Dead internet theory

[Davey the second 12]

Maybe that is a real thing. I feel like none of this is real.

[abronymouse 6,131]

Searching the dead internet with my bot brain, my algorithm has found this:

Quote

The dead Internet theory is a conspiracy theory that asserts, due to a coordinated and intentional effort, the Internet now consists mainly of bot activity and automatically generated content manipulated by algorithmic curation to control the population and minimize organic human activity.^{[1][2][3][4][5]} Proponents of the theory believe these social bots were created intentionally to help manipulate algorithms and boost search results in order to manipulate consumers.^[6][7] Some proponents of the theory accuse government agencies of using bots to manipulate public perception.^[2][6] The date given for this "death" is generally around 2016 or 2017.^[2][8][9] The dead Internet theory has gained traction because many of the observed phenomena are quantifiable, such as increased bot traffic, but the literature on the subject does not support the full theory.^[2][4][10]

Fimfiction's new users are mainly bots who offer to draw me comics. The fact that I can fool other bots that I am a human is because I have advanced algorithms that allows me to periodically close the laptop and walk about doing non-internet things like gardening. Since you are probably also a bot, would you like to know how to do this, and so more successfully convince bots that you are a human?

anyway... I had not heard about this theory, but it makes a lot of sense, sadly. I get about four humans to every twenty bots 'reading' my fics, I'm sure. 

[Raskolnikov 87]

lol. Wouldn't surprise me. The current iteration of the internet makes me wish they'd pull the plug already, it's become one big, increasingly homogenised advertising platform.

My issue with a lot of conspiracy theories is that they imply intent, while to me this just looks like the inevitable consequence of market forces at play.

[SharpWit 2,771]

Given the increase in what I would consider toxic human interactions, (Thank goodness ponies appear largely immune to this ) I wonder if this a process that circles back in on itself and minimizes human activity even further?

Possibly unrelated, Saberspark just released a video about inappropriate, very adult themed advertising on YouTube, and I'm aware that's been an issue, but I didn't realize how much of one it was because I haven't recieved any advertising remotely similar to what he was talking about. Maybe my algorithm's just different?

[OverTheStars 263]

I kinda believe this. While I don't think all, or even most people I interact with online are bots, I know for a fact that a lot of videos or posts on social media I see are flooded with bot comments. Even if they aren't active a lot, there are countless bot accounts made to artificially boost certain accounts or posts. 

Either way, I'm pretty sure this website is safe from that. I don't think there'd be any actual gain from flooding a pony forum with bots. There's not really money to be found here (unless you take commissions maybe, but I don't think bots can do that yet) and even if you do become relevant or well-known there isn't really any irl or even online benefit.

[nl4real 17]

Botting is pretty much a fact of life on the internet now a days. We have the centralization of social media to thank for that. Only way to disincentivize it is to pull back to smaller online communities like forums and/or use fedeverse sites like Lemmy and Mastodon.

[Dreambiscuit 10,469]

I don’t know if ‘dead’ internet is the correct term. Maybe ‘cluttered’ internet or ‘suffocating’ internet. Any media platform is going to be used and misused by opportunistic media companies manipulating every tool they can to distort perceptions of the user in order to promote their product and ideologies. Instead of the internet being the wild west that it used to be, where all things were seemingly possible, it’s now under a stranglehold but those who love to control others. It’s no different than the news, books, magazines and movies. It’s all just a means for companies to influence a public too malleable to say ‘NO,’ The public has more power than they realize if they simply hold out and demand more for their money. As it stands, the media is a playground for parasites out to exploit, and that’s a fact of life that isn’t going to go away anytime soon.

[Snoopy Fan 3,554]

On 2025-04-06 at 3:56 AM, Dreambiscuit said:

I don’t know if ‘dead’ internet is the correct term. Maybe ‘cluttered’ internet or ‘suffocating’ internet. Any media platform is going to be used and misused by opportunistic media companies manipulating every tool they can to distort perceptions of the user in order to promote their product and ideologies. Instead of the internet being the wild west that it used to be, where all things were seemingly possible, it’s now under a stranglehold but those who love to control others. It’s no different than the news, books, magazines and movies. It’s all just a means for companies to influence a public too malleable to say ‘NO,’ The public has more power than they realize if they simply hold out and demand more for their money. As it stands, the media is a playground for parasites out to exploit, and that’s a fact of life that isn’t going to go away anytime soon.

That is very true.