Why the internet feels so
dead right now

By Markus Backman

April 16th, 2025

Ah, internet. It's full of content, yet it feels so empty. You are not alone, this is what it may have come to in 2025. That may sound as a bold statement. In fact, the amount of internet users are growing each day, and more and more are getting access to it. Would that not then be a contradictory statement?

Yes, it's true that more and more users get access to the internet, and that more and more of everything is becoming digitalized. I'm thinking of something else here, something more deep; We've come to the point where everything internet has become just so dull in recent years.

Less and less feels original, while things doesn't seem as interesting as before. It spans from social media to everyday browsing of Google. I've compiled every spectrum here I think has become so boring, and their reasons to it.

Yes, this kind of a cynical article, with my views on why the "internet feels so empty now". This is more of a philosophical viewpoint. Without a doubt, the internet provides us with so many wonderful things, but simultaneously, it feels like much is missing.

Dead internet theory

Have you heard about the conspiracy theory Dead internet theory? Well, the theory emerged around 2021, claiming most of the internet is run by bots and other automatically generated content. There are beliefs that social bots intentionally help manipulate algorithms and boost search results in order to manipulate consumers.

Is this true? Well, I believe most of the statements are pretty cynical, something I would place under scrutiny. However, there are still many factors that have lead to the internet "dying", but it doesn't mean it's the result of some kind of "evil government", trying to manipulate the internet.

1. AI has reshaped content and information

Since early 2023 when OpenAI's ChatGPT was launched, it changed the internet. It's a service utilizing generative AI, able to answer any question imaginable by its chatbot feature. It's able to scrape up any kind of information available on most parts of the internet. This has changed how we search for information, and how we generally behave on the internet.

More and more corners of the internet have become filled up with generatively created content and information that lack something important; originality and excitement of content.

While these AI inventions brings a lot of good to the table, it simultaneously brings less of the "new" stuff, content created purely by humans. The problem is that they recycle old content, which disrupts the innovation of new content emerging.

Think about it, a blog post generated by AI gets the information from somewhere, in this case old blog posts or similar. sources. It then rephrases and summarizes the information from these and create another version of it. When this trend keeps accumulating, less original content keeps being seen. It kind of makes things boring and less innovative at the same time it's so convenient.

2. Algorithmic change

In the last years, you may have seen how algorithms have changed into AI-driven ones. The promise of AI technology was to help us like a co-pilot, to assist us in our internet journeys, but I am placing this statement under scrutiny.

I believe AI brings lots of productive elements to the table, but it's not always like that. AI algorithms are supposed to provide us with more relevant recommendations, and assisting us in finding what we are looking for when on the internet.

But are these hyper-optimized AI-driven algorithms really helping us in getting the best out of it all and make our experiences greater? They disrupt the free mind, and impair our judgement making our own choices. Maybe too much is too much, speaking of algorithms.

3. Excessive advertising

You may have seen all sorts of ads and promotional content lurking in every imaginable corner like never before. This has gone out of hand.

Yes, advertisements were always there, and of course it's understandable that many of the free services must be finances somehow; with paid media.

It's just that in recent years it's different. Go and search something on Google and you'll see and overwhelmingly large amount of ads placed here and there. These advertisements used to be secondary, not primary as of now. They disrupt the user-experience of, let's say trying to find something useful on Google.

The same applies to all social media channels, and video platforms like YouTube; advertisements are taking up too much of the space.

It may be even hard to distinguish this commercialized content from non-commercial content, making the online experience even less enjoyable.

4. Social media is no longer the same

This factor may be one of the most interesting ones. Social media has become so algorithm-based that it has changed more than just our habits.

Social media has become something much more than just fun platforms to reach out to our friends with. Algorithms decide what we want to see, and it works. It has the ability to change people beliefs and judgement of many things, from political views to what diet is the right one.

Another big problem with social media is that not much is fact-checked. Are the statements and opinions true or not? It's harder to use your own judgement about the correctness social media content.

It wasn't exactly like this, let's say 10 years ago. I feel like we had more of a choice back then when it came to social media. Content and information wasn't pushed to us like it is now. We had more control of content, and let's say who we chose to follow at that time.

Now, with algorithms bringing all the information to us, rather than us being in total control of choosing who we'll follow, and what kind of content we engage with, I feel like it results in an social media environment where the user really "creates" their own network they want.

5. Search has changed

I've talked about this before, Google. World's biggest search engine has come to the point it makes less and less sense when browsing it and looking up information.

Despite Google’s promises with the Helpful Content Update in 2022 to turn the search engine “people-first”, it seems that the opposite has happened.

More and more on what we see on Google has become Irrelevant or low-quality that won't serve the user. Intrusive advertisements and sponsored content seems to be the priority now, setting the search results you are actually looking for aside.

Conclusion: The internet is full, yet feels empty

Saying that the internet feels dead is a wild statement. In 2025, the internet is more populated than ever, but paradoxically, it feels emptier. We’re surrounded by content, yet starved for originality. Generative AI, algorithmic development, excessive advertising, and the commercialization of search and social media have slowly drained the sense of discovery and authenticity that once defined the excitement of the web.

What used to feel like a digital frontier now feels like a carefully curated shopping mall — clean, predictable, and frankly, uninspired. We no longer stumble upon things; we are shown what algorithms think we want to see. We’re not exploring the internet anymore, but we’re scrolling through a feed designed by machines.

This isn’t necessarily a call to abandon the internet. But maybe it’s time to rethink how we use it, and how much power we give over to automation, optimization, and monetization. I think the digital world just needs more humanity again — more curiosity, more chaos, and more voices that don’t sound like they’ve been scraped from a hundred others.

Keep in mind that this is is more of a philosophical viewpoint. It can be taken with a grain of salt. Surely, the internet provides us with so many wonderful things, but simultaneously, it feels like much is missing, it doesn't mean that I claim that the internet should be abolished, that would be counterproductive to what we do at Ikius, really.

The internet isn't dead. But it could really use some kind of a reboot.