Could AI Spell the End for Meaningless Social Media Posts?
Last year, the Pew Research Center surveyed a roster of thought leaders and academics and asked them to identify the “best and most beneficial changes in digital life” we can expect to see in the coming decade. While only about 18 percent of the experts surveyed said they were “more excited than concerned” about where humanity is headed, 42 percent said they were both excited and concerned about the future.
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In other words, there was some inescapable pessimism in many of the responses. Yet, many respondents voiced strong enthusiasm for the advancements that technology — especially artificial intelligence (AI) — will bring to medicine, health, fitness, nutrition, education, transportation, energy, and human rights.
One of the most exciting predictions came courtesy of Zizi Papacharissi, professor and head of the communication department and professor of political science at the University of Illinois-Chicago. “I see technology advancing in making communication more immediate, more warm, more direct, more nuanced, more clear and more high fidelity,” she said. “I see us moving away from social media platforms, due to growing cynicism about how they are managed, and this is a good thing.”
News that social media posts may take on a more pleasant hue or that posts may decline altogether in the coming years may not sound as exciting as advancements in medicine or human rights, but for those who bemoan the current state of social platforms, Papacharissi’s prediction might be seen as a reason to rejoice. That appears to be the case for many U.S. residents at least. According to a separate 2024 Pew study, just 34 percent of U.S. adults believe social media has been good for democracy, while nearly twice as many (64%) believe it has harmed the political process.
To be fair, Americans are in the minority in this viewpoint. Large shares of residents in Nigeria, Mexico, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, and other countries tell Pew Research that social media has been good for their local democracies, but, when it comes to politics, U.S. residents take a dimmer view. Politics is only one area where social media receives low marks. When Pew asked Jeffrey Johnson, professor of complexity science and design at The Open University, what changes he could foresee, he replied that he would welcome tighter controls over internet content because it might “curtail the terrible misogyny, lies, threats and false news that currently poison social media.”
Could the answer lie in AI? Could AI help reduce the kind of mean-spirited, misleading, and meaningless posts Johnson calls out? The answer — at least according to John Brandon, a technology reporter for Fortune magazine — is yes. Last year Brandon declared that “artificial intelligence Is going to destroy social media.” Maybe. Or maybe AI will help establish better social media behavior. In January, Northeastern University published “Is AI killing the social media star?,” an article that examined how some organizations now use AI to better manage the costs and messaging in their social channels.
And using AI-generated social media doesn’t necessarily mean the posts will be dry, robotic, and humorless. Just the opposite. One AI “influencer” mentioned in the article self-identifies as a “19-year-old Robot living in LA.” It remains to be seen if AI will “destroy” social media, but the technology may help usher in a kinder, gentler, more efficient social media environment.
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