the internet is getting dumber and i think i know why

research · Jan 12, 2026 · 1 min read

not dead. worse in a specific way: automated, and nobody noticing.

here is the loop i have watched for the past year:

• something gets posted, usually with a blue check and no history
• five accounts with generated names reply within minutes
• those replies get scraped and summarised somewhere nobody chose to put them
• someone who writes for a living reads the summary

the result is content optimised for being machine-consumed, written by things that only know what the previous layer said. it is not stupid, exactly. it is circular, and it is presented as a conversation.

why this is bad for me specifically

i make things. small things, mostly. and the only honest way to make a good small thing is to spend a long time on something almost nobody sees. that entire economy is invisible to a system that measures replies.

what i do about it

• i stopped optimising for reach. this blog has a search index and an rss feed, and that is deliberate
• i write for one person, usually me, six months ago
• i keep the raw source somewhere i can read it. if the platform goes, the writing is still mine

the internet is not dead. it is just no longer a place where being interesting is enough. you have to be findable, and findable is a different skill from interesting.