Creating in an Age of AI Slop

Making videos is hard. Not this is slightly inconvenient hard, but more like why does this 60‑second clip feel like it took a year off my life hard. Coming up with ideas, finding the time, setting up, recording, editing, posting, it all adds up. And the older I get, the more it feels like my energy is on a tighter budget than my bank account.

These days I don’t go out much. When I do, it’s with my family, not chasing chaos for content. That makes filming even harder, because I’m not trying to turn my kids into a show just so the algorithm will feed me a few extra views. I am not trying to create stuff just so it will get me views. So I’ve been leaning into writing again. I’ve always loved it. And in a world drowning in AI‑generated noise, it feels like one of the last places I can slow down and actually say something real.

Creating When You’re Tired and Life Is Full

Let me be honest. I haven’t found a balance between life and creating. Not even close. I’m a parent, a husband, and a 40‑something whose idea of a wild night is staying awake past 11 without regretting it the next morning. The “grind every day, post three times, optimize everything” advice just doesn’t fit my reality.

It turns out I’m not alone. Surveys of social media professionals show that around three‑quarters feel overwhelmed by their responsibilities, and nearly 70% report mental exhaustion, with almost half saying they’re at or near burnout. That’s people who do this for a living, with tools and teams. For solo creators with jobs, kids, and aging bodies that creak for no reason, the pressure hits even harder.​

So when I say making videos is hard, it’s not just me being dramatic. It’s the reality of trying to create in a system that rewards constant output and doesn’t care if you’re a person or a content machine. That’s part of why I’m sitting here writing this instead of forcing myself to film something I don’t believe in.

AI Slop vs Actual Human Voices

Now we’ve entered the era of AI slop. Endless, generic, auto‑generated videos, shorts, and posts pumped out at scale. It’s like someone built a factory that mass‑produces content‑shaped objects. They look like real videos, but when you watch them, there’s nothing behind the eyes.

People are starting to notice. Analyses of social trends in 2026 talk about “authenticity beating automation” and audiences prioritizing content that feels like it actually came from a human being. Articles like Authenticity Is Winning on Social in 2026 seem to agree. People can tell when something’s generic and rushed, and they’re over it.

AI‑generated content itself isn’t the enemy. The real problem is when it gets used as a shortcut instead of a support tool to crank out dozens of recycled videos with no real perspective behind them. That’s what I mean by AI slop. Content built to feed the feed, not to say anything.

Using AI Without Losing Yourself

Here’s the tension I live in. I do use AI. But I’m not trying to outsource my soul to a language model. There’s a fine line between AI‑assisted and AI‑replaced, and that line is everything.
Even the people studying this stuff are saying the same thing. Pieces on AI and social media argue that the healthiest setup is AI in a supporting role (helping with research, outlines, and analysis) while humans still own the voice and the final decisions. When AI takes over the front of the content instead of the back, the voice gets flat, interchangeable, and forgettable.
That’s how I try to use it. I bring the story, the scars, the perspective. AI helps me structure, clarify, and sometimes pull in stats or sources I wouldn’t have found as fast. But if I ever catch myself copy‑pasting something I don’t actually feel, that’s the moment I know I’ve crossed from tool into slop.

The Kids Drowning in Content We Didn’t Have

There’s another layer to this that bothers me more than anything. AI slop aimed at kids. The mind‑numbing, hyper‑stimulating, auto‑generated stuff flooding YouTube, TikTok, and everywhere else. Infinite bright colors, fast cuts, weird voiceovers, and nothing of substance. Content farming disguised as entertainment.

Research on short‑form video and kids is starting to put numbers behind what we all feel in our gut. One study of more than 500 children found that higher use of short‑form video (those fast, swipeable clips) was significantly associated with more inattentive behaviors, especially in younger kids. Articles breaking down “brain rot” and doomscrolling warn that this endless, high‑arousal content may be reshaping how kids process information and handle boredom.

I’ve already started talking about this publicly. If you want to see me rant on camera instead of on the page, I did a video called “AI Slop Rewiring Kids Brains?” where I dig into how this kind of content might be messing with young attention spans and expectations of reality. Click the link to check it out or watch it above. That topic deserves its own full article, but it’s connected to this one, because the same tools that can help us create better can also be weaponized to keep kids endlessly hooked.

Algorithmic Burnout and Why I’m Writing More

At some point I had to admit, the way I was trying to create wasn’t sustainable. I’d beat myself up for not posting enough, not filming enough, not capitalizing on the moment, as if life is just raw material for content. But the more I read, the more I realized this isn’t just a me problem.
Writers have started calling it algorithmic burnout. That feeling of being trapped in an endless, noisy feed where you’re expected to post constantly just to stay visible. Analyses of social media in 2026 talk about users and creators walking away from traditional feeds and looking for slower, more meaningful spaces because they’re exhausted by AI‑generated noise and engagement‑at‑all‑costs design.

So I’m giving myself permission to lean into what feels sustainable, writing. I can sit with my thoughts. I can take the time to craft something real. I can still show up honestly without turning my life or my kids into an endless highlight reel. And if the algorithm doesn’t like that, well…the algorithm isn’t the one who has to live with my burnout.

Old, Honest, and Still Here

I joke about being old, but getting older has given me something that matters more than views, perspective. I know what it feels like to waste years chasing instant hits. For almost two decades my life revolved around chasing drugs, parties, and chaos. I’m not interested in spending the second half of my life chasing a digital version of the same thing.

In a weird way, this whole AI slop era is forcing me to be clearer about why I create at all. I’m not here to flood your feed. I’m here to share what I’ve lived through, the mistakes I’ve made, the things I’m still trying to figure out. If AI can help me say that more clearly, cool. If it tries to turn me into a content mill, it can get out of the way.

The internet doesn’t need another perfect, polished, soulless clip. It needs more people telling the truth about how hard it is to be human right now. Tired, busy, anxious, hopeful, and still trying. That’s what I’m aiming for, whether it’s in a video, a post, or a piece of writing like this.

Thanks for reading everyone! Visit my site to learn more about me and explore what I’m building at Learn With Hatty. Remember, stay curious and keep learning.