Online, currently, I see a lot of complaints about how “everything” or “every hobby” is getting AI-sloppified to extinction. And AI-slop sure is real. But in most cases, it is not the hobby that is being sloppified – it is the internet about that hobby. And The internet is indeed full of AI-generated pictures of embroidery, AI-generated paintings, and vibecoded sad excuses for games.
But my embroidery here at home is quite intact, thank you. The painting and the hobbyist coding projects by my family members? They are still there. My garden’s going to its winter slumber on schedule. I really should take the camera and go take some pictures of those gorgeous drops of water on the now bare cherry tree, too. No one’s knocked on the door, held us at gunpoint, and AI-sloppified that all.
Lately, a lot of us in various hobbies have become dependent on the internet and escpecially Big Tech “social” media for communication about our hobbies. Worse, some people for whom the things we love are not just a hobby but a livelihood, have come to depend on the internet for upkeep – food on the table, roof over their heads. Big Tech and their AI bros are taking that over: capitalism is doing its thing and commodifying the commons and exploiting everything to extinction. That’s horrible.
But my hobbies? They are still here.
Since the Big Internet is increasingly in the hands of Big Tech, we have to do this the old-fashioned way. Enjoy a thing because it is beautiful, not because you can tell the whole world it is beautiful. Meet locally, meet for real. Fediversify, de-centralize. Instead of connecting everything to everyone all the time, build loosely connected local networks. Form a club, go to church, join a book club or a sewing circle, whatever works for you. Slow down, do less, go back.
It does not sound that bad, really.
(The Fediversified original is here.)