as it is. Which is why the onus is on us
- 3:16as the viewer to really have this due diligence or really
- 3:18consider how seriously we take the things we may see online.
- 3:21And of course, we can have this conversation without also
- 3:23talking about how creators must take accountability before
- 3:25posting. Like asking yourself, is what
- 3:27you're posting actually insight? Or just adding more gasoline to
- 3:30the untamable fire. And like, I get it, especially
- 3:33if this is your livelihood. I understand why we creators
- 3:35engagement bait. But also like, we can have
- 3:37standards for what we create. We don't have to give in to the
- 3:40gossip. Talk of it all, the Mr. Beast
- 3:42vacation, if you will, of content creation.
- 3:44At least I hope. Now for the companies out there,
- 3:46I'm sure you thought you got away from this, but you most
- 3:48definitely did not. Miley what's good?
- 3:51Miley, what's good these companies are profiting heavily
- 3:55off of our engagement and our attention.
- 3:57So obviously they don't care as much as long as there's watch
- 3:59time, views, likes, comments, etcetera.
- 4:02Our attention stank online is all that matters.
- 4:04So morality or public responsibility are clearly
- 4:07nowhere insight. And we've previously seen this
- 4:09when platforms like Twitter or Meta gave us and then promptly
- 4:12removed fact checkers as well as flagging content as bias.
- 4:15Yeah, pointing out their own carelessness with what content
- 4:18gets propagated in by who? Like having Trump's account
- 4:21always get flag for misinformation probably wasn't
- 4:23the best look for them, but all that was definitely shooting
- 4:25themselves in the foot. So like, notice how those things
- 4:27just don't exist anymore, or at least not in the same way as
- 4:30they were initially intended, right?
- 4:32What I mean to say is that all of this is to their benefit that
- 4:34people spread fear mongering, misinformation, enragement,
- 4:38especially when our administration fits that
- 4:40demographic of spreading that kind of content.
- 4:42And now I know y'all hate to hear me coming around with my
- 4:45inconvenience feel, so I'll keep it short for this one.
- 4:48At the end of the day, the night if you will, it takes time and
- 4:50effort to have a well informed opinion.
- 4:52And it's convenient to believe that the creators that you come
- 4:55across in your manicured tailored algorithm will
- 4:57automatically give you that. Because it really would be
- 4:59tiring to have to do your research on everything,
- 5:01especially with as much as we got going on in the world.
- 5:03But also at the same time, we do have to not have as punitive of
- 5:07of an opinion on everything as we do, which we're going to
- 5:10touch on shortly. Now, as I've alluded to, a large
- 5:12part of this is due to the rise of anti intellectualism.
- 5:16And I have a video talking about that extensively.
- 5:18So if you want to know more about that, you should
- 5:19definitely go check out that video.
- 5:20But one third thing about the rise of anti intellectualism and
- 5:23mis and disinformation has definitely created is the new
- 5:26culture that we now see in comment sections, specifically
- 5:29in TikTok comment sections. Someone commented being like,
- 5:32oh, you like lesbians now because last year you were a
- 5:33lesbian hater. I was like diva.
- 5:35I have had to make a conscious effort to talk about lesbians
- 5:37left. That's because I'm concerned
- 5:38that it's getting weird for a good run there.
- 5:41I was like getting parasocial. Who are you talking about?
- 5:44That is not true. And someone else saw that
- 5:45comment and replied and was like what?
- 5:47No like not him. I think what bothers me, no
- 5:49shade to the person if you're saying this.
- 5:50What bothered me was that it wasn't a question.
- 5:53It wasn't a when did this happen?
- 5:55Can you tag me in a video? Can you prove this as someone
- 5:58who's online? As a consumer, I'm like y'all
- 6:00there has to be like a healthy and holistic approach to like
- 6:02consuming social media content. The assumption that every single
- 6:06thing you see in a comment section is true is such a
- 6:08dangerous precedent to move forward with.
