Hear me out. Why might a “dead internet” be a good thing? And of course, by “dead internet” I mean an internet that is increasingly made for bots by bots that humans don’t really use. Let me lay out a couple pro arguments.
- Humans aren’t machines
Duh, you know that. But you wouldn’t know based on how we behave. The average human spends 4 hours and 37 minutes per DAY on their phone. Dovetail that with knowledge workers that spend 7–10 hours per day in front of a digital screen for work. Are you depressed reading those stats? I am. Humans were not biologically wired to sit in front of machines like this.
2. Social Media
We all watched The Social Dilemma, right? I don’t think I really have to explain the negatives of social media. You know them. But quick review — addiction, bullying, social division, bots. (Side note, I’m a human and I’m not letting my em/en dashes go by the wayside). Anyway, social media. Most of the time people spend on the internet, they’re spending it on… social media. Maybe, with garbage AI-generated content, folks will finally realize social media is a time-sink that serves essentially no purpose for anyone.
3. Meeting REAL people
If the internet becomes a place where it’s impossible to know who’s real and who’s fake, people might go back to… meeting people! IRL! Can you imagine? Asking people to dates in person, texting friends to meet you… in person. I’m sure we’ll still have some internet connected experiences we share (like gaming). But maybe, just maybe, we’ll be drawn to attending live events to trust we’re meeting a real human — what a win!
4. Actual entertainment
When every video, podcast, blog, meme is “fake” — will we still be entertained by them? I would bet “no”. We will crave authenticity. And guess what, nothing is more authentic than real life. Maybe we’ll go outside, to live events, enjoy each other’s company more when the internet is a graveyard full of AI-generated junk crafted to sell you more & keep you there.
If you’re terminally online (like me), you might be thinking 2 things: 1. I’ll miss the internet & 2. Going back from online to real-life is an unrealistic pipedream. Let me address both.
I’ll Miss the Internet
I hear you. I see you. I grew up on dial-up internet. Literally couldn’t be on the telephone & internet at the same time (look it up kids!). The internet was magic. You got to read new perspectives, see the world, and have fun. But think about it… is that the internet you know today? The internet served us well but do we really still need it? With AI chatbots/agents, they can use the internet we built. They need it now — we don’t. We all can just talk to our agents and find/post the info we need. We don’t actually need the internet for info discovery, for posting info, for… really anything.
Going Back to Real-Life is a Pipedream
It’s always hardest to imagine a culture-shift before it happens. 100 years ago, I doubt many people thought we’d be where we are. But it starts with us, the future we build, the children we raise, and our choices every single day. I kept this short because I want to practice what I preach. I’m heading outside now. No social media, no news doomscroll. If we’re going to build super smart AI assistants, let them search the internet. They can have it. We have the world.
Footnote: And yes, I’m talking about the “internet” as an end-user web experience rather than the actual plumbing of network communication for the technical folks reading this in case that wasn’t abundantly clear.