{"slug": "youre-thinking-about-online-trends-all-wrong", "title": "You’re Thinking About Online Trends All Wrong", "summary": "Cyber-ethnographer Ruby J. Thelot told WIRED that people are misinterpreting online trends, including pessimism around dating and AI's cultural impact, by overvaluing virality. Thelot argues that viral moments do not accurately represent broader societal shifts or the true nature of technology's influence.", "body_md": "# You’re Thinking About Online Trends All Wrong\n\nBy Jason ParhamSource:\n\n[Wired AI](https://www.wired.com)From pessimism around dating to AI reshaping culture, cyber-ethnographer Ruby J. Thelot tells WIRED why people are putting too much stock into things that go viral.\n\nGet AI news in your inbox\n\nDaily digest of what matters in AI.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/youre-thinking-about-online-trends-all-wrong", "canonical_source": "https://www.machinebrief.com/news/youre-thinking-about-online-trends-all-wrong-9yhf", "published_at": "2026-08-12 09:30:00+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-12 10:12:52.527666+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence"], "entities": ["Ruby J. Thelot", "WIRED"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/youre-thinking-about-online-trends-all-wrong", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/youre-thinking-about-online-trends-all-wrong.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/youre-thinking-about-online-trends-all-wrong.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/youre-thinking-about-online-trends-all-wrong.jsonld"}}