According to Wikipedia, the Internet died around 2016. Apparently, I wasn’t invited to the funeral. I’m not upset, though. I never have any shoes for special occasions.
The dead Internet theory is an online conspiracy theory that asserts that the Internet now consists mainly of bot activity and automatically generated content manipulated by algorithmic curation, minimising [sic] organic human activity to manipulate the population.
I’m a pretty imaginative gal, so I picture the Internet as a giant mall, where people go to shop and talk and get their hair done. What the dead Internet theory is saying is that all the people running around buying things and talking to each other aren’t really people. They’re robots that look like people, but they’re not human. Oh, there are some regular humans out there doing their thing, but they’re a small minority. What’s funny is that all those robots are busy talking to each other to make it look like more people are actually doing things.
“Excuse me, Madam, but could you point me to the food court?”
Basically, the Internet looks like a lively place where people are doing their thing, but most of that is automated content pretending to be real people.
And it’s talking to itself!
According to this article, everywhere you look on Facebook, you’ll find images of Jesus Christ merged with a shrimp, because artificial intelligence (AI) content is skyrocketing.
The dead internet theory essentially claims that activity and content on the internet, including social media accounts, are predominantly being created and automated by artificial intelligence agents.
These agents can rapidly create posts alongside AI-generated images designed to farm engagement (clicks, likes, comments) on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. As for shrimp Jesus, it appears AI has learned it’s the current, latest mix of absurdity and religious iconography to go viral.
Some things are just wrong on principle.
…While the shrimp Jesus phenomenon may seem harmless (albeit bizarre), there is potentially a longer-term ploy at hand.
As these AI-driven accounts grow in followers (many fake, some real), the high follower count legitimises the account to real users. This means that out there, an army of accounts is being created. Accounts with high follower counts which could be deployed by those with the highest bid.
This is critically important, as social media is now the primary news source for many users around the world. In Australia, 46% of 18 to 24-year-olds nominated social media as their main source of news last year. This is up from 28% in 2022, taking over from traditional outlets such as radio and TV.
Already, there is strong evidence social media is being manipulated by these inflated bots to sway public opinion with disinformation – and it’s been happening for years.
I’m not a huge fan of regular social media, but I don’t hate it. I don’t mind sharing things I like and enjoy, but I don’t really feel comfortable sharing it all with people who know me in real life. A lot of my struggle with this blog is trying to figure out what it is I want to talk about and finding people who understand my tastes and enjoy the same things I do. I don’t find too many people in the real world that like the same things I do.
So I’m not on Facebook most of the time, and I don’t have an X account. I technically have an Instagram account, but I don’t think I have looked at it for years. I know I haven’t uploaded anything on it.
I don’t feel comfortable getting my news from there, and this whole “dead Internet” thing makes my stomach queasy. I don’t need people with bad intentions using an army of bots to try to sway my thinking.
Right now, I’m sticking to newspapers and traditional news services, but those things are getting harder and harder to find out in the wild. Eventually, “deep fake” videos will be a threat. Brr! Just what we need — a robot Joe Scarborough giving me my morning news!
There’s too much manipulation and misinformation in the world right now. We will all have to keep our eyes open. Meanwhile, I’m going to put on some music and sip a banana colada in my lounge chair, and try to forget that weird “Jesus Shrimp” thing ever existed.
Paisley Tea Cup 