After the craze for AI, fatigue
Since the sensational arrival of ChatGPT in the public sphere, artificial intelligence has been on everyone’s lips, on all screens. However, despite the great promises that AI holds, everything suggests that synthetic life is far from being upon us. A little over a year after the release of OpenAI’s conversational agent, our enthusiasm for large language models or image generators is likely to run out of steam. Certainly, we are now able to produce an infinite number of deepfakes and to generate plausible texts riddled with falsehoods, but we are still struggling to see what we call “artificial general intelligence” materialize.
The term “artificial intelligence” has always designated an ideal rather than a reality. By placing AI in its historical context, we note that it has gone through several repetitive periods of disinterest which have forced researchers to favor other terms to describe their activities and attract funding: machine learning, for example, or even IT. If the announced revolution did not take place, we nevertheless note that the AI technologies deployed to date contribute to widening social inequalities, just as technology is put at the service of an economic system which favors divisions. Maybe that’s what we need to worry about, not potential human extinction.
The Alpha generation arrives on the internet
The presence of those we sometimes call “iPad Kids” is now felt on the web. In 2023, the overwhelming popularity of a series of short videos known as “Skibidi Toilet” and broadcast on platforms like YouTube (36.7 million subscribers)1 and TikTok has crystallized the growing digital influence of these young Internet users born since 2010. Created by animator Alexey Gerasimov (aka DaFuq!?Boom!), this strange and wordless production features an army of humanoids with embedded ties in a toilet. The latter wage a merciless war against individuals with cameras or TVs instead of faces. My 7-year-old nephew is full of enthusiasm for these dystopian creatures which may confuse more than one person. Faced with these new kinds of cultural productions, we bet that many Internet users will start to feel old.
Critical analysis of clothing
In 2023, fashion has become a text to be deciphered rather than followed. The last year has been punctuated by a succession of sartorial aesthetics like the Barbiecorediscreet luxury or even cartoon core, a fashion confirmed by the “Big Red Boots”, these big viral red boots marketed by the American brand MSCHF and inspired by the cartoon Astro Boy. At once an internet meme, cultural object and commodity, clothing now constitutes the cornerstone of a type of cultural commentary that is extremely popular on the web. His critical analysis helps bring digital creators like Rian Phin to the forefront2 or even Lyas3, influencers who do not seek to sell us products, but rather to identify the discourses that these trends convey and which structure our world. This trend is also growing at Télé-Québec thanks to Everyone gets dresseda new show hosted by Rosalie Bonenfant in which we focus on the sociocultural significance of clothing.
The rise of parasocial journalism
You may know Gazan photojournalist Motaz Azaiza4crowned man of the year by GQ Middle East5or the Palestinian filmmaker Bisan Owda6, 25, who has become one of the faces of the resistance in Gaza. Their media coverage of the Israel-Hamas war expresses a necessity, but it is also part of the growing movement of parasocial journalism, in phase with social networks.
The intimate relationship that the world has established with the two journalists is a reflection of the bond we forge with influencers. Motaz and Bisan highlight the personal relationship they have with the events they document. On their Instagram account, the atrocities that they report at the risk of their lives are not abstract realities; they mark their flesh, starve them or draw tears from them. By sharing parts of their existence, they allow us to maintain a feeling of closeness with them. More than just readers or listeners, we thus become their followers, we follow their actions with the impression of accompanying them in their daily life. Motaz and Bisan confirm the growing rise of parasocial journalism which is embedded in social networks and puts forward a subjective and embodied narration.
The decline of the Google search engine
I’m having more and more trouble finding information on Google. Links that seem relevant to me often only appear following a jumble of advertisements and a multitude of dubious articles. This could be explained in particular by natural referencing (SEO) techniques now widely used to improve the findability of web pages. While these techniques increase the visibility of certain pages on Google, they in no way guarantee the quality of the content these pages contain. Clickbait, advertising, propaganda… everything can be optimized for the search engine, even the worst digital trash.
Therefore, some are now turning to the app TikTok to do research! Although this type of behavior is more popular among young people, I myself found myself “Googling” on TikTok. What if Google gradually stopped shaping and structuring our digital wanderings? To be continued !