If you've spent any amount of time wandering through the stranger corners of the Internet, be it Reddit, 4Chan, or conspiracy-themed YouTube channels, you may have bumped into a phrase that sounds like it came from science fiction author Philip K Dick: the dead internet theory. It's the idea that the web we all know and use today -- the sprawling mix of forums, social media feeds, and human conversations that have built online culture -- is no longer alive in the way we think it is.

Supporters of the theory believe that most of the content we scroll past isn't created by real people anymore. Instead, the dead internet theory proposes that online content is mainly generated and amplified by bots, AI language models, click farms, and algorithm-driven scripts designed to push ads, sway opinion, and keep us glued to the feed. Some believers in the theory even argue that authentic human voices have been almost entirely drowned out online.

Whether you see it as a cautionary observation about the growing influence of automation online or just as a fun piece of internet folklore, the phrase has become more popular in the past few years. It taps into a real unease about how genuine today's digital interactions actually are, and who (or what) might be behind them.