Hey kids. So, um there's a theory that's

been circulating around the internet for

the past um couple years which is 100%

true called the dead internet theory. I

want to talk about it briefly and my

take is going to be very simple. It's

not just true. It's actually even worse

than you expect. So, the dead internet

theory is basically this. Okay. So, back

in the day, back when I was a kid, back

when I was on the internet as as a

child, the internet was all it was all

surfing, right? You're you're you're

exploring. You're exploring new sites.

You're finding new things. And all of

those sites obviously are written by

other people, individual people, right?

Uh nowadays that isn't the case. If

you're on the internet, basically all of

your interaction, like all of the data

you're getting is not actually from a

person. It's actually from an algorithm

or nowadays AI. Okay. So a couple years

ago, I did a video that I think was very

preient. Um I think it's aged it's aged

like wine as they say. um is talking

about basically uh how search engines

are unusable today because what search

engines have become is they're really

just frontends for looking at AI

generated content because that that is

all of them have some kind of uh SEO you

know like search engine um optimized

like way of of getting results at the

top and of course people generate you

you just don't see uh sites made by

people anymore in search engines it's

just a frontend for looking at AI

generated crap So no matter what

question you look at, you're going to

click uh you're going to look at a at

search results and it's 100% AI stuff.

Every single site uh is going to if you

really look closely, it's very obvious

or you don't really frankly you don't

have to look closely, it's very obvious

it's AI generated content. Um, so

basically all of your interaction uh

with the web outside quote unquote

outside of social media platforms be

that Facebook or or Reddit or you know

any of these sites uh hopefully none of

which you actually use um is going to be

AI generated content and that's just the

case and honestly we should look at that

as a good thing because I mean the

reality is that the internet you know it

used to be that the internet is um

people had this idea that it's just

going to take over the world. it's going

to be like um uh and part of this is

true it sucks people in and they keep

consuming product or whatever um but at

the same time the internet is like such

a disappointment at this point you know

like people are still using it but

there's so little like for all the

information that's theoretically out

there if

99.99999% of the uh sites on the

internet are just inaccessible from

search engines and you're just going to

get AI generated goop whenever you

search into whatever Google or whatever

um the internet is there's nothing

really there there's nothing there for

us unless you're like back in the '90s,

you know, just randomly typing in URLs

or or searching individual people's

pages, you know. Um, but anyway, what I

mean at the beginning where it's

actually worse than you think is this,

the fact is even when you are

interacting with people on uh social

media sites, you still are getting uh

algorithmic content. you know, let's say

um just to to make it clear what I mean

like you you know the YouTube comments

you see the uh Facebook posts you see uh

obviously the Reddit posts and all these

other things uh which obviously you

shouldn't be using uh you know I don't

know I I don't think people should be

interacting you know individually online

at all um but um you know the the stuff

that you actually see is already curated

for you you know like um so just to be

clear I mean here's an example Right. So

we all know there there have been major

sites on the internet. So Reddit,

Tumblr, 4chan, rest in peace, uh a bunch

of other sites. And each of these sites

have had kind of their own personality

to it, right? You know the archetypical

Redditor personality is very different

from your arctypical 4chan personality

like how people interact online, right?

Very very different. And the reason that

is it's not magical. It's not actually

even self-segregation. What it really is

is when you use these sites, you are

being conditioned to a certain type of

behavior, right? So, if you're on Reddit

where everything is based on up votes

and everything is based on kind of um I

don't know like self-reinforcing like um

uh I I don't know like just patting each

other on the backs, all this kind of

stuff like uh subservient uh uh like

crowdleasing, all this kind of stuff.

That kind of site culture is going to be

very different from the site culture of

like 4chan where basically the you know

oh well you just get seen if you get

reactions by saying something silly or

uh posting a lot or you know being a

little provocative right it's a very

different site culture and therefore a

very different personality now I mention

that because actually uh whenever you're

engaging with a site like that whenever

you're engaging with one of these

interactive sites you are actually being

conditioned into a certain set of

behavior here you are becoming

algorithmic right same thing on Facebook

obviously you know Facebook has a

certain way of doing things you know you

Instagram you you post pictures of

yourself you get reactions all this kind

of stuff um if if we were back in the

old days right when people had uh

individual pages and they didn't really

see I mean that the nice thing about the

old internet is that you could post your

own stuff and you don't really see the

little reactions that people have to it

you know so you actually have a degree

of independence you have a degree of uh

true customiz izability in that like you

don't really fear if you're going to get

downvoted for saying something, right?

