And we’re in Sunday again. Last week I shared my plans for a hard reset. My routine is like half way there. I’m working, but also watching so many movies :P Not too good, not too bad. It’s a decent start.

Today was a long day. I woke up at 5 to volunteer for a marathon and the rest of the day was spent watching the Champions Trophy finals. Not a dime into Cricket but family time is always welcome ;)

What have I been thinking lately? Oh yes, social media is doomed!

Couple of days ago I was looking to learn AI, because why not. I opened up my YouTube app and typed “Learn AI in one year”. How can something that advanced take any less than that I mean… Here are some of the search results I got:

Most of the first few hundred results are strikingly similar. I want you to notice a pattern here:

1. Look at the thumbnails — all are made in the same format. The person in the middle with 4-5 logos in the background.

2. So many of these videos have “if I could start over” in the title.

3. Some of these YouTubers are making back-to-back videos on the same topic — AI roadmap or guides. Like Ishan makes a video on the topic every couple of months.

4. I wrote one year, so these results. Otherwise videos teaching AI in one month do exist.

Why though? Well because they happen to be experienced creators who know how to analyze trends and optimize their videos according to what will generate the maximum views. And AI is currently the sweetest ice-cream in the market and somehow everybody wants a scoop of it. Supply-demand :)

The beauty of it all is that none of these creators know anything about AI themselves. Their content is mostly the same, basic, ripped off of a few hours of research (hopefully).

I was disappointed. Anything that is in trend usually pushes me further away even if I’m curious. And these days everything is based on trends. Either everyone is talking about it, or no one is. Last year it was crypto, now it is AI, next year it’ll be something else.

A major cause of the problem is how social media algorithms work. I feel that they’re getting worse and worse at showing relevant content. All they care about is whether you’d click the video or not. Doesn’t matter whether it’s good or relevant. Any platform you use, YouTube or Instagram or Twitter, you’d only find click-baity and dopamine hitting content.

People would scroll through hundreds of reels without breaking a sweat. And they will remember maybe one or two of it. With mixed up memory from a political video merged into a standup act. And that too completely irrelevant to their lives. What’s worrisome is that this kind of short-form, contextless content has become the primary source of information for the majority of us.

We are losing patience. We are losing interest. We rarely indulge in hobbies now. We don’t even want entertainment. All we want is distraction from life. We want to turn off our brains, even if it’s for a few minutes.

This is gonna get worse. It is bound to get worse. AI tools have already commoditized content, and with the emergence of VR and AR headsets, we’re super close to losing the track of reality itself. Brace for impact!

🤔 Makes me wonder

How about a subtle call to quit social media? Or maybe to use it a bit more mindfully?

💭 Aphorisms

Thank you for reading my ramblings on such a random subject. I didn’t have much time to refine it but I hope you could relate. Either way, you can let me know by replying to this email or commenting on the website :)

I’ll catch you next week,
Aachman