Forem: Milos Cirjakovic

Offline Souls, Online Noise (Dead Internet) PART 2

Milos Cirjakovic — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 20:15:14 +0000

Psychological Effects of the “Dead Internet”

Erosion of Trust
When you don’t know whether you’re talking to a person or a bot, you lose the basic trust that makes communication human.
This leads to paranoia (“is this comment real?”), emotional withdrawal (less sharing, more doubt), and a loss of belonging.

Digital Gaslighting
The internet “convinces” you that everyone thinks the same, that there are things you must know, that you’re alone if you think differently.
If a thousand comments say the same thing, even if they’re all generated, you start doubting yourself.
It’s a modern version of gaslighting: false content shapes your real opinions.

Emotional Emptiness and Anxiety
Monotonous content causes saturation. You watch, read, scroll, but you don’t feel connected.
There’s less joy, and more restlessness.
It’s the classic digital trap: you consume more, but feel less.

Fragmentation of Identity
When you’re constantly surrounded by content “designed to please you,” you lose touch with who you really are.
You forget what genuinely interests you because the algorithm keeps offering what you’re supposed to like.
You become a reflection of reflections.

Loneliness in the Crowd
More and more people feel a deep sense of loneliness.
Because interactions aren’t real, conversations lack depth, and no one truly listens.
It’s like being trapped in a digital hallway full of echoes.

Loss of Orientation in Reality
If the content you read is automated, fake news is presented as truth, and AI generates images, voices, people, and comments, you lose your sense of what’s real.
And when you don’t know what’s real, you feel insecure, mentally drained, and out of control.

“Modern man feels himself to be alone, isolated, and deeply anxious in the world he has created.”
— Erich Fromm, The Sane Society

Example of Potential Manipulation

In the digital era of the “dead internet,” political manipulation doesn’t come through visible campaigns, but through the silent work of bots and AI systems shaping our perception of reality.

When thousands of accounts appear online praising one candidate or attacking another, the average user perceives it as “the voice of the people” — even though the comments are generated, the profiles fake, and the emotions simulated.

This way, an artificial illusion of consensus or dissatisfaction is created, influencing undecided voters and discouraging participation in elections.
Such tactics have been seen worldwide — from the U.S. and Brexit to India and Turkey — where bot networks were used to polarize, spread misinformation, and psychologically shape the masses.
In such an environment, you can no longer tell whether you’re looking at political reality — or its algorithmic imitation.

Criticisms of the Theory

Every serious theory must withstand healthy criticism to maintain credibility.
Here are the main critiques surrounding the “Dead Internet” idea:

Lack of Solid Evidence
There is no public data that definitively proves most of the internet is “dead.”
Much of what feels artificial is actually written by people — just automatically, by habit.
Humans Write Like Bots
Instead of bots imitating humans, some argue that humans now imitate bots.
Recycled headlines (“5 things you must know…”),
Trend-based phrases,
Template-like TikTok tone,
Copied thoughts from Reddit or X.
The Theory Might Be More Metaphor Than Reality
Many serious analysts accept that the Dead Internet Theory has symbolic value — it reflects the loss of meaning, spontaneity, and soul in what was once the digital agora.
Platforms Still Contain Real People
Despite automation, billions of users still create content daily:
Discord communities,
Niche forums,
YouTube comments,
Independent blogs and newsletters.

Conclusion

— I saw a post this morning, it sounded really convincing.
— Did you check who wrote it?
— Well, no… it seemed real.
— That’s exactly why you need to be careful. Online, reality easily becomes simulation.
— So how do I know what to believe?
— By learning to read between the lines.

Offline Souls, Online Noise (Dead Internet) PART 1

Milos Cirjakovic — Sat, 08 Nov 2025 18:12:47 +0000

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.