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    „Rage Bait“, „6-7“ und „AI Slop“: Warum uns die Wörter des Jahres zeigen, dass sich das Internet in einer Todesspirale befindet
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    „Rage Bait“, „6-7“ und „AI Slop“: Warum uns die Wörter des Jahres zeigen, dass sich das Internet in einer Todesspirale befindet

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    1. FreeWillyBird on

      Neil Armstrong was given the commander role on Apollo 11 because he was the only astronaut to ever recover from a death spiral. And he did it in space when a thruster was stuck on his Gemini Capsule. We just need to find a Tech Neil Armstrong.

    2. imdwalrus on

      6-7, really? Like one of my friends pointed out it’s not any meaningfully different than him running around as a kid saying he needed TP for his bunghole.  Kids have ALWAYS latched onto silly things – it’s not a herald of the downfall of society like this writer seems to think.

    3. Kayge on

      Fundamentally, the internet is changing from what it was. Originally, it gave anyone who wanted to „publish“ something the means to do so. If you were a Model Train fan you’d create a BBS to share info and connect with the thousand other message boards.

      Then the web matured and someone created modeltrains.com from their livingroom and the BBS world changed. You’ve gone from 100,000 BBS sites to 10,000 websites; but they were all active and supported by users into model trains.

      Google came next and organized all the sites. Modeltrains.com was active and filled with people who knew their stuff so they ended up at the top of the search results. Someone figured out that you can make money off this google thing, so they set up ILikeTrains.com. The content is shit, but the SEO’s fantastic and they’re at the top of the search results, and we’re up slightly to 12,000 websites.

      Keeping [Modeltrains.com](http://Modeltrains.com) at the top of search results is now way too much work, it’s on page 5 now and starts to struggle. Reddit, Facebook and Wikipedia are great platforms so people migrate there, we go from 12,000 to 100.

      Wikipedia becomes ***the*** source of info on model trains, reddit and facebook are decent, but the passionate hobbyists are overwhelmed by the casual readers. There are still 100, but only 10 really matter.

      Google is now serving up info that’s no longer coming from people passionate about their hobby, so if I want to get into model trains it’s not terribly useful, so why bother going online at all?

    4. Not_suspecto on

      So there Was a context about that south park 6-7 episode, nice to know.

    5. uponloss on

      I see posts nearly every day describing ai generated content as „AI slop“ and it just makes me think its bots posting it because people dont seem to be able to think of descriptions for themselves, ive never seen it described any other way lol. Im in no way in favour of AI though

    7. SimpleGuy7 on

      Imagine a world without “smart” phones?

      Maybe then we’d have smart people??

    8. dyrin on

      Yes, the internet is in a death spiral, since eternal september. So, what’s new fellow kids?

    9. RaspberryThat6755 on

      “Words can work like maps, helping us better understand the contours of our concepts; but these new words don’t point us towards the exit, just give a higher-resolution topology of unhappiness.”

      dude is so baffled by teen slang on the internet, hes equating meme words made up by kids to the state of the internet being unfun for him. i get the argument of the internet being more centralized and dopamine motivated, but theres way more complex human issues going on the internet than meme words people are too old to get the humor of.

    10. McMacHack on

      If Marketing Firms and Advertising Firms would stop paying for clicks on videos that objectively net zero returns then it would cut down on most of the dribble. I don’t think my Seven Year Old is going to sign up for Liberty Mutual Insurance or buy a Lexus anytime soon.

    11. Logical-Let-2386 on

      The tragedy of engagement-based monetization. I think it’s catchy? 

    12. infinite_gurgle on

      I’ve heard 6-7 organically like 10 times, from 5 year olds to 70 year olds.

      Maybe it’s okay to think silly memes are funny.

    13. WhiteSkyRising on

      We deep fried memes at one point, with a single letter.

      67 is just kids being god damn hilarious and boomers boomering.

      Rage bait and AI slop are terrible though.

    14. AvailableReporter484 on

      “Bait” has been a thing online for as long as I can remember tbh. Glad to see it’s finally reached pop culture status lmao

    15. GeekFurious on

      In the 1920s, articles were predicting doom & gloom because of the crossword puzzle „addiction.“

    16. BigMax on

      I have the opposite take on 6-7.

      First… kids always have some stupid things they repeat for laughs, right? Every generation has them, they’ve been doing it for ages, so it’s not like it’s different.

      And second… it’s SO harmless! It’s not sexual like 69, it’s not drug related like 420, it’s just so arbitrary and silly, and anyone can have a silly little laugh with it.

      I see it as a little shared meme for everyone to get a giggle out of.

      Go look at those clips from basketball games where everyone under 18 goes crazy when a team scores 67 points and tell me that it’s a bad thing. How can so many people smiling and being happy about something random be bad?

    17. lordofmetroids on

      There is a 4,000 year old Sumerian tablet bemoaning the death of society and complaining that the youth no longer want to work… I think about that tablet a lot.

    19. ElChng0 on

      I barely hear about 6 7 or none at all. Seems that the algorithm like to push hard to people.

    20. chihuahuaOP on

      I think people are gullible, like a full generation of TV passive consumer throw into the internet culture. Yeah it was like throwing a lamb into a gang of wolves.

