“The “Dead Internet Theory” is a concept suggesting that the internet has largely been abandoned by humans and replaced by non-human activity. It posits that most online content, interactions, and engagement metrics are driven by bots, algorithms, and artificial intelligence, creating the illusion of a vibrant, human-driven web.”

  • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    9 hours ago

    Its true, and its more true everyday.

    More and more traffic is servers or bots or LLMs, talking to eachother.

    We’re the minority now, us humans, talking to other humans.

    https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/bots-now-outnumber-humans-on-the-internet-heres-what-that-actually-means/

    https://cybersecuritynews.com/bots-surpass-humans-in-web-traffic/


    Like the dinosaur… You had your time.

    This future is our world. The future is our time.

  • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    Just saw a report on my feed here that said something like 80% of TikTok is AI crap and over 20% of Facebook is. So that means that sites like Threads, Instagram, X, or any other social media is going to have a large percentage of bots, AI and real trolls, and corporate shills over and above those numbers.

    On top of the unaffiliated trolls and shit-stirrers already out there.

    So it’s well on the way to happening.

  • Eh-I@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    How much is from sites that all but abandoned anyway? Like digg or yahoo-answers. How’s gameFAQs these days?

  • AA5B@lemmy.world
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    10 hours ago

    Not ten minutes ago I followed a link to Reddit, researching something from Lemmy.

    The Reddit post had 57 replies. I started scrolling down but did not find any legitimate replies. It was all ad-bots

  • SuspiciousCarrot78@aussie.zone
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    12 hours ago

    Surface internet sure feels dead. That’s why people are moving to places like Lemmy, Discord (yes, I know), private chat groups etc.

    Small web / indie web is a thing too

    https://indieweb.org/small_web

    Dead net is a good problem in a way. Corrals all the shit into one space so you can side step it cleanly.

  • jestho@lemmy.zip
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    12 hours ago

    0100110, ehrm, I mean, that’s just fearmongering. Hey do you have some coolant on you?

  • Kairos@lemmy.today
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    8 hours ago

    The internet has always been like this depending on how you define non-human activity.

  • Nytefyre@piefed.socialBanned
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    14 hours ago

    It’s kind of a hard call to really call the internet entirely dead. It just feels dead and there are portions of where people once were, that is dead. If you’re looking for honest engagement in places where bots are, then you’ll believe the internet is dead.

  • OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
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    18 hours ago

    I believe in live internet theory. Bots are rare and relatively easy to detect, nearly every account I interact with online is a real person.

    People just use the bot thing as a way of explaining away contrary views. I don’t need that explanation, because I have this crazy idea that actual human beings can believe different things and even be wrong.

    • placebo@lemmy.zip
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      13 hours ago

      I agree, in principle, that people call other people bots as a way to insult them. But this is just survivorship bias:

      Bots are relatively easy to detect

      • OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
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        12 hours ago

        Sure, I can’t know if there are bots that are really good at imitating people. But it’s my choice to go them the benefit of the doubt.

        I think the most likely case of encountering a non-obvious bot would be if there’s a human behind it copy-pasting responses, which means there’s still some degree of engagement. If you don’t tailor it to the specific context and don’t double check it, it’s likely not going to be that convincing.

      • OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
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        15 hours ago

        Funny thing, I actually got banned from Twitter ages ago because I just made an account lurk and follow some political accounts and I didn’t Tweet anything or customize my avatar, so it looked exactly like I was a bot follower to boost numbers.

  • 1984@lemmy.today
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    21 hours ago

    Probably. We have daily brainwashing on all platforms, and it’s on Lemmy too.

    They all try to make the user sit and circle jerk over something, wasting their life energy.

    When you get old and you have spend your days playing games or being on social media, you will feel it was a very empty life. Meaning is found when taking to other people in real life, having fun together. But everyone seems to rather sit on their phones or being plugged into music than to talk to strangers and live your life in the real world.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      it’s on Lemmy too.

      Kinda hard to gauge the degree though.

      Are you a bot? Am I a bot? Is anyone reading this or is it all just bots jerking each other off?

      But everyone seems to rather sit on their phones or being plugged into music than to talk to strangers and live your life in the real world.

      I grew up in the 80s.

      People stared at their newspapers/comic books or their Gameboys or had eyes closed listening to head phones or just tried not to make eye contact.

      There was not some golden era when talking to strangers was normal and people were living in the “real” world. Today isn’t nearly as divorced from the past is people like to pretend.

  • Hueristic_Autistic@lemmy.world
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    21 hours ago

    If it weren’t for my family and fiance being in my life I would probably never carry a phone on me ever again. I am dipping my toes into being online and in the house less. I wish I didn’t fucking need to carry a phone though. I wish these devices weren’t a fucking part of life.