The fact that you, a human, asked this question, and got a variety of human replies is why I would say no.
I know that the dead internet theory doesn’t say that all internet activity is bots, but certainly the internet that I experience, there is abundant humanity.
However, I am a nerd who inhabits quite niche spaces, so my experience is far from the typical. Having the knowledge and stubbornness to find spaces like this puts me in a kind of bubble, where it’s hard for me to gauge whether we’re actually at the point of “dead internet”.
In all likelihood, my answer is “no”, because I need it to be. I love the internet. I grew up online, and as a very lonely child, the internet was a key part of my identity formation. As an adult, the internet is how I access community and learning. As grim as things are, I think I’m a utopian at heart.
Like I say, I realise that my online experience is far from what most people experience, and I do find it sad that most people probably do experience a much deader internet than I do. But the reason why I’m here, putting time and care into comments like this is because this is one of the ways that I am trying to keep the internet alive. “Dead” is a binary, which suggests the battle is already over. I believe the internet is dying, for sure, but I can’t reconcile the notion of a dead internet with all the vibrant communities of people who are making stuff they care about, in defiance of the slop economy.
The fact that you, a human, asked this question, and got a variety of human replies is why I would say no.
Well they are on the fediverse/lemmy. It’s not dead, yet, simply because there aren’t enough users to create a RoI for bot/karma farming in order to push advertising and disinformation to the top.
I recently saw an internal report estimating that dark fibre in a particular country needed to increase several hundred percent in order to meet the demand from data centre and large facilities transmission needs.
Much of this being built for the AI bubble boom. When the next generation of DC come online the cost of per bot will continue to tumble to the point where it won’t cost much to turn even Lemmy into a bot ridden wasteland.
The fact that you, a human, asked this question, and got a variety of human replies is why I would say no.
I know that the dead internet theory doesn’t say that all internet activity is bots, but certainly the internet that I experience, there is abundant humanity.
However, I am a nerd who inhabits quite niche spaces, so my experience is far from the typical. Having the knowledge and stubbornness to find spaces like this puts me in a kind of bubble, where it’s hard for me to gauge whether we’re actually at the point of “dead internet”.
In all likelihood, my answer is “no”, because I need it to be. I love the internet. I grew up online, and as a very lonely child, the internet was a key part of my identity formation. As an adult, the internet is how I access community and learning. As grim as things are, I think I’m a utopian at heart.
Like I say, I realise that my online experience is far from what most people experience, and I do find it sad that most people probably do experience a much deader internet than I do. But the reason why I’m here, putting time and care into comments like this is because this is one of the ways that I am trying to keep the internet alive. “Dead” is a binary, which suggests the battle is already over. I believe the internet is dying, for sure, but I can’t reconcile the notion of a dead internet with all the vibrant communities of people who are making stuff they care about, in defiance of the slop economy.
Well they are on the fediverse/lemmy. It’s not dead, yet, simply because there aren’t enough users to create a RoI for bot/karma farming in order to push advertising and disinformation to the top.
I recently saw an internal report estimating that dark fibre in a particular country needed to increase several hundred percent in order to meet the demand from data centre and large facilities transmission needs.
Much of this being built for the AI
bubbleboom. When the next generation of DC come online the cost of per bot will continue to tumble to the point where it won’t cost much to turn even Lemmy into a bot ridden wasteland.