Burnt plastic, stainless steel, clouds, sweat and rubber. These were the answers gathered from a Reddit thread asking: what does the internet smell like? It may seem nonsensical to assign a scent to something metaphysical, but if the internet can be seen visually and experienced corporeally – the addictive rush of dopamine from likes, the anxiety from work emails or the anger provoked by ragebait – is it really so far-fetched to imagine that it has a smell?

While it’s easy to think of the internet as a weightless network of information, really it is housed in windowless buildings that hum through the night, in thick fibre-optic cables dragged across ocean floors, and servers running hot enough to require constant cooling. Looked at that way, it’s easy to understand why the answers in the Reddit thread leaned towards more material, earthly scents. Suggestions included the warm, dusty scent of early dial-up modems, the sticky screens of iPhones, or the baked-warmth of laptops in libraries. 

These ideas aren’t just limited to Reddit threads. In recent years, several leading perfumers have tried to bottle the scent of the internet. One example is Y06-S Eau de Parfum by Blackbird, which smells like overheating electronics, paired with the interesting choice of banana. At the more conceptual end is The Hmm’s Hmmosphere: inspired by a field trip to an Amsterdam data centre, the fragrance is designed to smell like cooled servers and the surrounding environment, with notes of “ancient computer dust, soft yellowing plastics, moss, wet dirt, and strong cellar vibes.”

The latest off-kilter perfume to draw inspiration from the world of technology is Skype by Unjust, a brand which also sells a wide range of internet-related jewellery, from a Windows 98 bracelet to a wallet in the shape of an old-timey error message. The scent lists notes that are ozonic, citrusy and grassy, capturing “the nostalgia and calm optimism of the early Skype-era design.”  Following a similar composition, John Phillips’ WhatsApp Eau de Parfum became a fragrance meme for its somewhat random association with the messaging platform. The reference is left unexplained by the brand, although it assures us that WhatsApp Perfume “[emanates] sophistication” and makes the perfect choice for “the contemporary individual who craves distinction.”

The internet’s growing popularity in the world of fragrance is further proof that it has become part of lived bodily experience, rather than remaining a purely digital or virtual space. This is best understood through the idea of embodied perception, which suggests that we do not experience the world as abstract information, but through the physical and emotional responses of the body. So if the internet is something we can see, feel and smell – and now connect with through AI – it begins to take on a more physical form.

Some internet-inspired scents use both physical and metaphysical ideas to create their scents. Cero by Agar Olfactory is inspired by the technological anxieties of the year 1999, when it was widely believed that the Millennium Bug would lead to a catastrophe where, as the fragrance notes put it, “Computers overheat in confusion, fax machines whirr with incorrect calendar dates, and hot wires melt their protective encasing in technological protest.” In order to capture this, the fragrance uses notes of hot fax machine, mouse pad, mac carcass, and tattered wire.

In this way, many of these scents are not trying to recreate the internet literally, but to capture emotional atmospheres, affects and aesthetics associated with particular technological moments. Smells associated with early digital culture are often clean – it was a time when the internet was still felt fresh – and lean on the Frutiger Aero design aesthetic of the 2000s-early 2010s, which was characterised by glossy, cool and skeuomorphic visuals, green fields and bright blue skies which evoked a sunny optimism. It makes you wonder: what would a perfume inspired by the state of the internet today smell like? What notes would capture its AI slop, spammed-up search results and general sense of decay?