I teach a creative coding class at SVA and every semester I love seeing new, weird corners of the internet that my students share - but even more so, celebrating the ones that they create for their projects ❤️ Can’t wait to share playhtml with them for inspo and tooling!
I work in social media and this was such an impactful read. I saw such an influx in bot accounts in 2024 & 2025. I'm so painfully aware of it now following the news of the Taylor Swift smear campaign fueled by bot accounts.
I have hope for the internet. It's brought a secondary area for life, joy, and expansion beyond our every day lives. I hope that future generations have the opportunity to experience that and not be taken advantage by brainrot and doomscrolling.
Loved the recommendations too. Thank you for sharing!
100% there's been more interest in AI-automating anything we can. In a work environment, there's always something that needs to be done. The primary driver for brands to be on social is for revenue, but what actually does well on social media captures a shared experience for connection.
I actually had a TikTok go viral to 600K views but I was bombarded by bot accounts. Common tells are the three emoji comments "❤️❤️❤️" or accounts that have no profile picture, maybe some reposts, maybe even some posts! but nothing identity forming or meaningful.
I'm also seeing how brands are using social just because everyone is on it. There's so many accounts that look like bots but are run by actual users because a brand will pay them to make organic content (Cluely is a big example of this trend).
Maybe bots are able to take over because 1. everything has turned into an ad and 2. the way to prove an ad performed well is through high views and high engagement. It's assumed that when a post has high numbers, the actual users will follow through because there's the social proof to back up the post's value.
wow thats so interesting! why do the bots engage so much? is it to make them seem real? that must be such a strange feeling to have your post go viral with not real people
You're so right. There's more to the internet than social media apps. I am guilty for completely forgetting there is a whole world wide web of cool, interesting sites. I remember before I got stuck on just the three or four main popular apps that I used to explore individual websites and have a ball. I miss that. Thank you for reminding us and linking us to new places 🤎
i like what gather has done & its experiments but i think it doesnt feel like an internet third space because it is private so you cant just wander in
and agree with you on more URL to IRL but i think there’s also a place for more URL to URL in the future as well! these kinds of global, spontaneous, pseudoanonymous encounters also can be meaningful and not mutually exclusive to more in-person community!
Yes I agree and like your html playground thing-ey. I’ve been messing around with the fridge poetry stuff as inspiration for my daughters bday https://playhtml.fun/fridge?wall=kid_birthday
I don’t think the Internet is dead in the way the theory suggests. Bots haven’t completely taken over, and you’re probably right, they never will. But I think something worse may have happened.
The Internet has become a stage where people and companies perform the versions of themselves they want to be found. It’s not where you go to see what’s real anymore; it’s where you go to see what’s optimized.
The Web didn’t die—it just became self-aware enough to curate its reflection.
but it doesn’t have to be that way! it wasn’t always about performance so the fact that its all about optimization isnt a rule its just what has emerged w the dominant tech platforms
I teach a creative coding class at SVA and every semester I love seeing new, weird corners of the internet that my students share - but even more so, celebrating the ones that they create for their projects ❤️ Can’t wait to share playhtml with them for inspo and tooling!
fantastic!! so excited to see what they make -- happy to help however i can
I work in social media and this was such an impactful read. I saw such an influx in bot accounts in 2024 & 2025. I'm so painfully aware of it now following the news of the Taylor Swift smear campaign fueled by bot accounts.
I have hope for the internet. It's brought a secondary area for life, joy, and expansion beyond our every day lives. I hope that future generations have the opportunity to experience that and not be taken advantage by brainrot and doomscrolling.
Loved the recommendations too. Thank you for sharing!
oh wow i can’t imagine how it felt to watch it from the front lines!
how does it feel to approach this problem working in social media? is there pressure to incorporate automated things?
100% there's been more interest in AI-automating anything we can. In a work environment, there's always something that needs to be done. The primary driver for brands to be on social is for revenue, but what actually does well on social media captures a shared experience for connection.
I actually had a TikTok go viral to 600K views but I was bombarded by bot accounts. Common tells are the three emoji comments "❤️❤️❤️" or accounts that have no profile picture, maybe some reposts, maybe even some posts! but nothing identity forming or meaningful.
I'm also seeing how brands are using social just because everyone is on it. There's so many accounts that look like bots but are run by actual users because a brand will pay them to make organic content (Cluely is a big example of this trend).
Maybe bots are able to take over because 1. everything has turned into an ad and 2. the way to prove an ad performed well is through high views and high engagement. It's assumed that when a post has high numbers, the actual users will follow through because there's the social proof to back up the post's value.
wow thats so interesting! why do the bots engage so much? is it to make them seem real? that must be such a strange feeling to have your post go viral with not real people
You're so right. There's more to the internet than social media apps. I am guilty for completely forgetting there is a whole world wide web of cool, interesting sites. I remember before I got stuck on just the three or four main popular apps that I used to explore individual websites and have a ball. I miss that. Thank you for reminding us and linking us to new places 🤎
you're welcome!! let me know if you find any good ones :)
Amen!
🧡
Something like gather.town comes to mind as a URL effort to build a commons in the internet
I think so that more URL to IRL pipelines are more where productive internet futures lie
i like what gather has done & its experiments but i think it doesnt feel like an internet third space because it is private so you cant just wander in
and agree with you on more URL to IRL but i think there’s also a place for more URL to URL in the future as well! these kinds of global, spontaneous, pseudoanonymous encounters also can be meaningful and not mutually exclusive to more in-person community!
Yes I agree and like your html playground thing-ey. I’ve been messing around with the fridge poetry stuff as inspiration for my daughters bday https://playhtml.fun/fridge?wall=kid_birthday
oh amazing i love that!!
🥺💗 that top left poem really hit me...
I don’t think the Internet is dead in the way the theory suggests. Bots haven’t completely taken over, and you’re probably right, they never will. But I think something worse may have happened.
The Internet has become a stage where people and companies perform the versions of themselves they want to be found. It’s not where you go to see what’s real anymore; it’s where you go to see what’s optimized.
The Web didn’t die—it just became self-aware enough to curate its reflection.
but it doesn’t have to be that way! it wasn’t always about performance so the fact that its all about optimization isnt a rule its just what has emerged w the dominant tech platforms