this post was submitted on 22 Jan 2026
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I know that's not going to be popular around here, but I am kind of curious what an "everyone is a confirmed user" social media site would actually look like, compared to the "whoever has the most bots gets shoved to the top of the rankings" cesspool we have now.
Social media was a mistake. We should have stuck to small forums. Same with real life tbh. Shit, have I become an anarchist now?
Bots will simply use a random id card from the millions of stolen ids
Government will still have bots though, you will be at their mercy, and any disagreement they can retaliate in ways that aren't apparent to you that you will never be able to prove. Hell they could even use secret social scores from their all encompassing surveillance they are trying to implement right now to decide what information your search pages are allowed to show you, to affect what prices you pay online, to decide if you get that job, that loan. If the police watch you, if they charge you, how hard the courts hit you.
With peter thiels owned corporations making those social scores.
It would probably be the same content-wise. The bots are put there by people that wants to push an agenda. If we somehow reach a point where such a network with only live, confirmed humans exists, they'll still push their points I guess. After all, we already see prominent account posting batshit crazy thing under their real name, so that would not change much.
And, yeah. It's not really being an anarchist to think smaller, closer spaces are a good idea. Worldwide, almost universal social connection all the time, even without the constant barrage of garbage, is bound to completely overload our brain. Focusing on smaller communities, hand in these for a limited/controlled duration, things that actual matters, sounds really nice. It's more of a "technical minimalism", if we keep things digital.