how a 2021 tweet and byzantine art are connected to the Shrimp Jesus AI boom
i can't even write a title for everything in here...
If AI is simply a regurgitation of our collective consciousness, a consciousness that has been influenced by Jesus' indoctrination for centuries (willingly or not), Shrimp Jesus is a reflection of that. He has been reborn within our social feeds.
Confused already? Let’s catch up. If you haven’t seen, an AI bot phenomenon on Facebook, known as “Shrimp Jesus” to the media reporting on it and online conversation, is targeting those who are not as digitally literate and it has taken off. Simply stated, various Facebook accounts of ambiguous origin are posting clickbait imagery (knowing that photo posts perform well on the algorithm) and are A/B testing different images until they find the highest performing asset type, then sticking with that theme to build their audience. Of course, because we live in a Church-State society, Jesus' image hath risen to the top.
Several types of images are included in the mix, including ones featuring AI-generated 100+-year-olds celebrating birthdays blowing out candles on a cake, but the surreal and absurd Jesus imagery dominates it all.
When I first saw these images, which were published in research by Stanford Internet Observatory, I couldn’t help but immediately think of two things:
A 2021 viral Tweet that prophesied Shrimp Jesus, back then called “Shrimp Christ.” The original tweet has been deleted, but the endless replies about it remain on Twitter. The tweet itself has been immortalized and has been circulated on Reddit and Instagram as Tweet gold usually does.
Knowing that AI draws from years of Internet history and considering the viral nature of “Shrimp Christ” at the time, I can see that image being a direct byproduct of that conversation! Which is quite beautiful. Showing that humanity had a direct influence in the Shrimp Jesus phenomenon.
Another variable of information that could have impacted that connection is the evergreen online joke that often circulates, “You mean to tell me a shrimp fried this rice?” playing off of the standard “Shrimp Fried Rice” menu offering.
The other thing I thought of immediately–the parallels to religious imagery depicted in Byzantine era art.
Let's dive into some art history for a bit here because looking at life through the lens of art is a good way to contextualize life. As the idiom goes, “History always repeats itself.” Then we’ll return to the digital implications of what can be happening…
Byzantine art predates the collective enlightenment in the Renaissance, a time when humanity began to capture life realistically on canvas, thanks to discoveries like perspective by Leonardo da Vinci. Byzantine art, however, is characterized by flatness, inaccurate human proportions, and biblical figures in a nonrealistic fashion. Like Byzantine art, SHRIMP JESUS imagery is in a similar nascent stage. It is still evolving its automated AI generation capabilities, outputting symbolic pieces of imagery that are nonsensical rather than hyper-realistic. Think of the inability to make hands look authentic in Byzantine art and within AI image output. This discrepancy of realism doesn’t matter much to boomers, who still fall victim to the images and engage regardless.
Now, let’s speculate on the motives behind this strange digital iteration of religious art.
Due to the state of the church at the time, Byzantine art was often used for religious propaganda. But what parallels does this have with Shrimp Jesus’s algorithmic dominion? And why is it important to analyze how history can repeat itself through today’s digital lens?
Because of MOTIVE. Especially in a world with highly varied levels of digital literacy, leaving those less adept at navigating online content super vulnerable. It’s unfortunate when you think about it. It’s an entire set of language, nuances, contexts, humor, evolving digital and social platforms, and more to keep up with, all while keeping up with the nonstop motion of life on Earth! It’s a lot for a human mind who hasn’t been raised on it to comprehend.
Anyways, here are some current contexts that can speculate the WHY this psychedelically religious Facebook phenomenon:
Literal Interpretation–The most straightforward motive that can be surface level interpreted by the CTA strategy is online shopping and ad space. As reported by 404 Media, many of the links that are clicked out go to random click bait pages, selling irrelevant items. Think black holes of uncurated Temu junk for those who don’t use the app. The intertwining of commercialization within the user experience journey and the still ever-present religious state is such a wild online strategy.
Niche TikTok Discourse–One theory that has been circulating on TikTok over the past couple of weeks is the DEAD INTERNET THEORY. It is worth noting that this theory has been around for a while, but it is bubbling up as a discussion on TikTok now.
It claims that the Internet mainly consists of bot activity, outweighing human activity. It may not be visible to the casually scrolling eye, but it can be evident in out of context commenting on content that feels slightly off kilter and askew. The comments on some TikToks state that deceased relatives of loved ones become bots, where friend requests or comments are sent from these passed individuals. That can be an entire sci-fi novel in itself, Facebook pages becoming the first human vessel for AI, participating in the universe of digital in a zombie-like state, mimicking human behavior in ways that aren’t quite on par with someone still alive.
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Circumventing Meta Restrictions For The 2024 Election–We’re in the year of an election cycle… The 2016 Presidential election was a monumental shift in terms of awareness about digital literacy, where “fake news” was the enemy that hijacked our minds and reportedly skewed election results, leaving many Americans blindsided.
Fast-forward to today. Meta now has a political filter in response to the “Facebook allowed that to happen!” rhetoric from that cycle. Outrage filled the Internet when the filter was automatically placed on user accounts without much education on having the autonomy to choose what will be seen or not, leaving political news repressed without consent.
This filter works by showing you pages you already follow that circulate political content. However, content recommended in Explore pages will not show political content. WHAT IF, as mentioned earlier, history is repeating itself, these ambiguous Facebook pages have a motive to fan mine large enough and highly susceptible audiences for political propaganda come to our 2024 election? (Yes, it is a conspiracy, but it’s worth noting.)
In 2024, algorithm based social feeds hold an insane amount of authority in art and content dissemination, shaping our collective discourse and the physical realm of life based on engagement. Shrimp Jesus as an event specifically underscores the importance of digital literacy. We need to be aware of the influences online that can shape our reality, whether for religious, political, or commercial motives. Let’s see how Shrimp Jesus evolves, but let it be a cautionary tale of vigilance in deciphering what’s real and what’s not online.
"The comments on some TikToks state that deceased relatives of loved ones become bots, where friend requests or comments are sent from these passed individuals."
This resonates with me. I recall inactive email addresses on yahoo and hotmail, after a time became targets for 'hackers' who would use your mailing list and an address like yours (or the actual inactive address) to send spam to your contacts. I imagine inactive Facebook accounts can be 'taken over' or duplicated too, so a copy of the account of the deceased goes out into the world to cause trouble.