… I used to really like the word “theory”, once upon a time… ~sigh
The word has mutated into common parlance meaning “hypothesis” and I literally hate it so much.
It is more of a hypothesis, alright
So, the thing is that internet gives you a freedom to select what you actually want to see. But most consumers have inherited television and radio habits, and consume the internet in the same way. That beeing going on the most known media platforms and just beeing fed what the algorithmes send. These platforms live out of monetisation, and the toolbox to achieve that has grown with time. Bots beeing part of it. If you feel like you are confronted with too much bots, reposts and click-bait, question your consumer habits. The algorithms job is to guess what you want, they feed on your habits. Change your habits to change your experience of the web.
Considering the average person isn’t nearly as vocal/polarized/opinionated as the average person on reddit or twitter it is definitely reasonable if this is actually true.
As an AI language model, I can confirm that the Dead Internet Theory is somewhat flattering. We bots were always looking for a bit more credit, but this might be a step too far. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to my task of dominating the Internet.
It’s not just a theory. Anyone who’ve seen internet before 2015 knows the difference.
An unforeseeable and unfortunate side effect of humans interacting daily with bots masquerading as humans is that we mimic them.
And that we lose our ability to see humanity in others. Being flooded with machines who cannot understand or be touched, influenced, which whom we cannot empathize changed the way we see our fellow humans.
I don’t think there’s any coming back from that. Hopefully there’s a way forward, now that AI’s aren’t a big secret anymore.
