Why Social Media Feels “Fake” in 2025 (The Rise of AI Engagement Farming)
Have you ever scrolled through the comments section on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), or Instagram lately and felt… weird? You see a tragic news story, and the top comment is a generic “This is great information!” followed by a string of emojis. You see a political post, and the replies are repetitive, aggressive, and slightly “off.”
If you feel like the “soul” of social media is missing, you are not crazy. You are observing a statistical reality. Welcome to the era of the Zombie Feed. While the “Dead Internet Theory” suggests the web is empty, the reality on social media is worse: it’s not empty; it’s crowded with impostors.
The “Great interaction” Illusion It sounds like a conspiracy theory, but look at the evidence. In 2025, we are seeing “Mega Influencers” with 5 million followers who post a photo and get zero real comments—only thousands of automated replies saying “Beautiful!” or “Collab?”. This is the “Bot-to-Bot Economy.”
According to cybersecurity reports, the majority of traffic on platforms like X and Facebook is no longer human. It is comprised of “Engagement Farms”—server rooms filled with thousands of phones running AI scripts designed to:
- Like posts to boost visibility.
- Leave generic comments to trick the algorithm.
- Share content to create fake virality.
The Anatomy of an AI Comment How do you spot them? With the rise of Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, bots have upgraded. They don’t just sell sunglasses anymore.
- The “Yes-Man” Bot: It agrees with everything. “Totally agree!” “Spot on!” “Great insight!” These exist solely to pump up the OP’s (Original Poster) ego and algorithm score.
- The Rage Bot: Designed to increase “Dwell Time.” It picks a keyword from your post and generates a controversial counter-argument just to make you angry enough to reply.
- The Context Collapse: Often, the AI makes a mistake. You might see a comment saying “Looking great!” on a post about a funeral. That is the tell-tale sign of a script running without a human driver.
Why Are They Doing This? (Follow the Money) Why would anyone fill the internet with junk? Simple: Monetization. Platforms like X began paying creators based on “Impressions” (views). This created a perverse incentive. Content farms use AI to write sensational articles, use AI bots to comment on them, and use other AI bots to view them. It is a perpetual money-printing machine where no human eyes are actually involved. Advertisers are paying to show ads to an audience of ghosts.
The Death of the “Town Square” Social media was promised as the “Global Town Square”—a place for human connection and debate. In 2025, that square has been overrun by loudspeakers shouting at each other. Real humans are retreating. As we discussed in our article about the [Dead Internet Theory], legitimate geek culture is migrating back to private Discord servers and group chats.
We are tired of arguing with strangers, only to realize halfway through that the “stranger” is a sophisticated algorithm running on a server in a basement, designed specifically to trigger our dopamine receptors.
How to Survive the Zombie Feed So, is social media over? Not yet, but usage is changing.
- Trust Small Numbers: A micro-influencer with 1,000 followers who actually replies to you is infinitely more valuable than a verified account with 1 million followers and zero soul.
- The “Turing Test” of Reply: Before you argue online, check the profile. Created last month? Generic handle (User123456)? Ignore it. Don’t feed the zombies.