You probably hit a wall last semester, scrolling through feeds that feel stuck on repeat. Every day brings a fresh wave of AI-generated content that’s vague, overwritten, sometimes creepy. And then there are the political fringes flexing louder than your campus protest chants. When your feed seems more like a pressure cooker than a discussion forum, it’s easy to ask: is this as bad as it gets?
Take a step back. In some corners of the internet, like crypto forums, people still sweat the details—refreshing dashboards, skimming sentiment indexes, even glancing at something like the Pi network price today without making a fuss about it. It’s messy, but there’s an effort to ground things in facts. Then you open your social feed, and it’s all heat, no light. Confidence without substance. That contrast didn’t happen overnight.
The Influx of AI Slop
AI content is popping up everywhere. It’s fast and cheap, but also soulless. You may scroll past a paragraph about sneakers that sounds like a robot trying too hard. Then you hit a thread about politics, littered with bots echoing the same soundbite. It’s like getting stuck with a vending machine that keeps returning empty wrappers. The volume is high, but the substance is low.
That said, smart platforms are experimenting with labeling AI-generated posts or putting them through fact-check layers. Some campus newspapers are collaborating with verification teams. Others are hosting town halls with real voices to counterbalance the noise. So yes, there is pushback. The flip side is there’s awareness that we’re being fed filler. And some people still care enough to push qualifiers into the system.
The Drift Toward Far-Right Echo Chambers
Over the past few election cycles, certain feeds have begun to resemble echo chambers more than open spaces. As ideological lines harden, those on the center or left end up just orbiting louder corners. It’s less debate than livefire target practice; one side yells, the other yells back.
Still, colleges haven’t lost their spirit of dialogue. Student governments host debate nights, and faculty send weekly newsletters with credible sources. In some cases, student forums are stepping in as peer-led fact-check hubs. In these quieter venues, arguments are moderated, not weaponized. Those spaces don’t make headlines, but the gameday-level intensity your feed shows can come off as smoke and mirrors.
A Lack of Responsible Moderation
Remember the days when someone claimed something outlandish and your feed quietly flagged it? Those days feel ancient. Now the moderation wheels move slower or not at all. That once meant hoaxes like “microwaves cause cancer.” Today it means disinformation targeted at elections or viral scams.
Still, some college clubs are building their own moderation teams. They tag false headlines, annotate questionable sources, and even publish weekly briefings. For example, there's no reason a student-led operation in Bloomington couldn't set up a tool that flags doctored images. True, it’s small scale. But it’s real. And it shows that moderation doesn’t have to come from the top. Sometimes it starts in study lounges.
But It Isn’t All Doom
Yes, your feed might feel as anxiety-inducing as Aden’s kitchen in The Bear. But in that chaos, there are glimpses of order. There are outliers doing verification work. There are micro-communities resisting the trends. Folks using feeds to organize, teach, and even laugh together. Here the feed isn’t a banquet. It’s two people arguing. It’s both exhausting and grounding.
Even AI can help. Some apps now summarize threads and surface credible voices to college users. Together with human moderators, these tools help spot patterns before things spiral. That’s not universal yet. But it shows there is a pathway.
What Students Can Do
The question isn’t whether social media will get worse. It’s what you do about it. Tip the balance. Build small communities. Talk openly when you spot AI slop. Build fact-check corners. Label content. Support student-led moderation hubs. Push your campus to invest time in verification over virality.
You may end up spending less time in mainstream feeds, and that’s not a loss. It’s a pivot toward purpose. Whether you’re monitoring crypto charts or setting up media houses in student unions, these are sometimes necessary recalibrations.
Don't Despair
Social media is a mirror of society—flawed, fractured, and surprisingly resilient. It’s getting messier, yes. AI slop, ideological extremes, poor moderation, it’s all here. But there’s also possibility in the mess. Colleges aren’t just battlegrounds. They are testing labs for better discourse. You don’t have to live in the chaos. You can build something different inside it.
If you feel the platform is getting worse, you can use alternative tools. But demanding transparency is a necessary step to creating change. Because if students lean in now, the future of online space won’t be dictated by algorithms. It’ll be shaped by what you do next.
