We know the core of the theory itself, but I'm wondering if people can talk of other reasons why. I'll start.

I think what contributes to the dead internet theory, is the extreme sanitation measures that platforms online have taken. Now I'm not saying that I advocate for the idea of people to be able to get away with spamming racial slurs or derogatory terms to be in everyday discussion. But, it does narrow down what people can generally say or discuss. A lot of the time, people seem to not be ready yet to tackle difficult discussions or topics without getting emotionally charged about it.

So that in turn, makes it so the only kind of discussions and talk you see is just softball kinds. You know, like discussing sports teams, the weather and vice versa.

The other thing I think contributes to dead internet theory are assholes online. Nobody likes interacting with assholes and toxic people in general. It gets tiresome to have to go to a platform thinking the experience will be good, only to find that there's pockets of people who determined their life's purpose, to be a jackass to anyone they come across.

And over time, nobody wants to deal with that shit so they leave. And leaving hurts communities. If there's no community for anyone to participate in, then it is as good as dead and gone.

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[–] 1 point 2 hours ago*

I think it's just sameness fatigue.

You have to observe the process for a while to understand the dynamic and when you do, it can appear that everything is just cyclic and boring. So an unbelievable number of people are now "aging out" of the 10-15 year period of exposure you need to understand what's worth engaging with and what isn't.

It's a certain realization that the original utopia of an interconnected places where everyone can share and everyone is interested in a broad number of topics and everyone can be nice for the purpose of discussion, is ending. Maybe I don't care for the big platform that has everything and everyone, because most of everything and most of everyone is not actually interesting to me. Regardless of whether they're bots or not.

If it's entertaining, it being fake isn't a problem. But if it's fake AND boring... why stick around.

tldr: the internet hasn't changed, we have. Or it did, but that's not the point.

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