Dead Internet: Motherfucking Shit, Goddamn Asshole

[DISCLAIMER]

On his fifth album Life Is... Too $hort (1989), rapper Too $hort released the track “CussWords” which was an oft-repeated song among my friends and I in childhood. In my youth, I like that the rapper began his song by asking, “So, you motherfuckers thought I was gonna change my style?”

That set the tone for just under eight minutes of raw lyrics that, from the perspective of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), provided content about which people could self-distress or self-disturb when using unhelpful irrational beliefs. I respected Too $hort for his authenticity!

Per one source, “[I]n psychotherapy and counseling, [authenticity is] genuineness and caring demonstrated by the therapist or counselor through a down-to-earth attitude that the client senses to be a reflection of the true person and not simply of a professional acting in their professional role.”

Just as I valued Too $hort’s authenticity when I was in junior high school, I present my true self when providing psychoeducational lessons regarding care for mental, emotional, and behavioral health (collectively “mental health”). I’m a real motherfucker, if you know what I mean.

I state this, because I’ve become aware of how artificial intelligence, artificial general intelligence, machine learning, deep learning, large language models, chatbots, etc. (collectively “AI”) have apparently taken over the Internet. For context, one source states:

The dead Internet theory is a conspiracy theory that asserts that, since around 2016, the Internet has consisted primarily of bot activity and automated content manipulated by algorithmic curation. This alleged coordinated effort aims to control the population and reduce genuine human interaction.

Supporters of the theory claim that social bots were deliberately created to manipulate algorithms and enhance search results to influence consumers. Some proponents also accuse government agencies of using bots to shape public perception and opinions.

The dead Internet theory gained renewed interest following the AI boom that began in the 2020s, with large language model (LLM) chatbots and text-to-image models emerging as technologies that could theoretically drown out human-authored content on the web.

In the time since, social media sites have seen a measured increase in bot activity, such as algorithmic feeds displaying low-quality AI slop at the expense of user-generated content. Despite there being no evidence of a conspiracy, commentators have linked some aspects of the dead Internet theory to this rise in generative content across social media.

Sources see the theory as having some amount of truth behind it, or as offering a potentially realistic prediction of the Internet’s future. One source uses the term “Dead Internet” to describe spaces online that host generative content, explicitly dropping the word “theory”.

For context, a separate source states, “A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that asserts the existence of a conspiracy (generally by powerful sinister groups, often political in motivation), when other explanations are more probable.”

Concerning the negative connotation related to so-called conspiracy theories, in 1996 the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) drafted a memo to address John F. Kennedy (JFK) assassination conspiracy theories in which the Agency stated:

To employ propaganda assets to answer and refute the attacks of the critics. Book reviews and feature articles are particularly appropriate for this purpose. The unclassified attachments to this guidance should provide useful background material for passage to assets.

Our play should point out, as applicable, that the critics are (i) wedded to theories adopted before the evidence was in, (ii) politically interested, (iii) financially interested , (iv) hasty and inaccurate in their research, or (v) infatuated with their own theories […] The aim of this dispatch is to provide material for countering and discrediting the claims of the conspiracy theorists, so as to inhibit the circulation of such claims in other countries.

Although it seems reasonable that the CIA would want to describe factual information regarding JFK’s death – as the Agency accurately detailed how irrational beliefs and perverse incentives may impair rationality – the CIA erred in prescribing what should, must, or ought to be done regarding such supposed conspiracy theories.

This description versus prescription distinction is notable, in that referring to the “dead Internet theory” rather than merely the “dead Internet” may be advisable (i.e., prescriptive) so that people won’t offhandedly dismiss criticism of AI influence over the Internet (i.e., descriptive).

For the sake of argument, let’s suppose that there’s “no evidence” for the “dead Internet theory,” as the aforementioned source proposes. Fine. Is there evidence of influence from AI on the Internet as a whole? According to one March 4, 2026 source:

[N]ot all bots are created equal.

On one end of the spectrum, we have “good bots,” like search engine crawlers. These bots systematically scan websites to help platforms like Google or Bing organize the internet, so users can find the right content in a fraction of a second. Other good bots might monitor site performance or support customer support chats.

You can thank these bots for making your experience online run smoothly.

On the other end are “bad bots.” These include scrapers that steal content, spammers that flood forms with junk submissions, and malicious tools used for DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks, overwhelming servers until websites crash.

