The ‘dead internet theory’ has more than a grain of truth to it, so how much of our understanding of the world is a construct?
Are there any human hands on the online agendas? Stock image: Getty
Have you ever seen something online that gave you an uncanny, eerie feeling, as though something you cannot pinpoint was amiss? Maybe it was an obviously AI-generated image that no one in the comments seems to notice. Or the same phrase popping up again and again in posts on X, seemingly real people parroting each other.
The dead-internet theory is the idea that the internet is now mainly populated by bots that mimic human interaction and that organic human connection has been replaced by algorithmically curated feeds. The internet is now “fake”. What you are seeing is no longer touched by human hands, and once you realise it, like a glitch in the matrix, suddenly you become aware of the simulation.