- 6:10And while yes, I do think that there's some bad faith actors,
- 6:13bots, whatever you want to call it, I also think that if we're
- 6:15saying that the kids can't read, I'm not necessarily trusting you
- 6:18to retell me the story because I don't know that you can spell.
- 6:21So the assumption that because we read it in a comment section,
- 6:23it's suddenly inducted into the Great American literary Lexicon
- 6:26is just a little silly to me. Now it's no secret to any
- 6:30creator or really just anyone with eyes that the comment
- 6:33sections are notoriously one hell of a place, A place where
- 6:36everyone has a strong or sometimes funny opinion.
- 6:39And it doesn't really matter if you know what you're talking
- 6:41about or not. Like, I don't know why, but like
- 6:42if you read comments, you cannot take them at face value because
- 6:45these people oftentimes are liars.
- 6:48Like specifically these people online.
- 6:49Like you are lying unprovoked for what?
- 6:51Like obviously this isn't the case 100% of the time, but like,
- 6:54why is it still a good portion of the comments?
- 6:56Like really, what happened to if you don't have anything nice to
- 6:59say, then don't say it at all. And I really do think the whole
- 7:01slander and misinformation in comments section has evolved
- 7:04with what I like to call the blue comment effects on TikTok.
- 7:07If you've ever been on TikTok, you know, like if someone
- 7:09comments a word that is highly searched, the comment turns blue
- 7:12and becomes essentially searchable and oftentimes leads
- 7:14you down a rabbit hole of a lot of other videos talking about
- 7:16the similar topic. But what's happened, at least
- 7:18culturally online is that when you now see a blue comment,
- 7:21people are now assuming that whatever that is must be true or
- 7:24at least an actual thing, even when there's nothing relevant
- 7:27that actually comes up when you click on that blue comment.
- 7:29Like literally 80% of the time I see this, the blue comment adds
- 7:31nothing new or has any course running Tik Toks.
- 7:34Or even scarier, it's one of those AI news videos, which,
- 7:37Yeah, I'm not believing that if it's the only piece of media
- 7:39referring to whatever topic. And while we're talking about
- 7:41TikTok missing disinformation, have you ever tried clicking any
- 7:44of the trending topics when you search something on TikTok?
- 7:46Like it's about 5050, whether or not you're going to get
- 7:48something actually relevant to the content attached to it.
- 7:50Either that or the trending topic happened three months ago.
- 7:53Like it's just generally really confusing because you got me to
- 7:56click on it. But like, there's no supporting
- 7:57evidence in there. So what are we doing?
- 8:00And as a little side, no, I think we need to find this
- 8:02generation's version of like Nancy Drew games, puzzles, if
- 8:05you will, Detective Mystery Media, because I think kids used
- 8:08to play that a lot more often and was honestly was a big
- 8:11reason behind why people would ask questions, gather evidence
- 8:14and put the pieces together in a logical way.
- 8:16But like, what do the kids have now?
- 8:18Like we've talked about this many times, like the kids are
- 8:20not all right. They are not writing DBQS.
- 8:22We need to bring back DBQS in education because the people
- 8:26need to re learn how to critically think, how to take
- 8:28pieces of evidence, put it together and come up with a
- 8:31logical conclusion based off of that.
- 8:33Like not just stringing together vibes to call in today.
- 8:35OK, Like it feels like we really just don't know where to
- 8:37reputable sources anymore. And that kind of leads me to
- 8:40like a side point around like Wikipedia because historically,
- 8:42at least in an academic setting, Wikipedia has always been seen
- 8:45as like a not trustworthy source or at least not a reputable
- 8:48source. And I saw a really interesting
- 8:49TikTok about that and how like specifically Wikipedia is not
- 8:52academically credible, but like in a general sense is like
- 8:55pretty credible for like the information that's being
- 8:56provided. And it's just wild to me that
- 8:58Wikipedia has become a somewhat trusted source these days.
- 9:00But like, I get it, like relative to TikTok, it is more
- 9:03trustworthy, which is wild. But the next part of this
- 9:05conversation that I wanted to talk about involves are on the
- 9:08disinformation and misinformation that circulates
- 9:10around controversial events. And I bring this up not
- 9:12necessarily fear monger, but to say that we need to be
- 9:14especially careful around controversy online nowadays,
- 9:18both now and moving into the future.