For advertisers and marketers, bad bots can be especially costly. Click fraud bots can eat into ad spend and inflate engagement metrics for your campaigns. […]

According to recent reports, automated traffic has surpassed human activity, accounting for 51% of all web traffic. Bad bots, specifically, make up 37% of all internet traffic. Year over year, bots on the internet increase.

The proposal of a “dead Internet” is that there is plausibly more AI activity than human interaction online. According to the previous source, this is as authentic a claim as Too $hort opening “CussWords” with a cussword (a derogatory term). Per the State of AI Traffic report:

Key findings

·     Automated traffic grew 8x faster than human traffic, year over year.

·     Monthly volumes of AI-driven traffic grew 187% from January to December 2025, nearly tripling over the calendar year.

·     Traffic from AI agents and agentic browsers grew 7,851% year over year.

·     More than 95% of AI-driven traffic in 2025 was concentrated in three industries: retail and e-commerce, streaming and media, and travel and hospitality.

·     The median percentage of traffic attempting a scraping attack is approaching 20% globally in 2025, nearly double the rate in 2022.

·     Post-login account compromise attempts more than quadrupled year over year, with HUMAN flagging an average of 402,000 per organization.

In layperson terms, the function of AI for Internet usage appears to be growing at such a rate that the current over-half interaction from non-human entities will predictably increase in the years to come. If “dead Internet” constitutes less human interaction online, we’re already there!

At this point in the blogpost you may wonder what any of this has to do with mental health. Presuming you’re not an AI product, then I applaud your use of critical thinking, the fallible human being you so characteristically are!

From time to time, I monitor websites regarding professional practitioners of mental health. Increasingly, I’ve encountered what appears to be little more than AI slop (digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of AI).

Admittedly, I use AI images on my website and blog. This is due to increasing use of copyright trolls (parties which enforce copyrights for purposes of making money through strategic litigation, often in a manner considered unduly aggressive or opportunistic).

For instance, if I post a link to a photo of a news media source pertaining to a blogpost for REBT psychoeducation, then I may receive litigious threats with demands for thousands of dollars in proposed “settlement” fees. Disrespectfully, fuck each and every one of those trolling entities!

I unconditionally accept the fallibility of copyright trolls while also maintaining the sentiment of my hippie dad who stated of his stance on the United States government, “Peace, and fuck you anyway!” Yet, I digress.

I’ve observed many mental health online written sources which seem to be AI-driven. What does a digital entity understand about the human condition (part of being a human)? Nothing! This is why each and every one of my over 2,000 blogposts is (poorly) written by me.

I’m not a perfect being, nor am I presenting in-authentically. This is why I write my blogposts, even as I host AI images which (for now) are relatively safe to use without copyright trolls targeting me. Thus, I appreciate the authentic manner in which Too $hort ended “CussWords”:

Cusswords, just let ‘em roll

Motherfucking shit, goddamn asshole

Cusswords, just don’t quit

Motherfuck you, damn shithead bitch

It’s Too $hort on the mic, and it don’t stop

And it don’t stop, and it won’t stop, beeatch

Check out my style!

Perhaps you don’t appreciate authenticity. Maybe you prefer a manufactured AI chasm devoid of understanding in regard to the human condition, which I refer to as the “digital Ouija” with which people consort online, so you seek an in-authentic mental health experience. Fine.

I’m not for everyone! The dead Internet is growing by the minute, as I have little doubt that you can interact with the superficial conglomeration of human knowledge siphoned through one virtual end and out the other, à la The Human Centipede. Have at it! Sop that shit up!

Alternatively, if you want to interact with an imperfect being – much as you so inescapably are – then look no further. Among the zombies of the dead Internet, I’ve survived while looking for other fallible human beings. Why not see if we can get some work done while we’re here?

If you’re looking for a provider who tries to work to help you understand how thinking impacts physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral elements of your life, I invite you to reach out today by using the contact widget on my website.

As the world’s foremost hip hop-influenced REBT psychotherapist, I’m pleased to try to help people with an assortment of issues from anger (hostility, rage, and aggression) to relational issues, adjustment matters, trauma experience, justice involvement, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and depression, and other mood or personality-related matters.

At Hollings Therapy, LLC, serving all of Texas, I aim to treat clients with dignity and respect while offering a multi-lensed approach to the practice of psychotherapy and life coaching. My mission includes: Prioritizing the cognitive and emotive needs of clients, an overall reduction in client suffering, and supporting sustainable growth for the clients I serve. Rather than simply trying to help you to feel better, I want to try to help you get better!

Deric Hollings, LPC, LCSW

Photo credit (edited), Designed by Freepik, fair use

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