    21. nihiltres on

      IMO the problem has three main components:

      1. Primarily ad-funded platforms
      2. Algorithmic feeds over “objective” selections or ordering
      3. “Content creator” model

      The platforms enshittified your feed a long time before you realized, by moving towards models that let them decide what you see and urging you to try to “go viral” with the dangling implication that you could become famous and perhaps rich. These things are in their interest by fueling a gambling-like reward system: how many upvotes will you get this time? Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and comment! 🤮

      If something’s worth doing, you shouldn’t need to wrap it up as fucking “content”. Are you really going to make yourself into the host of a tiny reality show, competing against all the other “tiny reality shows” for a ~~pizza party~~ sip of that sweet sweet upvote juice? There’s no guarantee of an audience; you’re simping for Meta, Google, Reddit, et al. as a gig worker for mostly just … imaginary points. Slop is slop whether a machine made it or not.

      Make some art, write a story, tell a joke, document your hobbies, teach people something. Be a fucking human. I don’t even care if you use AI along the way as long as you’re genuinely attempting to make something *meaningful* and not just fodder for clout-chasing.

    22. THE_GR8_MIKE on

      It’s just morons being morons like usual.

      There is still genuine and interesting discussion on the internet. You just have to seek it out like in real life.

    23. ash_ninetyone on

      6-7 is some harmless nonsense that’ll come and go like a fad. Same way The Game did.

      Doesn’t deserve to be in the same mention as the other.

    24. Mdmrtgn on

      Dead Internet theory is no longer a theory I’m afraid. Try it, post something and wait for the random snark. Call em a bot and they either won’t respond or it’ll be some overly dramatic defensive response. I have an account that all I do is make vague comments and fish for bots.

    25. Bobobo-bobobo-bo-bo on

      I think the words of the year show more desperation in their respective organizations attempts to be relevant than ANYTHING substantive about the words themselves.

    26. Grakch on

      Reddit is the last distraction I need to get rid of. I’ve removed all other short form scrolling apps because it’s just simulated slot machines. My only concern is where I get any of my news from then. Maybe have to buy WSJ again or something along those lines.

      For instance I deleted Reddit for two days and had no idea about the shootings that happened because I don’t consume any other media besides streaming and books.

    27. SimpleGuy7 on

      Toddlers being raised on phones and tablets isn’t going to end well.

      Employees are shocked how often folks come in and buy phones for small children.

      Why have them if you just want them to sit in silence and stare at a screen all day?

      And the teens of today, yikes, and I’d be remiss not to mention the adults, what the hell is everyone talking non stop about? So important you have to look while driving, stop light?? Really, you put you and us in danger over a text?

      What a great country we’ve molded and created, as an old guy I’ll miss when it comes to a head, feel sorry for my grandkids, detached parents, detached people, no real human connections, a world of self absorbed selfish people with zero catalyst for change on the horizon.

      Good luck, remember your choices put you where you are.

      Old guys opinion.

    28. Rusalka-rusalka on

      >We have only a growing dictionary of words to describe our misery.

      Good lord this guy needs some anti-depressants.

    30. Dead-O_Comics on

      AI slop is the perfect term.

      AI ‚art‘ came along, it’s slop… It’s AI slop.

    31. jseqtor12 on

      My 6 and 16 year olds both find 67 funny. Maybe we should be happy that the monoculture is returning for kids, after years of the internet causing fragmented fandoms and niche subcultures.

    32. polkadotmcgot on

      Or maybe nothing matters and everything is a construct and we should be focusing on limiting the police state rather than the stupid drivel that pours from the mouths of babes.

      – someone who lived through the Austin Powers, Beavis & Butthead, and every Jim Carrey film era of ridiculous catch phrases

    33. think_up on

      Author needs to take a trip to /r/lostredditor because they are way too deep in their own Internet-analysis rabbit hole to understand reality.

    34. Ithirahad on

      Brain-rot journoslop about brain-rot AI slop. Death spiral indeed!

      If only they were willing and able to recognize themselves as a massive part of it.

    35. flirtmcdudes on

      Internet was ruined when every single aspect of it was monetized. It’s now ran entirely by algorithms and people abusing algorithms to make money.

    37. username_redacted on

      I resent them including “goblin mode” as an example of previous low points for these lists.

      Goblin mode is a hilarious term to describe a universal experience, which iterates on and undercuts the meathead cliche of “beast mode”. I see it as an example of the smart and funny side of the internet breaking through to the mainstream. It deserves to be lauded.

    38. keithstonee on

      Almost all content online is some form of bait for engagement. Fewer and fewer creators are actually making content that they want to make. Just look at the most popular ones this year. They’re all reactubers now. They go viral for one type of video and then run that into the fucking ground.

    39. Glad-Process-3268 on

      Well, I’m on the other side of 40 and I’m pretty sure I can still write “boobs” on a calculator if you give me a minute and some
      readers.

    41. ItsRainbow on

      I stopped caring about this when Oxford tried to claim “goblin mode”, a briefly viral phrase on Twitter and TikTok, was somehow word of the year for 2022

    42. Uncle-Cake on

      I keep hearing about the death of the internet but it reminds me of all the other things people predicted the death of, like television and rock music.

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