- 9:20Because y'all don't want to hear it.
- 9:21But with the rise of things like AI and generative AI videos,
- 9:25narratives can be easily spun and truth can be quickly warped
- 9:28because we've already seen the masses be tricked into believing
- 9:31AI videos as being the truth for incredibly harmless and
- 9:34innocuous things. Which also then means that we
- 9:36are susceptible to falling for things that are used for a
- 9:39little bit more malicious practices.
- 9:41I'm just going to say this plainly.
- 9:43You got to be careful about who you agree with online.
- 9:47Like what takes your agreeing with online because they can and
- 9:50will lead you down some very tricky and malicious pipelines.
- 9:56And next thing you know, like you're agreeing with things like
- 9:58you never would have thought you would agree with or believe in.
- 10:02Because with all the discourse that's going on right now with
- 10:04the DoorDash lady or Lily who was fired from DoorDash and how
- 10:08the narrative is like flipping on her, it's important to see
- 10:12like who is pushing that narrative?
- 10:15Like go, go to profiles, see who these people are and what
- 10:20generally their beliefs and takes our own things.
- 10:23Go on the comments and see the pipeline will look pretty all
- 10:29right because this is very similar to Gamergate.
- 10:32And like I said in that tic tac, we do need to be careful about
- 10:34who we're listening to and give a little extra thought as to why
- 10:37a creator or just someone posting a video would post that
- 10:40video. Like what are the intentions,
- 10:41the goals and benefits of posting something inflammatory,
- 10:44controversial, or even just socially relevant?
- 10:46Which leads me to the conversation around the cash
- 10:48grab of influencer reporting or just regular poster reporting
- 10:51slash discourse for engagement. Now obviously I'll come out
- 10:54admit it. I am a content creator, so no,
- 10:59this is not to bash on influencers.
- 11:00But of course, there are creators whose content lends
- 11:03itself better to commenting on controversial situations, as the
- 11:06lovely lady Miss Kay mentions in her video.
- 11:08In situations like this one is how you guys consume it, and I
- 11:12really want you to pay attention to a lot of the creators making
- 11:16videos with really strong decided opinions based on the
- 11:19evidence, as if they're litigators or defense attorneys.
- 11:22You know, the people making a ton of views off of this topic,
- 11:26what kind of content they make because you want to know what a
- 11:29lot of them are. They're true crime podcasters.
- 11:32They're gossip bloggers. They're New age gossip bloggers.
- 11:36Quite a few of them are TikTok mediums.
- 11:39So I really want you guys to think about in a digital
- 11:43landscape where people for whatever reason seem to value
- 11:46above all else having a gut feeling about something being
- 11:49off, who the you're actually listening to, who you are
- 11:53letting influence your thoughts and why you enjoy so much
- 11:58partaking in these. Really morbid, weird debates
- 12:03where there really is no end goal and there is no real
- 12:06discussion or discourse. And yeah, it's true.
- 12:08Like, of course they're always going to be the gossip
- 12:10influencers, the true crime influencers, etcetera, etcetera.
- 12:12But when it comes to things that are really controversial, it's
- 12:15important to ask what value is this really bringing besides
- 12:18increased engagement? Like there are pages and
- 12:19creators whose whole niche is based on commenting and
- 12:22circulating the same regurgitated point around
- 12:24chronically online discourse, which is fine, and I'm not one
- 12:27to talk because I'd be talking about Gen.
- 12:28Z left, right and sideways. But again, it's always important
- 12:30to interrogate why they're posting the content in the way
- 12:32that they are. Because sometimes, not every
- 12:34time, but sometimes, their ways of thinking and agendas might be
- 12:38a little more nefarious than you may think.
- 12:40Meaning you need to pay attention to who you're
- 12:42listening to and letting influence how you think.
