The so called “dead internet theory” refers to the idea that our cyberspace is now dominated by bots (robots, i.e. automated scripts) which interact with one another and with us so much that authentic human connection is pushed to the fringes. I believe that, considering some recent developments from the past years, one could make a more nuanced case for the the state the internet is as of the time of this writing. The internet is still (albeit unfortunately) very much a vibrant space. It is not “dead” (like a video game with no players) but it is not exactly “alive” either – that is to say, existing within the human-interconnectedness paradigm that was its promise in the first place. It looks now more like a zombie town a little after the post-apocalyptic event. Hence, the “undead internet theory”. Our cyberspace is now dominated by the unlohy alliance of two destructive forces: bots and ads. Let us look at each in turn.
Bots are spreading and amplyfing misinformation at alarming rates in the recent years. The advent of the Reddit-regurgitation machines that are LLMs have only made it simpler for bots to do a much better job. Bots are interacting with other bots to artificially boost their social media numbers in the hopes that their posts will be eventually pushed to you. Bots generate AI slop where other bots like and comment and reshare to artificially promote conspiracy theories, extremism, or shady political propaganda. Savy young people are usually able to easily spot the difference between them and posts coming from real accounts. The evidence we have for other demographics is less encouraging. Traditional bots are creating skewed perspectives on anything, fake topics and false narratives, drowning us in more garbage than we can cognitively handle, let alone sift through, and are now also reinforced by a new type of bot: the human one. Biologically fresh and organically sourced human bots are being paid, sometimes modicum or even ludicruous amounts, to make social media posts with specific messages: to make it seem like what they are pushing are real concerns coming from real people. A quick Google search shows that almost everybody’s Facebook feeds are completely inundated with people or pages they don’t follow. That’s mostly because those posts are being promoted with real money. Instead of genuine conversations between real people, code and carbon based bots are frenetically trying to feed us ideological pills.
Most of everything else on the internet nowadays is ads. Gone are the days of public knowledge repositories and free or quality content. I do not believe Wikipedia or GitHub could have been successfully launched in 2026. As corporations and businesses ate away at the internet previously dominated by enthusiasts, the name of the game has become monetization. There is no single thing which capitalism cannot appropriate into its monstruous profit-based logic. Everything is a subscription. Even the most basic of mobile apps have the audacity to ask for money from you every single month. The unfortunate situation is that for large services, the subscription model is underperforming. At the time of this writing, Netflix already has a subscription plan (albeit cheaper) which also serves ads. If you cannot charge your customers directly, the only other way the internet economy can function is through ads. There are both overt and covert ads running non-stop through cyberspace. The overt ones are the annoying pop-ups or short clips you have to watch before or in the middle of a YouTube video. They are the things you install an ad-blocker extension for in your browser before being asked to disable it by the websites you are trying to visit, otherwise you can’t read their cheap, click-bait title article. They are so ubiquitous in our society in general that we have forgot there was a time when we could browse the internet in peace. Social media runs ads in between the content the algorithms are feeding us and then, a disproportionate portion of that content is still ads, but of the covert variety. Social media is dominated by the influencer culture now. And since platforms are either not paying their creators enough or at all (TikTok monetization is disabled in many countries) the only way influencers make money is through advertising, though not always explicitly stating it, despite many laws about it in many jurisdictions. Influencer content nowadays is strictly about the barters, sponsorships, or partnerships. They were paid one way or another to show us that “cool” new location or product. This is true for any type of creators, including reviewers. Companies tend not to send tech devices to reviewers if they are known to be unfriendly. For video games it is even worse, since content creators need the games in advance to have the review ready on release. They depend on having a good relationship with the publishers, which means what they do is mostly present a product, rather than critically talk about it. Which is an ad. Many times a reviewer would talk about a product due to a “partnering” with a specific vendor. That again is just an ad. Content creators are human billboards whose only purpose is to either serve us ads or become big enough to get to do so. Alongside bots, they are the other zombies residing in this undead parkland of capitalist horror. And just like comic book zombies, getting bitten will infect and transform you as well. Average people posting on social media will invariably try to emulate the influencers. Even without the proper sponsorships, non-influencers still post about the products they have recently bought or are currently using. Not exclusively, of course (a good portion of the internet is still dedicated to scantily clad young women, gooners everywhere rejoice!), but enough to be worth a thought. An interesting use case is that of the TCG (trading card game) community, especially Pokemon, probably the most popular one now. TCG content creators buy and open packs of cards in front of the camera and the audience loves seeing whether or not they got some good ones. Besides the fact that the use of the word “hobby” is heavily skewed here, since you are not really doing or creating anything, you are just buying more products, they use a very interesting vocabulary, ladden with ideology: the random cards I find in the packs are referred to as cards that “I pulled”. The use of the first person pronoun along the verb gives me the impression that “I” did something; I am not just a passive consumer of toy cards which were previously pseudo-randomized and inserted into a pack long before I laid my eyes on it. I participated in an activity. “I pulled” those cards. And if I did, you can too! You can be a part of something…if you just let this covert ad make you consume.
Even more, we are the first generation in the history of our society with around a third of children, according to some studies, to have abandoned the desire to grow up to become the vital or aspiring careers of doctors and austronauts and who want to become YouTubers or vloggers instead. Many of these problems are being discussed in public forums or even the parliaments of some countries. We are seriously talking for the first time about restricting children’s access to this brain-damaging insanity as Australia and some UE countries already implemented policy in this sense. Ideas about verifying whether or not social media accounts are created by real people are also being put out there to try to fight back the wave of cheap bots who can overthrow presidential elections. These are all good steps, however, the internet might still keep being an undead zombie park until we claim it back from the profit-seeking corporations and incentives, until we make do with influencer culture and heavily regulate online marketing, until we become more protective of our data and more focused on the quality of our online interactions.
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