{"slug": "is-this-cat-ai", "title": "Is This Cat AI", "summary": "A Mastodon user expressed frustration with declining engagement on the platform, citing a lack of replies and boosts that makes posting feel pointless. The user argued that the platform now favors fast food-style content like jokes and rage bait over personal posts, while the rise of AI-generated media has eroded trust in even simple cat videos. The post reflects growing user disillusionment with social media dynamics and the impact of AI on online authenticity.", "body_md": "I really don’t know what it is I’m doing on Mastodon anymore. Might as well quit this thing. Whatever I post here makes me lose followers.\n\nI get no replies or boosts which lets me believe nothing I post interests anyone.\n\nIt mostly feels like I’m putting stuff out there for others to criticize and have issue with. I don’t need that.\n\nFirst thing, who told you to share your home-cooked meals on the internet? Share fast food. People crave fast food. Mastodon is not so different. Go look at the popular posts on mastodon.social: jokes, image posts, rage bait. Things people can skim and react to.\n\nThen go look at Show HN and count how many posts are submitted every hour. “I Made Tinder for AI Agents”. Mastodon users are pattern-matching you with those posts now. Are you real? Who knows. There’s no Voight-Kampff test for vibe coders.\n\nSo yeah, toots used to get more replies and boosts on Mastodon. I think Mastodon users just use the internet less these days. Are they jaded? I certainly am.\n\nTwo days ago I was having lunch with my friend. We overheard the people at the next table talking about their favorite AI short video creators. I had to look down and double-check if I was still on planet Earth.\n\nYour guilty pleasure used to be watching cat videos. Now you look at a cat video and ask, is this AI? It sucks all the pleasure out. Leaving you with only the guilty. Does it still make you want to use the internet?\n\nIn hindsight, Will Smith eating spaghetti was an ominous prophecy.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/is-this-cat-ai", "canonical_source": "https://zhenyi.gibber.blog/is-this-cat-ai", "published_at": "2026-05-20 19:09:54+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-05-25 23:39:25.424844+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "generative-ai"], "entities": ["Mastodon", "Show HN", "Will Smith"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/is-this-cat-ai", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/is-this-cat-ai.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/is-this-cat-ai.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/is-this-cat-ai.jsonld"}}