But in in these what social media sites

have done really is that they've

engineered personality types. They've

engineered people even even if you are

not um actually talking to a totally

dead internet. Even if you're not

talking to an AI or some kind of script

that's posting random stuff, you are

when you're interacting with people, um

often times it's exactly the same. you

know, like people on YouTube too. Um,

you know, there are a lot of, um,

behaviors I think that, uh, you know,

that are basically universal in YouTube

because that's what YouTube

incentivizes. Like at the beginning of

every video, you do an introduction. You

might even have a song. You might even

put in an ad break. You're going to have

your video uh, oh, like, comment,

comment, and subscribe. All this kind of

behavior. And, um, you know, it it works

on people like it it changes not just

how they present, but how other people

like interact with them. And it creates

a new stand. Like you look at YouTube

videos that are made like I don't know

15 years ago or has it been that long?

Oh my goodness. YouTube's like nearly 20

years old or something like that. But if

you look at videos back then it was

totally different. It was totally um I

don't know it was more like this on

people are just talking in the camera.

But also videos are usually very short

because actually you back in the day

YouTube wanted really short videos

because they didn't have uh the the

bandwidth or the um server space. Now

they just want long stuff so they can

put as many ads as possible. um you know

so just do hourlong uh I I don't know

whatever uh so what was I gonna say so I

think the worrisome thing about the dead

internet is that like we are all

becoming if you're interacting with the

internet a lot you are becoming part of

the dead internet you are becoming

algorithmically generated content there

might be a person behind it there might

be there might be a meaty person with a

soul who's typing things but at the same

time you are being conditioned into

acting like it's you know the other day

actually um I I'm embarrassed to say I

was I was looking up YouTube videos on

credit cards, okay? Uh which I

occasionally do. It's a it's a vice of

my mind mine, especially because

actually credit card YouTube is so uh is

is a great example of like everything is

just al they're all saying the same

thing. They're all saying basically

nothing over and over again. Uh but I I

ran across this certain channel. I'm not

going to say who it is, but I'm like 99%

sure it's just a fake person. It's like

not it's AI generated. It looks I mean

there's a person talking in the screen

and he's saying stuff but it's just it's

in that kind of uncanny valley and uh

you know a lot it's mostly just him

reading what could just be a AI

generated website honestly. Um, and it

but I just got to the point where it's

like, okay, this guy might be AI

generated. But honestly, like he's

producing stuff that's exactly the same

as all the people I know are not AI

generated. And that's even more

worrisome, you know? Like if I can't

even distinguish, like it's one thing,

there are a couple AI generated uh

YouTube channels. Um, there was a a big

tech one back in the day. I don't know

if he still exist. He quote unquote it

still exists. Um, but there are a bunch

of other ones and a lot of times it's

really easy to tell. But it's a shame

where human generated content is

basically the same as AI generated

content at this point. So what's the

solution? Well, I don't know. It's kind

of a self-solving problem to some degree

because the internet itself, like I I

think it really just disincentivizes

people from truly using the internet.

And I think, you know, that obviously

that's the goal, right? You don't want

to you don't want to use the internet

for all this parasocial stuff when you

can just not do it, right? Um but at the

same time you know the the the if there

is I I think this kind of excitement

about the old internet and um you know I

was glad when I did those videos on

making websites you know so many people

did and so many people uh uh now the the

sad part is it's hard to discover those

sites you know it's hard uh other than

uh reading someone's business card you

can't even search this kind of stuff up

on a a search engine anymore

um so that uh it's hard to say but I

don't know there is no solution It just

it just sucks. The internet sucks, guys.

That's it. Maybe you shouldn't use it. I

don't know. I don't think I had anything

else to say.