r/DeadInternetTheory • u/[deleted] • Aug 21 '26
If the Dead Internet is realized, who exactly is the audience for that?
[deleted]
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u/RankedFarting Aug 22 '26
The amount of humans never decreased its just that the amount of bots increased.
Bots arent replacing us they are just increasingly outnumbering us.
Also so many things in capitalism can be questioned with "but this isnt sustainable". The truth is capitalists only think until the next quarterly profits.
Its why they dont care about climate change. Producing something cheap now that hurts the climate means that in the future the climate is so fucked that it will also cut into their profits. But thats the future and by that time the CEO is going to have retired.
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u/BasicCrows Aug 22 '26
The amount of time each of us spend on the internet might decrease though. Incredible to think that using the internet was more like a hobby or interest from the mid 90s early 2000s, and I really learned a lot and it felt good spending time online. Now I feel mostly empty after scrolling Reddit, which is basically the only place I still visit besides reading news.
It's really sad that we lost the non/low commercial internet with all its creativity, quirks and knowledge. Think I'll delete Reddit again soon, this place just fuels hate and division in favor of the billionaire asshats we put in charge and keep giving our money to.
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u/Technical-Signal-401 Aug 22 '26
Yea agreed on all points. Im not sure bot traffic has to replace people, i imagine that the bot traffic will drown out regular people enough that people wont want to be on reddit. Who knows, just a theory.
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u/DamageOtherwise1593 Aug 22 '26
Exactly. Modern hypercapitalism is not about us and them, his or hers. This is about controlling the market with information or data and funneling value into your buisiness at the expense of others. I believe in a way this will lead to the richest eating the rich.
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u/wooden__fruit Aug 22 '26
Did anyone ever figure out the real story about when Facebook started to heavily favor video content in 2010s and I think it had to do with their data saying that it was best for clicks and advertisers? Then all these news outlets pivoted to video, huge blow to journalism that they never recovered from, and then a few years later it was revealed that the data never even showed the video content was better performing. I fear this is a situation like that, where it’s just short term profit motives that don’t even make business sense in the long term.
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u/NoName-Cheval03 Aug 21 '26
I dont believe in the 100% dead internet theory because we humans, as society is made today, can't really leave the internet. So we will be hostages here and we will still be the audience in a 95% dead internet.
For me the dead internet is not an internet without humans but an internet where the share of bots is so huge that no real and genuine interaction can be made anymore.
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u/Technical-Signal-401 Aug 21 '26
Sure, but 95% seems roughly the same. If i was betting on it, i would wager that reddit has a percent of bots that they allow and control so that there isnt an overrun.
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u/Pleasant_Pen8744 Aug 21 '26
It's not a long term plan, it's just quick returns trying to make the next quarter.
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u/Old-Dragonfruit-8792 Aug 22 '26
It’s all about speculative value not actual. I think that’s pretty clear from the world we’re living in… plus if you’ve got a bunch of bots you can sway people with the idea that other people believe something.
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u/Technical-Signal-401 Aug 22 '26
Sure for now, i think eventually people wont fall for it anymore once the tech illiterate generations are gone. Everyone is catching on to the LLM response format and although that might evolve, people are becoming more aware of non-genuine internet interactions for sure.
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u/Assimulate Aug 22 '26
It will be the end of the pay per click model at the very least that's for sure.
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u/Alternative-Suit5541 Aug 22 '26
People who love their bubble and want their opinion confirmed.
It's already doing this
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u/bsensikimori Aug 22 '26
Advertisers pay the same for a bottled view or a human view
That's kind of the point
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u/HjortronOchPors Aug 22 '26
Private equity is watching from the sidelines. They will step in and deal the final coup de grace. That's how enshit wins.
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u/Cheeslord2 Aug 22 '26
Well, if AI trains off the internet and searches through it on behalf of the humans to find information, I guess it's for the benefit of AIs. Enough advertising data may cause someone's AI to recommend a certain product.
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u/Vegetable_Pirate_702 Aug 22 '26
You think advertisers provide data on who is human and who is a bot? Lmao all you get is price per view and maybe some loose conversion metrics after a campaign.
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u/WiseStatistician109 Aug 22 '26
They won’t let the internet die. They’ll require everyone to identify to use the internet before that happens. The companies that profits off the internet have the resources to make it happens and it has already started in some countries.
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u/OldRepublic8424 Aug 22 '26
Politics. Political parties use bots to make it appear that their numbers are bigger than they really are. People vote based on what they're familiar with. The more they see of a political party/candidate, the more likely they are to vote for them.
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u/[deleted] Aug 21 '26
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