Maybe today you liked a post written by AI.
Maybe yesterday you replied to a bot.
Maybe you liked a photo or video generated by AI.
Maybe you no longer know who you’re talking to…
I don’t know if you’ve noticed it too, but it feels like the internet is starting to sound the same.
Not the same content, but the same tone, the same logic, the same emptiness.
It’s like reading one endless text that never stops, constantly repeating itself.
Photos made with the same pattern (same destinations, same poses, same filters…).
Sometimes I can scroll for hours without seeing a single sentence that makes me pause, or an image that sparks any curiosity.
Titles are click-magnets, comments feel copy-pasted.
And strangest of all, I often can’t tell anymore, was this written by a human or a program?
Everything has become too “correct.” Too formatted.
As if all the imperfections that make us human have been erased, but that’s exactly what I love: the messiness, the emotion, the confusion, the honesty.
And then I stumble upon something raw.
Something that might not be perfectly written.
A photo that’s not edited or staged through countless takes, or a video that’s not polished, but it hits right where it should.
No machine can generate that.
That comes from someone who’s still alive, emotional, and spontaneous.
Welcome to the Dead Internet
The “Dead Internet Theory” is a conspiracy idea claiming that most content online today is not produced by real people, but by artificial intelligence, bots, and automated systems, and that real human activity on the web has “disappeared” or drastically declined.
Ever since the rise of the mass internet in the late 1990s and early 2000s, people have noticed automated behavior in forums, mailing lists, and comment sections.
Spam bots, SEO farms, and fake users were real problems, but they were seen as technical issues, not as part of a larger conspiracy.
The theory first appeared on forums like 4chan, Reddit, and especially Godlike Productions — a forum known for conspiracy discussions.
In 2021, an anonymous post on GLP drew attention:
“The internet died around 2016. Since then, everything has been automated. Most posts, comments, articles, and content are generated by bots. If you’re a real person, you’re in the minority.”
This narrative spread across Twitter, YouTube, and Reddit — turning into both a meme and a serious discussion topic in communities like /r/conspiracy and /r/trueanon.
But if you put paranoia aside for a moment and simply look around, you start to notice things:
Google searches return piles of articles that sound robotic.
YouTube comments repeat as if copy-pasted.
News feels assembled from other news, soulless, lacking authentic voice.
Social media is full of accounts that seem “too perfect,” but no one’s actually behind them.
Meanwhile, AI writes essays, blogs, and even books.
Bots post reviews, shape opinions, and even start viral trends.
“The Evidence”
Supporters of the Dead Internet theory point to several signs:
- Sudden uniformity of content — everything written in the same voice, without deep human expression.
- Emergence of generic trends — memes, songs, and challenges that seem “designed to go viral,” not born from real subcultures.
- Non-human comments — AI and bot replies on YouTube, Reddit, Amazon reviews, and beyond.
- Explosion of clickbait and SEO-driven content — indicating automated production.
- Loss of real discussion — forums and comment sections full of empty, repetitive phrases.
With the rise of large-scale AI models (2022–2025) like GPT, Claude, Sora, and the growing influence of deepfake technologies, many aspects of the Dead Internet theory are ironically becoming true. Not due to a grand conspiracy, but simply because of technological evolution.
Websites are now flooded with AI-generated articles, and Google results increasingly look like a forest of recycled, optimized texts.
Many users feel that real humans have been pushed aside by algorithmic noise.
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