The "Dead Internet Theory" is Bad Actually.
You have heard of "dead internet theory" but you probably haven't looked at the theory as originally posted. It's often summed up as "the internet is just a bunch of bots talking to each other" ... and it's tempting to nod along: it's fun to say that "things were better in my day" and YES many sites have too many bots. But, the original "theory" is the product of deeply sad, cynical and isolated minds.
The idea that "most interactions online are bots" and therefore the internet is just imaginary pointless cycles of the same nonsense designed to generate "interaction" for the purpose of advertising has its roots in another "Bad Actually" theory: the notion that life is a simulation and everyone (but you!) are NPCs.
I recently tried to read some of the original thread from wizchan and 4chan that are credited with starting "dead internet theory" and they are...
Some of the points raised are:
* Content is Recycled
* News is Recycled
* People online vanish without reason
* The internet makes people "sexually perverted"
* People are in bubbles
Now all of these has a ... touch of truth, except for possibly #4 which seems more like a personal problem to me. (and it might be the reason for point #3) But, even if you leave those in, these are also nothing new. It's where the theory goes that is so extreme.
Thinking that people you interacted with for years online are bots is deeply unstable thinking. Bots can do reactions, but bots can't do relationships.
But when you read up on the people who are into this idea they think that they are *really* being Trueman Show'd by bots and that nearly everyone online is a part of a psyop to get them to take COVID shots, live in a pod and eat bugs.
This stuff isn't coming from a good place or a healthy place and I somehow didn't know that. I thought it was just a general "golly there are too many ads and bots and that sucks."
(and I do think it sucks, that's why I keep trying to tell everyone about mastodon and the fediverse... )
You want a real conspiracy?
Here is mine: Why do theories as sophomoric as "dead internet theory" and "NPC theory" or "simulation theory" or "Roko's basilisk" get *any* oxygen at all in media?
These are half-baked shower-thoughts at best.
But they are also concepts that teach helplessness and self-isolation.
Who does that benefit? If you were the kind of person who feared the internet as a tool for grass roots organizing "dead internet theory" would make all would be activists dead in the water.
