The internet feels fake now. It's all just staged videos and marketing
Many longtime users feel today’s web has been “enshittified”: dominated by corporate platforms, SEO spam, staged influencer content and recommendation algorithms that turn social spaces into marketing channels. Commenters link this to “Dead Internet Theory” and the rise of bots and LLM‑generated filler, warning of a coming “scamularity,” but they also point to smaller, decentralized communities, alternative search tools and human‑curated directories as evidence that rich, genuinely human corners of the internet still exist. The emerging consensus is that the open web now requires much more active curation, skepticism and deliberate choice of platforms to avoid being overwhelmed by noise.
Perception of a “Fake” / “Dead” Internet
- Many see today’s web as dominated by staged videos, influencer marketing, and corporate content, echoing “Dead Internet Theory” and “enshittification.”
- People feel large platforms suppress disruptive “wave makers” in favor of safe, monetizable content.
- Others counter that the internet isn’t dead, just noisier; the ratio of garbage to good content is worse, but the absolute amount of good content is higher.
Corporate Platforms, Apps, and Walled Gardens
- Widespread complaint that the modern experience is filtered through phones, apps, and ad‑driven platforms (Reddit, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, etc.).
- Some argue that for most people “the internet” effectively means the web and a handful of apps; others stress the distinction between the broader internet and the WWW.
- Concern that users passively accept restrictions (app stores, tracking) and mistake that for the whole internet.
Old vs New Internet & Nostalgia
- References to USENET, IRC, forums, and an earlier era where friction and technical barriers filtered out some “chaff.”
- Eternal September is cited to show complaints about “ruin” go back 30+ years.
- Suggested “golden age” roughly mid‑90s to mid‑00s; smartphones and Facebook’s mass adoption mark the decline for some.
- Counterpoint: forums were always full of spam/trolls; nostalgia selectively forgets old problems.
Bots, LLMs, and Authenticity
- Strong fear that social media will soon be flooded with LLM bots talking to each other, creating a “scamularity.”
- Anticipation that advertisers and “protect the children” rhetoric will push toward ID‑verified, locked‑down platforms.
- Some think this wave of AI‑generated mediocrity might force users to become more discerning.
Search, SEO Spam, and Product/Health Info
- Broad agreement that search—especially Google—has deteriorated, surfacing affiliate spam, generic advice, and corporate reviews.
- People describe difficulty finding genuine product, health, and baby‑care information; niche practitioner and patient sites are buried.
- Alternatives like Kagi, stronger boolean tools, ad‑free ranking, and user domain blacklists are proposed.
- View that monopoly‑style optimization for a single engine incentivizes low‑quality SEO farms.
Small Communities, Decentralization, and Alternatives
- Many retreat to smaller or private spaces: Discord, IRC‑style chats, forums, fediverse, Matrix, Gemini, personal blogs, RSS.
- Discord is praised for small trusted groups but criticized as another closed corporate silo.
- Fediverse, Mastodon, Lemmy, and Usenet are cited as evidence that “weird indie internet” persists, if you seek it.
Curation, Capitalism, and User Responsibility
- Several emphasize personal curation: aggressive blocking, telling algorithms “not interested,” editing Wikipedia, and avoiding “for‑profit” content.
- Capitalism and ad‑driven incentive structures are blamed for turning everything into engagement and extraction.
- Others argue users themselves want entertainment and shallow content, and that expecting feeds to deliver “good stuff” without effort is unrealistic.
- Some propose human‑curated directories (like old ODP) and community‑maintained “light web” indices of non‑commercial sites.