Wikipedia turns 25

Wikipedia is perhaps the greatest single site on the internet, a crowd sourced encyclopedia of everything which has evolved from a joke to a rare source of reliable information, but is now threatened by the onslaught of AI slop and politically motivated auto-generated alternatives.

The evolution of Instagram

A study of the evolution of posts on Instagram shows more types of media being used but also increasing convergence and homogenisation between platforms, accelerated now by the influx of AI slop rather than genuine content.

The mirror crack’d

The media is supposed to hold a mirror up to society, but when large groups of people no longer share the same reality, debate becomes impossible and life begins to fall apart.

Under orange skies

Local radio offers a friendly voice and affable company during the day but can become a life saver when disasters such as bushfires strike a region or community.

You can’t handle the truth

Why people do believe misinformation about everything from a flat Earth to Russian propaganda even when they’re told the facts?

Capturing the narrative

A new UNSW research project shows how the internet and social media have become a closed loop of AI slop in which bots invent lies to trigger emotional responses from humans, manufacturing a false reality in which they can shift votes as well as products.

From rage bait to brain rot

“Rage bait” was Oxford University Press’ Word of the Year for 2025, speaking to the havoc which engagement hungry social media platforms are wreaking on individual minds and society as a whole

Focus!

Technology companies excel at selling you things which create problems, and then selling you the cure. Attention hogging smart phone apps have destroyed our attention spans, and so the solution isn’t ‘distraction’ apps, but turning your phone off.

How short-form videos harm young minds

Young people can spend hours a day scrolling an endless stream of short form videos on Tik Tok and other platforms, many of which are disguised adverts or AI slop, ruining their attention spans and stealing their childhood to benefit the billionaire moguls running tech platforms which aim only to monopolise attention and ruthlessly monetise it.

80% of Australian adults support the social media ban

With Australia’s social media ban coming into force, a new survey from Monash University has found that almost four out of five Australian adults support the Australian government’s social media ban for children under 16.

The game blame

Long hours spend playing video games and scrolling social media have both been blamed for lowering the attention spans of young people, but research suggests social media has the most pernicious effect, underlining the value of Australia’s new ban on social media accounts for children.

If you can’t beat it, use it

Just as the internet drew advertising revenue away from print media, so AI summaries are depriving news organisations of the clicks they need to survive, forcing media firms to replace people with artificially generated slop content to survive themselves.