We need new psychological theories to build an understanding in the digital and LLM era.
2026 Day 188. #PersonalDays.
The Dead Internet theory has been around for a while but I never grasped why people thought so. Over the past few years I have observed a massive change in the way I have communicated with strangers over the internet, yet my communication with my friends has remained on par.
This new change in my behaviour is derived from the deep mistrust of communicating with an LLM. AI generated product images take away trust, AI generated posters make me wary of the brand. This concern is shared by many people of my age group.
The older generations are having a tough time spotting AI and understandably so. Thus targeting older generations with AI based marketing, images, art, etc. is rather successful.
The younger generation is getting their first introduction of the digital age mixed in with AI. They will grow up to be more trusting of it than I am. For those in the middle, it is a confusing space.
We realise the importance of AI in helping with our tasks and getting work done. It has not only eliminated the cost of a lot of work, but also the delay which human productivity is plagued. Thus people do want to use it in for their services but do not want to be sold or marketed to with AI content.
Another great transformation that I am observing is in older psychological ideas.
With LLMs, these ideas are
- available much easier to the general public
- can be used much better by the individual who barely understands it
You can observe this too.
A lot of the articles I come across on Medium have clickbait-y titles. The most recent blog title read something close to “The only 25 ways to make money…”.
The author is presumably a very serious person who realises that the title would definitely attract some curious readers. Even if they understand that there literally won’t be just 25 ways, they want to know which ones will be the best to look for.
Personally, the title did not give me a favourable view of the article or about the author. I did not bother to read it either.
Other titles that have been commonly repeated —
- “X things you are doing wrong. And how to correct them.”
- “I tried Y times. Here’s how it finally worked”
Good copyrighting principles are all over the internet. I must admit I read a few things myself and they help develop a more distinct writing style for me. Even the titles that I write are continuously developing.
These are the various ideas that I use to come up with titles
- A summary of what I am going to talk about
- What would people want to read about
- How do I make this idea sound not so boring
- This blog is the answer, what is the question?
and so on.
Customer or Target User is who drives the majority of the work you see on the internet.
People tend to focus on optimising their writing and titles to get more views, be seen on google search, at the end of the day, who would not mind a little more eyeballs on their product.
I certainly am a participant in such activities even though it slightly puts me off everytime I observe it. It is in my best interest to not out myself like so but the truth remains. I hate that I too am working this way but it is what I have been taught is “good practice”.
So why do need new theories?
People have gone through enough theories and have applied them a little too much.
Read this —
Antibiotic resistance is when bacteria change to resist antibiotics that used to effectively treat them. This makes certain bacterial infections difficult to treat. Overuse and misuse of antibiotics cause antibiotic resistance. You can help combat this global health problem by taking these drugs only when your provider says they’re necessary.
In a similar manner if everyone is using the same psychological tricks to get ahead, nobody is getting ahead. We are just pulling ourselves back as a society.
Often authors talk about how to use their advice, but barely any of them warn about using it too much. Like with anything else in life this too needs moderation on an individual level but sadly we humans are incapable of it.
As creatures of greed we find ways to profit off of something and then kill the golden egg laying goose.
As I have gotten better at recognising signs of manipulation and marketing, maybe this has started to stand out to me more. I abstain from engaging with content that I only is clearly a great marketing tactic. No matter how bad or great the product is, I refuse to engage with it unless I have a need for it.
While everyone may not agree with this or even see my point-of-view, I believe it is important that we try looking at the world with a new context. Building trust in a place where you have to establish if someone is even human first is like being out in the wild, all alone.
You can pick up hints from the sounds of movement but you cannot be sure what stands on the other side of the bush unless you see it.
So I believe it is time to start looking for a new psychological theory that describes how easily the average mind is falling for marketing tricks now that they have become sufficiently abundant. So much expose so quickly has to have affected our brains and thought processes.
I would love to read more about such theories, but I do not think I can come up with one on my own.
See you tomorrow.