At this point, you could even say that the point of the theory is so obvious, it’s cliché—people talk about longing for the days of weird web design and personal sites and listservs all the time. Even Facebook employees say they miss the “old” internet.
Never heard of the “dead-internet theory” before, but as a lover of the “old” internet, I kind of get how this pretty far-out-there idea got its followers. At least it’s an entertaining, relatively little-threatening conspiracy theory.
theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2021/08/dead-internet-theory-wrong-but-feels-true/619937/