Part 14/17:
Advertising revenue underpins much of this digital landscape. Platforms need eyeballs to sell to advertisers, making attention the ultimate currency. Sponsored posts, paid search results, and AI-generated scams flood the feeds, pushing organic, genuine content to the background. The result is an environment where authenticity is often replaced by superficiality and manipulation.
For content creators, this environment is fraught with temptations to produce sensationalist or inflammatory material—scripts, thumbnails, or videos that generate the most views—and AI makes this easier than ever. Some creators even develop AI avatars to imitate the voices and personalities of real influencers, blurring the lines between reality and simulation.