- 12:45Blindly believing something about someone because you read a
- 12:46comment about them is nuts. Like guys, we have to wake it
- 12:50up. This is a comment I got from
- 12:52this woman. I'm gonna read what she said and
- 12:53I'll show you on the screen, she says.
- 12:54I like your takes, but I don't know about this one.
- 12:56When I say, can you elaborate? She says, oh, wait, I actually
- 13:00rewatched, read some of the comments, understood what you
- 13:02were saying. I saw a video just before this
- 13:04one. Wanted to get clarity because
- 13:05your takes are usually good. Context is key.
- 13:08I say, yeah, I think I know the video.
- 13:09They removed a lot of context. I was very specific, not to
- 13:11mention gender, because I wanted to make sure she knew.
- 13:14She goes, yes, she did. I work so hard to make these
- 13:18discussions as nuanced as I can, to try and make them generous
- 13:21and careful and precise. I don't always get it right.
- 13:24I don't. And I know that.
- 13:25And I probably could have chosen better words for the Linguistics
- 13:271 I did the other day, quite ironically.
- 13:29But if you're going to take my words, if you're going to RIP
- 13:31them apart and add to them and feed them back into the
- 13:34algorithm with no context, just know that not only are you
- 13:36misrepresenting me, you're a liar.
- 13:39You're a liar and A and a bad person.
- 13:41You're a bad person and you're and you're ruining a space with
- 13:44me and my audience that it's about having meaningful.
- 13:47Conversation, and I know I get it, it's hard to want to
- 13:50critically think in a time when everything is just siphoning
- 13:52your energy. But unfortunately or fortunately
- 13:55we have to if we want to remain well informed people.
- 13:57So please, next time you see some drama on TikTok, sometimes
- 14:00it is as simple as just watching the full video that's being
- 14:02stitched before leaving a comment or just blindly
- 14:05believing what's being said. Like even in this example,
- 14:06notice how people in the comments of the video are people
- 14:09apologizing because they believed a video stitch that
- 14:11clipped what this guy was saying.
- 14:13Like it's unfortunate, but sometimes people have malicious
- 14:15or at least just uninformed intent.
- 14:17Sometimes, like you have to have your wits about you.
- 14:19You have to practice media literacy and don't blindly
- 14:21believe everything that you hear and let that inform your own
- 14:23opinion. And again, I don't say that in
- 14:25like a conspiracy. You can't believe everything
- 14:26that you hear away. But just like in a general, like
- 14:28there is a rise of misinformation and you should be
- 14:31doing the due diligence to make sure what you're saying, what
- 14:33you're talking about is sound and actually based in reality.
- 14:35And unfortunately when it comes to that previous video, it's not
- 14:38just a one off situation. Especially on platforms like
- 14:40Tick Tock, it is so common to have people click the fuck
- 14:43people say and intentionally misconstrue the point that's
- 14:45actually trying to be made. And again, as a viewer, the
- 14:47probability of actually going to find the original video and
- 14:50watching the whole thing if it's not immediately there, well,
- 14:53let's be honest here. And that brings me to the whole,
- 14:56oh, I knew they were ever since they did this, this being one
- 14:59thing that never actually happened.
- 15:01So I just had to unfollow. Still actively following and
- 15:03engaging with all the content. Like this whole phenomenon just
- 15:06really does me in because like, this is the final boss of
- 15:08comment misinformation. Because beyond the whole cash
- 15:11grab, the Adsense, the creator fund of it all, this is just the
- 15:14grift. Like we're having times that
- 15:16where influencers and content creators are intentionally
- 15:18forgoing the responsibility as storytellers to ensure what
- 15:21they're saying is substantiated and true.
- 15:23Like we got to bring back citing your sources.
- 15:25Y'all worried about media literacy?
- 15:26You need to be worried about how you on the Internet with people
- 15:29who have never done DBQS before. There are more Internet who
- 15:32don't know what a DBQ is. A document based question like
- 15:36these don't even know. They also don't know what a
- 15:39primary source, secondary or tertiary sources and they don't
- 15:42know how to choose in between. They don't know which one is
- 15:44which. They also cannot tell you what a
- 15:47credible sources or what makes a source credible.
