Why People Talk About the Dead Internet Theory

TL;DR
The idea is that a lot of what we see online is not made by real people but by bots or AI. That may explain why the web sometimes feels fake or repetitive. Bots are real and AI content is growing, but the claim that most of the internet is "dead" is not proven.

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History

It may have been discussed in earlier years on other forums, but the clearest, best-documented version appeared in 2021 on Agora Road's Macintosh Café in a post called "Dead Internet Theory: Most Of The Internet Is Fake". That 2021 post is what made the idea spread more widely.

What the theory means

The Dead Internet Theory says much of today’s internet might be filled with machine-made stuff. Posts, comments, even whole sites could be created or boosted by bots. Some versions say "most of it" is fake, others say "a large part of it". Either way, it is about machines talking to machines more than people to people.

Why people believe it

Bots are everywhere. They can build up fake trust by posting harmless things, then later use the account for spam or promotion.
AI can now write articles, comments, and even images quickly and cheaply, so the web gets flooded with them.
People who track web traffic often find that a large portion comes from bots, not humans. Depending on how you measure, it can be one third or even half.

Put all that together, and it makes sense why many think the web feels less human than before.

A mental picture

Think of a playground. It used to be full of kids shouting and running around. Now most of the kids are robots that copy each other. When a real kid shows up, it feels noisy but not real. That is how people describe today’s internet.

What people online say

In online discussions, some users gave specific examples of how this might play out:

Some accounts act normal for months with harmless posts, then suddenly switch to spam or promotion.
Bots reply in groups to boost each other and push certain content to the top.
AI content gets posted, then other bots like and reply to it, so you get a loop of bots feeding bots.
A few people guessed extreme numbers like "90% is fake", but those are just personal opinions, not solid proof.

Why it matters

Bots can push products or even political ideas, which changes what people see.
Too much noise makes real voices harder to notice.
Platforms are trying to fight it, but AI and bots keep evolving, so it is an ongoing struggle.

What you can do

Always check an account’s history before trusting it. Real humans usually post a mix of stuff, not just one thing.
Do not trust one source. Cross-check with other sites.
If you run a page, use tools or rules that make it harder for bots to sneak in.

Quick wrap-up

The Dead Internet Theory makes sense in some ways. The internet does have more bots and AI content than before, and that affects what we see. But the big claim that "the internet is mostly dead" goes too far. Humans are still here, just harder to hear sometimes.