Good afternoon, everyone. I’ve got something a bit different today. There’s nothing really worthwhile in this post – just some things that I find extremely funny.
And then some stuff that isn’t.
Let’s begin.
A Journey to the Heart of My Spam Inbox
A few nights ago, I cracked open my spam folder for the first time in… well, months, at least. Not sure why, really. It was pretty late, and the memory is a bit hazy.
Nevertheless, while I was there – lost in a sea of solicitations and advertisements for mini-golf outlets I hadn’t visited in a decade – one message caught my eye. Not an ad, nor a request, but a… “Reply”. From “Susan”.
I know what a phishing attempt is. I’m not stupid.
But I’m also a bit curious. So I opened the thing.
…huh. Spam? Absolutely. But at least it’s polite about it. Whatever.
So, I close the email, look down and see… another. This one from “Stephanie”.
I DON’T THINK THESE ARE REAL PEOPLE, IN CASE THAT PART WASN’T CLEAR
There’s something about this type of spam mail that my brain finds really funny. Not even trying to fake a link, or an introduction, or anything – just trying to gaslight you into being mid-conversation about an art gallery. 10/10 attempt. No notes.
Most of the scam messages I get on my social medias tend to be offering or asking for… something? Anything? So this (presumably AI) writer failing to include a point is weirdly refreshing.
At this point, I was thinking “how many of these are in my inbox right now?” and tabbed back out. And lo: there was another. This one from “Elizab-“
“KIMBERLY.”
Hi Kimberlizabeth. Nice to meet you. Amazing.
I was reaching the end at this point, but there was one more, from a “kriss scott”. At this point, they’ve got a pattern developing, with a short message, sometimes almost resembling an actual conversation.
So, what did “kriss” have to say?
Oh. Oh wow. Resonances. Cool.
…
I find this really damn funny. And I’d find it even more funny if this stuff weren’t taking over every goddamn corner of the internet.
This Stuff is Taking Over Every Goddamn Corner of the Internet*
Look, I’m not a data scientist, and have no substantial evidence that this stuff is increasing, aside from my own experiences. Hence the asterisk. That said: Since the initial tremors of the AI boom, the amount of garbage I receive on a weekly basis has grown exponentially. Not just in my inbox, but everywhere.
For example, shortly before twitter was bought out, I started consistently getting DMs from spambots – including this Australian “vtuber”:
The obvious pitfall in this phishing attempt is the fact that I’m not a Youtuber, and therefore would have no need of the fake service they’re trying to sell me on. What skeeves me out even more, though, is that this is an actual twitch channel, and the profile picture of an actual vtuber. It’s not just a faceless bot like “Susan”, it’s an impersonation of a real public figure. Gross.
Post X-ification this problem has only gotten worse. I continue to be inundated with offers for extremely above-board cryptocurrency giveaways, always involving code “ELON” or “420“. These bots have a new target audience on twitter, apparently – and haven’t figured out that I’m not it.
Tumblr is absolutely swimming in bots, too – most of which slide into your DMs to try and seduce you. Unsuccessfully.
LinkedIn is… well… LinkedIn is full of dubious job offers and promotional spam – but LinkedIn was always like that. I can’t tell how much of it is the new wave of AI garbage, really, and how much of it is just the online jobs market at work.
Basically, every platform where I try to do self-promotion is swamped in meaningless, AI-generated non-content (except for cohost, somehow). As you can imagine, for someone early in their prospective career, that feels… not great.
Meanwhile, on the IT job side of things, I’ve seen more automated phishing attempts in the last 12 months than in my entire life previously. Most of that targeting public education – because that system really needed someone else kicking it while it’s down.
It’s everywhere. And I hate it.
The Impending Age of Dysfunction
Plenty of older and smarter people than me have already observed the dangers of spam to the internet, and the decline in usefulness of services as a result. At the ripe old age of 25, there’s a good chance that the version of the internet that I grew up with in the aughts and teens might be more functional than where we’re headed – and it wasn’t that great to begin with, either!