- 15:49They have never made an annotated bibliography a day in
- 15:51their freaking life. Media literacy.
- 15:55These aren't literate. Like.
- 15:57I don't know what to say. Like the media?
- 16:01These these these. Can't read an article and figure
- 16:04out if the source is credible or not or where did they come from.
- 16:06They are not literate like they're not literate.
- 16:10Like aside from the cash grab from the attention and
- 16:12engagement, as if money wasn't enough of a factor, what else do
- 16:15these creators or just people who are posting online gain from
- 16:18creating? Well, again, a lot of y'all
- 16:20don't like me saying this, but a lot of this content, especially
- 16:22the more grifty content, is skewed, whether intentionally or
- 16:25not, to funnel people down different pipelines and usually,
- 16:28oftentimes the alt right one. Like for example, let's start
- 16:30with something fairly recent. We're talking about the DoorDash
- 16:32situation and its similarities to things like Gamergate.
- 16:35All right, quick rundown and again, do your own due diligence
- 16:37here because I'm not getting into the weeds of it.
- 16:39But the DoorDash situation that was recently in the zeitgeist
- 16:41and of course sparked a lot of discourse basically started off
- 16:44when a woman went to drop off a DoorDash order and the man who
- 16:47ordered said DoorDash order had his door open.
- 16:50And of course, the discourse around this is to what degree
- 16:53the door was open where he was laying partially naked inside.
- 16:55And the woman who recorded this made a whole video on tech talk
- 16:57about this experience, saying that she was assayed.
- 16:59And in response, DoorDash deactivated her account because
- 17:01it violated their terms to share private customer information.
- 17:04And as a result of this, Internet erupted into arguments
- 17:06about the intentions of the man, the ethics of her recording him
- 17:09in his home, and the semantics of her using the term SA over
- 17:13things like SH or whatever. Like regardless of horrific
- 17:16experience nonetheless. And at least for me with that
- 17:17situation, it was wild seeing people be like, yeah, he
- 17:20shouldn't have flashed or committed indecent exposure when
- 17:23he himself ordered a person to drop off food at his door, but
- 17:26she should have taken it to the Internet and that's her fault.
- 17:28And they are both equally at fault.
- 17:29I got to understand how those two things are these same thing.
- 17:32Like again, I'm not getting into the weeds, but I think that like
- 17:34he definitely should not have done that knowing that he
- 17:36ordered food, but like her coming online and sharing her
- 17:38experience deserve the same level of punitive judgment and
- 17:41that makes it both their fault. I don't know.
- 17:43Anyways, like we all know how convoluted the DoorDash
- 17:45situation got in every opinion and hateful remark that has
- 17:48already been made on it already. But for this and a lot of other
- 17:50things, we do got to think a lot bigger than the program guys.
- 17:52Like, for example, why did the public opinion immediately turn
- 17:55on a woman over semantics? Like I've all seen people in the
- 17:57comments be like, he has a criminal record and she has a
- 17:59criminal record or she opened the door.
- 18:01Like things that are just like not in the video or accessible
- 18:03information. And it's not under just one
- 18:05video. It's different people under
- 18:07multiple videos. Like where did you all get this
- 18:09information from? And the reason I bring this up
- 18:11at all is because it reminds me a bit of the 2014 game Brigade
- 18:13situation, which was an online harassment movement to display
- 18:16women and diversity in the gamer world, mostly targeting actors,
- 18:19journalists, game developers, women, and BIPOC who are in the
- 18:22positions of creation in the field.
- 18:24During this era there was insane online harassment for merely
- 18:27existing in the space. These people got docs, death
- 18:29threats and just severe online bullying where to this day if
- 18:32you look up some of the victims, some subreddits still try to be
- 18:35like Oh yeah. She's she's a bit.
- 18:38So like that level of hate's deserved right?
- 18:40Which I think is just people trying to justify their actions.
