There “Dead Internet Theory” or “Dead Eternet theory”a conspiracy theory of which we hear about more and more often, according to which the Web would have died between 2016 and 2017. For supporters of this theory, the Internet would in fact be dominated by content automatically generated by artificial intelligence, and authentic human interactions would be increasingly rare. Although this idea may seem absurd, some recent trends suggest that it could contain a fund of truth. Try to imagine a world in which the vast majority of the contents that consumed online has not been created by human beings. A global network that, although it seems alive and Vegeta, is actually inhabited mostly from bots and algorithms.
What is the “dead internet theory”
The “dead internet theory” is one conspiracy theory which was born towards the end of the Decade 2010-2020 On one of the most controversial forums on the web: 4chan. Has consolidated – and also amplified – in 2021after a long post that described the theory itself saw the light in a thread entitled “Dead Internet Theory: Most of the Internet is fake“(In Italian”Dead internet theory: most of the internet is false“), This time on the forum Macintosh Cafe of Agora Road.
This post described an internet suffocated by algorithms that promote content created not by people, but by artificial intelligence designed to sell products or influence opinions. The author of the original post spoke of a sense of paranoia and solitude, fueled by the perception that the network had become sterile, dominated by artificial interactions.
This theory, although controversial, reflects a feeling shared by many users: the boredom and thealienation caused by an increasingly centralized and controlled internet by large companies. Platforms such as X, Facebook and Tiktok, who once favored an active and diversified participation, today seem to have been infested with automatically generated content and bots. A fairly recent and striking example observed on X. In a viral post published on this platform the sound of the Kazaka language is compared to “a diesel engine that tries to start in winter” (obtaining thousands of likes and reposts). Too bad, however, that the video was uploaded by an erod -free mistake. How did it then achieve so much success? According to many users, the answer is simple: the interactions totaled by the post in question are fake, the result of the action of thousands of bots.
And speaking of the bots, experts agree in affirming that these constitute an important slice of Internet traffic. According to a study of the security company Impert, Bot constitute about 50% of online trafficwith a significant share of “bad bots” responsible for spam, scams and computer attacks. This, of course, does not mean that human interactions have disappeared completely: many viral content, online discussions, etc., still see users “in flesh and blood” and, for this reason, the experts always suggest that the idea of an “dead” internet in the strict sense of the term is (at least at the moment) exaggerated.
The Dead Internet Theory: how the IA transforms online experience
In all this, however, it must be said that the theory of the dead internet He describes a widespread feeling very well. The proliferation of content generated by artificial intelligence is actually transforming online experience. Artists and writers complain of the invasion of images and texts that generated automatically, often without value, originality, human warmth and depth.
But this phenomenon is not limited to the content generated automatically. Are also the algorithms which determine which posts become viral and which are not to influence, and also a lot, the behavior of the users themselves. Many people feel pushed to behave as “human bots”, publishing content designed to satisfy the metrics of algorithms rather than to express something authentic, staff. This vicious circle is one of the reasons why modern internet seems less human than in the past, so much so that even Tim Berners-Leethe inventor of the World Wide Web, disappointed for the state in which his “creature” pours, said:
The web is not the web we wanted in every respect.
Distinction between conspiracy theory and reality
The dead internet theory suggests that most of the online content is generated by autonomous artificial intelligence, one vision that does not reflect the current state of affairs. Artificial intelligence algorithms, including language models such as chatgpt, are not yet able to create truly original or complex content without human input. Their ability to influence the online experience depends Still from the decisions and actions of people.
So why does this theory continue to gain consensus? A possible explanation is that it offers a simple narrative to explain complex phenomena such as the centralization of the internet and the loss of diversity in content. In addition, like many conspiracy theories, this also provides an relief valve for the discontent and frustration of users towards the “strong powers” of the web.
The current situation is certainly worrying, but it is not irreversible. There are still online spaces authentic And brightlike private communities on discord or decentralized platforms such as Mastodon. And then, it must be said that some large technological companies are also starting to recognize the problem and could – the conditional is a must – decide to take measures to reduce the impact of the bots and improve the user experience. Also because, let’s face it, a truly dead internet would not help anyone, not even those who draw their profits from the world of online.
If now we wanted to do a little point of what we said in the article, we could say that the Theory of the dead internet is not a truthful description of reality (like all the theories of the plot of the rest), but we could consider it an important warning. It reminds us that the future of the internet depends on the choices we make today: as users, as developers and as a company. It is up to us to decide if we want a living, vibrant and human internet, or if we want to settle for a dull and amorphous web, dominated by Bot Ai.
