Jocelyn - Week 3: The Internet is Dead

Image Source: MSN

The “Dead Internet Theory” refers to the idea that much of the content posted online is AI-generated. It also includes that there is more bot activity than human interaction. This lack of human activity is what makes it “dead.”

We live in the Bay Area, which is now the literal hotspot for AI companies and startups and there are now tons of AI ads around San Francisco. When this first started, I did not expect AI to be so prevalent in my daily life. When generative AI and fake videos were first introduced to me by my dad, I did not expect that they would become so realistic so soon.

Although I pay close attention to the content I watch on social media, I have probably consumed fake videos before without even realizing it. 

A few days ago, I came across this reel while scrolling on Instagram. It highlighted how easily I could be deceived by AI videos. If I had not been informed in the video that the “people” were AI-generated, I would have never recognized it. The convincingness of the video shows that soon, we will struggle to identify the true identities of content creators. 

This difficulty in differentiating between human-created and AI-generated content raises many concerns. Users will not be able to trust what they see online until they see it in person. The public cannot be certain of anything that comes up on the internet or TV, including the news. This is concerning because people will not be able to trust reporters and their accounts of what is happening in the world. In TV and social media, humans will be much less connected to the outside world and other people. Social media becomes a platform used to maximize profit with automated bots generating content and competing for engagement, rather than a place for people to interact with other humans.

Additionally, with algorithms, AI-generated content can easily and effectively manipulate users’ opinions. This goes hand in hand with censorship and could be used to control the public’s beliefs.

After realizing that the Dead Internet Theory actually exists and seeing the reel shine light on what AI is truly capable of doing, I am going to be much more wary of the content that I consume online. This is the twisted reality that we live in now, where it is difficult to differentiate what is human and what is not. 

Comments

  1. Palash DesaiSeptember 28, 2026 at 11:21 PM

    I thought your discussion of the Dead Internet Theory was really interesting, especially because you were able to connect something that can seem like a distant issue with how we actually use social media every day. The example of the Instagram reel stood out to me because it shows how convincing AI-generated content has become; if you were not told that the people in the video were generated, you probably would not have thought back at it.

    Your point about trust also made me think about how much of our understanding of the world now comes from the things we see online on a daily basis. If it becomes harder to tell whether something was generated or created by a real person, the problem becomes how willing we are to believe real information when it comes to us; not that we saw a fake video. I wonder if us becoming increasingly skeptical towards such things can create a different social problem; people starting to doubt legitimate information because they are unable to verify its source.

    The connection between generated content and algorithms was interesting because the two look like they work in parallel; one creates the content and the other determines what content gets shown to people. It makes me wonder which aspect of it is the real problem. Is it the AI itself or the way platforms choose to use it? Being more careful with the content you consume is really important which you pointed at in the end because we cannot completely avoid AI anymore. We have to become better at questioning what we see and its reliability.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Francesca MacapagalSeptember 30, 2026 at 8:26 PM


    Hi Jocelyn! I found it meaningful that you were able to admit that you’ve been fooled by AI in the past. I think everyone’s done it before, but not everyone is willing to say it out loud. I feel like a lot of people pretend they can tell the difference between AI content and real life when they really can’t, causing some big issues to be swept under the rug. But in my opinion, this is something that we really need to talk about.

    You highlighted a really important issue in your blog–a lack of trust in the stuff we see online. Today, many kids use social media as a lens through which to view reality. Social media has never been a reliable source (as you said in your discussion of algorithms), but it is an even bigger issue now that people can easily generate convincing fake content. Because of this, I think it’s not only important to treat the stuff we see online with a large amount of scrutiny, but also to reconnect with the real world outside of the Internet.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jocelyn - Week 1: Underneath the Waves

Image
A view of the ocean similar to the one I saw (Photo credit: Bay Area Telegraph - Thomas Smith ) The sun barely makes it through the clouds. The breeze blows through my hair. My brother and I carefully walk in the sand, with our sneakers still on, and take in the view of the ocean. We are in Half Moon Bay , our parents stand on the trail with our bikes and take a break. I look towards the horizon where the sky touches the sea. Even though it is a rather chilly day, the ocean is still beautiful. Like the ocean, our identity has a public surface and layers that get much less light the deeper you go. Most of my time I spend in school or in other public spaces. On the surface, I project a version of my identity to teachers and classmates. Personally, this changes frequently depending on my mood, just like the weather changes how the ocean looks on top. Underneath this, there is a deeper layer. This is my identity as it is shown to my close friends and family. Light reaches this layer when I...
Read more

Aadi Bhojwani: Week 1 - There's No Limit to the Larp

Image
Quite a while back—I do not remember exactly when—I watched a movie—the title of which I also do not remember—where the characters are doing normal movie stuff and end up stumbling upon a park full of people dressed in medieval clothing. The central characters interact with some of the people briefly before deciding to leave, muttering something like, “let’s get away from these weirdos.” I was thoroughly confused. What was wrong with them simply choosing to express themselves through a little bit of roleplay? It honestly looked kind of fun. That form of LARPing I can definitely get behind. Unfortunately, when larping is mentioned today, that harmless fun is rarely what people are talking about. In modern day slang and media, the term is no longer refers to a literal game, and rather has become a cynical critique: the act of pretending to have an interest in, or be part of something, that you’re not. While this new slang has not deviated much from the roleplay aspect, the intention behi...
Read more

Francesca - Week 1: Digital Dialects

Image
When I was an insecure, anxiety-ridden preteen, I was obsessed with overanalyzing the way people texted. And now that I’m looking back on it, it was honestly really creepy and concerning. I was terrified of being left out, so I would monitor how close certain friends were getting with each other by studying the similarities in their texting styles. I’d also carefully reference the texts of people I liked to pick out words and phrases that I thought would make me seem cooler.  It did not, in fact, make me seem cooler.  It made people wonder why I would read their messages and type for five minutes straight before sending “aight, thx.”  Thankfully, I’m past that point in my life now. Even though I’ve left all the paranoia behind, I never stopped noticing the little choices and quirks that make everybody’s individual texting styles different. The more I think about it, the more I realize that texting can tell you a lot about a person–just maybe not as much as pre-teen me tho...
Read more