- 18:43And it's hard to believe most of what was read because a lot of
- 18:46it is skewed. Especially when the majority of
- 18:48people that were impacted by Gamergate did nothing except
- 18:50want to be in gaming spaces. And obviously in this case, this
- 18:53is in cell behavior and their reaction to someone other than
- 18:56themselves being in this space created or at least contributed
- 18:59to the alt right pipeline crying the forced diversity of the new
- 19:03trilogy. Almost 40 years, we've taken one
- 19:06kind of person and made them the center of the world and catered
- 19:10to their every single whim and not really represented other
- 19:14people. So as we're having, you know,
- 19:17societal change where we're showing other kinds of people as
- 19:20the heroes. There are a lot of people that
- 19:22generally they feel like something has been stolen from
- 19:25them. They directed their anger at
- 19:27Kelly Marie Tran, the first woman of color to hold a major
- 19:31on screen role in the Star Wars franchise.
- 19:33A lot of fans who kind of had. Racist and sexist inclinations.
- 19:38We're able to band. Together and drive her off.
- 19:40Social media platforms. And these two moments have a
- 19:42very similar vibe to them because it's the wave of people
- 19:44spreading hateful rhetoric about women and essentially rage
- 19:47baiting the public into thinking that these women committed a
- 19:49horrific catastrophe. The theme here being that the
- 19:52punishment is not fitting the crime, even in some of the cases
- 19:54where a crime was not committed at all.
- 19:56These situations really show that people do not care to find
- 19:58out real information. They just want to reason.
- 20:00They hate women and people of color, so they're going to do
- 20:02it. And that sort of leads me down
- 20:03the pipeline around the trickiness of TikTok and other
- 20:06social media platforms and accidentally agreeing.
- 20:08Someone who wants your existence eradicated.
- 20:10Now what I mean by this, and I'll go back to the DoorDash
- 20:12situation. For this, is there a mass
- 20:14amounts of people reposting and agreeing with takes on the
- 20:16situation for people who had a long history of spouting either
- 20:19incorrect or just generally offensive takes or just
- 20:21generally believing in things completely in contrast with most
- 20:24viewers values. Like again, you also have to do
- 20:26your due diligence when you agree with a take, because sorry
- 20:28to tell you that take could just be a dog whistle to get you to
- 20:31agree with more progressively sinister takes.
- 20:34And for this, I'm not saying that you can never agree with
- 20:36people with different values or views than you, but if the
- 20:38person you're now suddenly agreeing with has a long history
- 20:40of making problematic or bad takes, then it's the answer
- 20:44reason that more than likely their take on the situation that
- 20:46you agree with also has a problematic skew.
- 20:48Like they could technically be in alignment with your opinion,
- 20:51but for the wrong reasons. Like for example, going back to
- 20:53that viral Mehdi Hassan Jubilee video that we covered a while
- 20:56ago where there were literal white nationalists and outright
- 20:58people agreeing that Palestine should be free.
- 21:00But like not because they actually cared about the labs of
- 21:02Palestinian people. They just don't believe that
- 21:03Jewish people should exist at all because they're so into
- 21:06white superiority, white Christianity.
- 21:07So essentially just straight over antis.
- 21:09Dramatic. So yeah, technically you're both
- 21:11fighting for the same thing, wanting a free Palestine.
- 21:13But like the reasonings behind why you want a free Palestine
- 21:16are completely different and lead to completely different
- 21:19outcome, which again, I can't believe I have to know.
- 21:20But also like, supporting a free Palestine is not inherently
- 21:23anti-Semitic. I just want to put that out
- 21:24there. But again, this is all to say,
- 21:26be careful who you're listening to and who you're agreeing with.
- 21:28And it's annoying and inconvenient, but important that
- 21:30you do that due diligence. And I know at this point you may
- 21:32be asking Rumi, what don't we have to look out for online?
- 21:35And truly, I wish I could tell you that That's it.
- 21:37Just watch out for the grifters, watch out for the misleading
- 21:39comments, the misleading stitches.
- 21:41But I figure there is another thing and that has to do with
- 21:43the sheer amount of inauthentic content online.
