As a disclaimer, I’m not actually anti-AI, but tons of slop is made with it. It’s the same as those TTS Reddit reading videos from back in the day or any other shitty trend from the last 10 years.
I’m old enough to know to dismiss internet noise as vastly out of touch with the actual silent majority of internet users, so this moral panic over slop to me was just zoomers who grew up on reaction videos thinking that wasn’t slop to the folks who came before, but I was on a train, looking around, I saw like 4/5 people I could see were on their phones, watching clearly AI-generated content, on TikTok or something similar based on the UI elements, one of them even had it on speaker for some reason.
All of them seemed around my age in the mid-20s.
Thing is, I don’t really understand it, what’s the appeal? I’m not asking about being on your phone, but specifically short-form videos about nothing specific.
When I looked it up, lots of talk about addiction and dopamine loops, but I can’t relate to that, I assume this maybe has something to do with me having ADHD and the theory that my dopamine system doesn’t really work “normally”.
I tried watching TikTok before, but it definitely wasn’t stimulating for me, I got bored pretty quick. If I was on a train and really bored looking out the window listening to music, I’d whip out a Wikipedia page or read the comments on Lemmy or look up a random question on my mind.
Why? Well in my experience - text is a lot easier to consume you can consume more information faster, hence to me - it’s more stimulating. Works both ways too - It’s just easier to express yourself quickly and clearly in text than by speaking. Even typing on my phone feels a helluva lot less taxing and more stimulating than speaking/listening.
It’s not like I don’t watch videos, I do have videos on in the background sometimes when I’m tidying up or whatever, where I prefer long-form stuff so it just fades into the background and stays consistent and non-distracting. If I watch a movie it’s often something I kinda need to mentally work myself up for. I definitely wouldn’t be able to pay attention to a video playing on my phone.
So my question is - what’s so stimulating about this type of stuff in particular?
I want to hear about your experience so I can understand it better.
I’d like to understand it, because otherwise it feels like most people are weird aliens, driven by forces beyond my comprehension, and it’s not nice :(
Aside from what others are saying, I think you’re also making a mistake in interpreting people’s interest in generative AI. Most people making/using AI art aren’t looking for “good art”, they’re looking for a “good enough asset” to fufill a niche they don’t or can’t value. For example, a small buisness owner might use AI to create their logo. It won’t be good, but its only competing with what they can draw as a non-artist. It only needs to be passable, not good. Similarly, big buisnesses like it because it can create images to add visual flair, without the cost and personality of stock photos. In the same vein from the viewer perspective, they often aren’t looking for something high-quality or thought provoking (esspecially on a platform like Tik-Tok). Generally, people scrolling on Tik-Tok aren’t looking for something good, they’re looking for something mindless to distract them, thus the emphasis on mindless scrolling over guided or curated content.
Yes I understand.
But what I don’t get, is why are neurotypicals so inclined to look for “something mindless to distract them, thus the emphasis on mindless scrolling over guided or curated content.”?
That’s like the entire question no one has answered ITT.
They’re just bored.