It’s functionality that’s the crux of the issue. There’s plenty of software, sites and socials on the internet that are bloated and clunky, but manage to remain a standard part of people’s lives. All that matters, at the end of the day, is that they’re good for their intended purpose.
In 2023, I’d say that a sizeable portion of the services I use in my day-to-day life became worse on that front. Across social media, game development tools, etc. – there was a recurring theme of opening up changelogs that made me go:
“…Eww.”
-and I know I’m not the only one.
“Social media looks to be the lead tool for game marketing, as half of respondents (50%) said they frequently use social media in marketing (versus 46% for word of mouth). But social media hasn’t been without its challenges. With the ever-changing social landscape, developers were asked to share what platforms they use to promote their games…”
“Even though Twitter/X remains the dominant social media platform for developers, it doesn’t mean they’re happy about it. When respondents explained how their use of social media marketing has changed in the past year, 97% of the ones who mentioned Twitter/X expressed negative views about the platform (according to an analysis from our partners at Omdia).”
GDC – 2024 State of the Game Industry
Like phone lines before it, the part of the internet that I inhabit is entering an era of dysfunction, their utility smothered under the weight of corporate mergers, bizarre direction changes, and a tsunami of low-effort, high-volume scam content. Online services are not succumbing to sudden, explosive ends – though in cases like Twitter that might feel almost preferable at times. Instead, they trudge onward, waist-deep in a quagmire of their own making, serving the same vital purposes as ever – now with a rank, festering aura about them. Interactions with them remain a constant, albeit with an increased amount of nose-pinching on society’s part.
This is – to put it simply – not good. It doesn’t exactly forecast the best things for the near-future, either. So… what’s to be done?
…
I dunno ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
There are plenty of people far more knowledgeable (and influential) than I who are better equipped to answer that question. I am, ultimately, just an end user in this situation, meaning my only option is to complain and hope things get better.
Or find another tool for the job. Or both!
However, there’s one thing that I’ve found worth remembering, in the face of massive, seismic shifts in the tech spaces:
This is All Very Stupid.
Many of my closest friends in the world are artists, and over the last year or two many of them have found trends in tech to be… depressing. Which they are. I’d never seek to detract from anyone’s fears about their online safety, nor threats to livelihoods. These things are important.
That said, I feel it’s also important to remember that not all bad things are done with competence. In fact, many of them border on buffoonery, and their executors deserve to be pointed out and laughed at.
While its presence is most certainly unwanted, a scam bot deciding to try and sell herring fillets under a Tumblr post about Our Flag Means Death is, objectively, a very funny thing to do.
Likewise, attempting to save costs by replacing human jobs is bad, sure. But, doing so with a machine that demands more power than the earth currently produces? That’s an act bordering on Doctor Strangelove levels of absurdity.
It’s true that dismissing things that are new and different out-of-pocket isn’t exactly a great idea. But it’s good to keep in mind that – in the field of tech, especially – incompetence and evil often skirt by under the veneer of “serious innovation”. Respect changes – but only insofar as they are deserving of respect.
And when they aren’t – for the sake of your own sanity – it’s good to take a step back, and just witness the clown-car cavalcade unfolding around you.
Fin.
This was originally going to be a quick little thing about some funny emails I found in my spam inbox. As I was writing it, I ended up dealing with some stuff from the I.T. job, and seeing some friends talking about garbage online. Everything kind of blended together in my head, until suddenly I was writing about my own personal philosophy for dealing with all the crap the internet threw my way in 2023.
(The word “philosophy” is doing a lot of heavy lifting there, I know.)
Is this a coherent post? I’m still not certain, having read through it. But it is, unfortunately, representative way my brain draws connections between different parts of the internet. I guess I’ll find out when it goes live, won’t I?
I’m hoping next week will be back to the standard gamedev posts. I’ve been making good headway on Doorways 9, but this idea kind of wedged itself in my brain over the weekend. That stuff is coming, I promise.
Thanks to everyone who bothered to read this – and have a good one!
…
I got another one as I was about to hit post are you kidding me
The Chep Site 
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