- 21:46Meaning the bots in comment sections spouting the same
- 21:49rhetoric over and over to try and sway public opinion.
- 21:52And this is actually a more modern and malicious tool called
- 21:55astroturfing. Like I don't know if you saw the
- 21:57new Superman movie where they had like the bunch of monkeys
- 21:59that were just typing hate comments over and over again.
- 22:02So many people think that the public sentiment was that
- 22:04everyone hates Superman, but like that's actually real.
- 22:06That actually happens. Maybe not like the monkeys part
- 22:08but the the whole point of astroturfic is to make discourse
- 22:10around anything seem like the majority opinion is swaying a
- 22:12certain way or not which is a form of disinformation.
- 22:15Like most of the comments if you go to different comment sections
- 22:17about similar discourse will read the exact same and the
- 22:20accounts don't seem to be actual people which really makes you
- 22:24wonder. Like if the Internet right now
- 22:25is filled with fake influencers, fake video receipts, fake
- 22:28comments and fake engagement. Like how much of the Internet is
- 22:31actually real anymore? The Dead Internet theory is a
- 22:33speculative theory that claims that most of what we see on the
- 22:37Internet social media posts are comments, isn't coming from real
- 22:40humans, but is actually coming from bots and AI systems.
- 22:43Originally when the theory was invented in like 2021, it was
- 22:46referring to bots in systems of engagement on the Internet.
- 22:50So think like likes, comments, reposts, kind of like a ghost
- 22:54audience faking virality. But now with AI, the scope of
- 22:58the Dead Internet theory has now expanded to include not just the
- 23:01engagement being fake, but the actual content itself.
- 23:04Last week we saw the release of Soro 2, the most realistic
- 23:06lifelike AI video generator with deep fakes literally built in as
- 23:11a feature. Wild choice.
- 23:14And so of course, everyone's wondering how long until my
- 23:17entire feed and the entire Internet is just filled with
- 23:21this. And when it comes to the dead
- 23:22Internet theory, this theory has been around for a while now.
- 23:24Like it's the idea that all engagement likes, comment,
- 23:27shares, what have you maybe bot created or bot farm.
- 23:29Like I feel like there was a time where people would like
- 23:31ironically buy bots for like their friends to like boost
- 23:33their followers on Instagram just to piss people off.
- 23:35But in more recent times, especially considering where AI
- 23:38this is extended to also include bot AI created content.
- 23:42So it posits that soon all content or at least the majority
- 23:45of content online will soon be AI manufactured and will
- 23:48eventually outweigh human made content.
- 23:51Essentially making social media kind of pointless if you think
- 23:53about it. Which is like a giant sidebar.
- 23:55I hope if that does happen, this leads to the resurgence of
- 23:58physical media. Because if it gets to the point
- 24:00where like we can no longer trust social media with the
- 24:02giant AI content fatigue of it all, it would be nice to hold
- 24:05our trust and just our general entertainment in the real
- 24:08physical 3D space. Like you know, things are
- 24:10getting better where there are now AI bot commentators.
- 24:13On a major level, people are making videos and content and
- 24:16the AI is just kind of downloading that video,
- 24:19transcribing it and then generating a fake person and
- 24:21then another fake video in the background.
- 24:23By the way, if you do notice, those last two clips had two
- 24:25different videos in the background and then even the
- 24:28train one was different from the original one that I had showed
- 24:30you. So they're also now generating a
- 24:32fake video of that in the background and you really can't
- 24:34tell the difference. Not only are they like, you
- 24:36know, stealing content, farming, whatever, and you know, now
- 24:38this, this account has 200,000 likes from the ceiling content.
- 24:41Sure, whatever. Think about the fucking
- 24:43implications of what you just saw.
- 24:45You can go search up those creators and see people
- 24:47stitching them as if they're real creators.
- 24:49Now the content is real for now, but even the content, there's AI
- 24:53generated. How long until they bring up
- 24:55some bullpit that never. Happened like keep your arm out
- 24:58about people stitching a video only shaking their head to it
- 25:00and like pointing to it. Like just get ready for the wave
- 25:02of people's content and thoughts being stolen by of odds.
