Alexis Ohanian Declares the Internet Dead, but the Humans Are Refusing to Log Off 👋🏿

“Much of the internet is now dead,” says Reddit’s Alexis Ohanian. “We’ll need proof of life for the next wave of social platforms.”

If you’ve been scrolling lately and thinking, “Everyone online sounds a little… off,” you’re not alone. Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian agrees, and he’s gone ahead and called it: “Much of the internet is now dead.”

Cue the funeral procession: one last scroll through TikTok, a eulogy delivered via voice filter, and a thousand spam bots leaving comments that say, “So true bestie ❤️ click my link for more.”

Step One: Identifying the Body

Ohanian’s diagnosis is grim but relatable. “The internet we grew up with, where you could tell a real person was behind every post, that’s gone,” he said in a recent podcast chat. What’s replaced it? A soulless ocean of AI chatter, SEO sludge, and bots pretending to have opinions about your dog photos.

It’s gotten so uncanny that half of X (formerly Twitter) feels like a group chat between ChatGPTs. Try replying to one of them with a meme and you’ll get, “That’s fascinating insight, user! Would you like to collaborate?”

Step Two: Proof of Life

Ohanian isn’t ready to let the bots win. He says we’ll need a “proof of life” system for the next generation of platforms, not facial recognition or creepy surveillance, just something that proves a human’s actually behind the keyboard, tap-tap-tapping at the keys.

Think CAPTCHA, but instead of picking out stoplights, you’d be asked to choose which photo shows a real home-cooked meal versus an AI-generated disaster … the kind of image where spaghetti melts into the table and everyone has six fingers.

Step Three: Remember What Made the Old Internet Fun

Before every post was optimized for engagement, people used to just post. Pretty badly, too. You’d find MySpace pages with blinking text, forums where people fought about whether Pluto was a planet, and early YouTube comments that now read like ancient runes. 📜

That chaos was alive. It was imperfect, messy, and gloriously human. Bots don’t post cat fails or late-night shower thoughts about spaghetti. They post “Top 10 Ways to Monetize Your Morning Routine.”

Step Four: CPR for the Web

Here’s Ohanian’s prescription (and it doesn’t require a subscription tier):

Bring back small group chats. Think digital campfires, not stadiums.
Embrace weirdness. Real people make typos, change topics mid-sentence, and post unflattering selfies. Celebrate that.
Engage like a person, not an algorithm. Reply with something unpredictable, like “I also eat shredded cheese at 2 a.m.”
Quit doomscrolling. Half of what you’re scrolling isn’t even alive.

Step Five: The Resurrection

Yes, parts of the internet are zombified: reposted, scraped, and reworded beyond recognition, but Ohanian believes the soul of it can still be saved. The key is rewarding authenticity over automation.

That means valuing community over clicks, curiosity over content farms, and people who still type “LOL” because they actually laughed.

Final Step: Say a Few Kind Words

Rest easy, dear Internet. You gave us memes, Wikipedia rabbit holes, and the ability to argue with strangers at 2 a.m. You may be mostly bots now, but some of us are still out here. 👋🏿 We’re messy, we’re loud, and we’re gloriously human and keeping your memory alive one awkward post at a time. 🙈

Proof of life: posted.