- 25:06According to this Futurism article, a little over 50% of
- 25:08articles online are AI created, which they are framing as a
- 25:11positive because that percentage is plateauing and hopefully it
- 25:14stays like that. But like that's still half of
- 25:17the Internet articles just being AI slot.
- 25:19Like that's just not. And like considering how wrong
- 25:23Google Gemini be getting people's searches, I just don't
- 25:26even want to think about the levels of misinformation that's
- 25:28being spread right now for real. And again, I just want to echo
- 25:30what I said earlier in this video over being careful around
- 25:32this next stage of the Internet because as we see the rise of
- 25:34AI, we are going to see the fall of actual proof.
- 25:38We're going and have a harder time deciphering what is real
- 25:39and what is not. Like if Sam Altman, the CEO of
- 25:41Open AI, is allowing people to use his likeness in all types of
- 25:45AI, like Sora videos, how will we be able to tell what he or
- 25:48any of us have or have not actually done?
- 25:50OK, OK, enough of the doom and gloom.
- 25:52It's time we actually talk about some solutions, some positive
- 25:54things like what we can do now in a time of mass missing
- 25:57disinformation. There are some things that we
- 25:59can do individually to help combat this.
- 26:01And I decided to make a little listicle.
- 26:03You know, we all love a little top five, don't we?
- 26:06So here are five ways to use discernment and critical
- 26:08thinking. And of course, while the system
- 26:09is quite obviously flawed and there are powers greater than
- 26:12individuals behind these forces, we can use our attention and our
- 26:15due diligence as a consumer or as a creator of content to avoid
- 26:18spreading misinformation, fear mongering, and just general
- 26:21hateful chronically online behavior.
- 26:23OK, with that said, you ready for the top five?
- 26:24OK, starting off #1 do not take content at face value,
- 26:28especially if it's shaping your opinion on something.
- 26:31Like if you don't care about the topic, that's fine, whatever.
- 26:33But like, if you repost or share a video, watch for one, the full
- 26:37video and two, the full of whatever is being stitched or
- 26:39talked about. Get the contacts and don't just
- 26:42listen to one side #2 We have to remember that we're neither a
- 26:45judge or the jury, but we sure all want to act like we're going
- 26:49to be the executioner. Like there is some discourse
- 26:51that we just don't need to participate in Peru.
- 26:53And it's important to remember that for some things, we can
- 26:55just log off #3 Now I know you aren't going to like #3 but #3
- 27:00check your sources. Even if it's something as simple
- 27:02as clicking the blue comment on Tiktok to see if people are
- 27:05actually talking about something or if there is some real
- 27:08validity to whatever the blue comment is highlighting.
- 27:10And if something you're flooding in that just really isn't
- 27:12sitting right with your spirit, Google it.
- 27:15Like, at least just to see if this is something real.
- 27:17But like, in such a real and raw way, let's not forget the
- 27:20ancient texts of actually checking reliable sources.
- 27:22Like, we love a primary source. A secondary source is fine.
- 27:25Tertiary. Get on that, Google girl.
- 27:28And for those of us that they need a refresher for what those
- 27:30things actually are, I know I definitely did before making
- 27:32this video, here's good old protu to give us some refresher
- 27:35tips. Bringing it back to old high
- 27:36school #4 remember to consider if the content you're viewing is
- 27:40actually real, an ad manufactured, or if it's just
- 27:44generally worth your attention. And finally, but not most
- 27:46importantly #5 something to leave you off with.
- 27:48If you catch yourself agreeing to something where other people
- 27:50or other bots taking your side or being hella hateful, racist,
- 27:54misogynist, homophobic, or any of the other isms or is,
- 27:57consider that you may not be on right side of history.
- 27:59And if that's on your team, find some additional context to
- 28:01consider if people are saying things that they can't back up
- 28:03because we're no longer in the times that we old and you don't
- 28:06need to be a part of a witch hunt.