Internet Culture - What Is It?

[Chaos Jackal]

The Internet is a vast, almost infinite space where everything has its place. All kinds of humans, all sorts of things, all manners of craziness can be found. Communities form, rise and fall; the Internet is ever-changing, always adapting and transforming. There are those, however, who believe some things never change. Those things, according to them, are the Internet's culture. Things that you will see whether you're reading a site on financial news or a Pokemon forum. Things that are present everywhere in this crazy vortex.
What do you think? Does the Internet have some sort of culture? Does it have many? And if it does, how do these cultures affect it?

 

[The-Kaiser]

RE: Internet Culture-What Is It?

Yes I think it is a Culture now though its actually a ultimate mix of just about every other culture on Earth mixed digitally and has been around since about the early 1990's.

 

[Leaf_Ranger]

RE: Internet Culture-What Is It?

I don't see such phenomenon.
Crazy people, trashing, threats, attacks, theft are something that exist also elsewhere and are previous to the internet.
In my opinion, the internet is just a new realm and as The-Kaiser said, where all cultures that have been around and that sprout find a new platform, and one where there's no physical contact. This lack of contact does give rise to new methods of interaction but I find it hard to call it a culture, unless that it, we are talking about some "internet comunication culture".

 

[Seven is a Color]

RE: Internet Culture-What Is It?

I didn't know "Internet Culture" was a common term, but I've used it to refer to things that are popular on the web like viral videos, memes, social networking, etc.

 

[Drohn]

RE: Internet Culture-What Is It?

If you live somewhere or interact with groups of people regularly you mostly know what is found appropriate, what is looked down upon, and how people would react to things. Everyone that has been part of multiple Internet communities or has lived in different areas of the world knows that culture changes with the people.

There exist many different communities in the real world that have their own culture and the same can be said about the Internet. PokéBeach is one of those communities with their own culture. Like in real life, culture is influenced by history, the common standards of the community, the rules a community has, the individual standards of those inside of the community, and probably some other things. All of these things decide what is found appropriate or inappropriate in a community and generally affects behaviour, and therefore I see it as its own culture. Cultures change because people join and leave a community, the individuals go through changes, and the experiences they have (together) changes them and therefore affects their behaviour and influences the culture.

The communities and cultures you see on the Internet are often very different from those in real life, because you are no longer dealing with people that are generally sharing the same common standards and habits; it's a mix of people that are used to other cultures already too. The fact people can easily escape an online community or can stay anonymous also greatly affects the differences in online and real world cultures.

So in short, there are a ton of different cultures in the real world that do have things in common with each other and there are a ton of different cultures on the Internet that do have things in common with each other. There is of course overlap between the real world and Internet cultures too, but they have greater differences because of the easiness of leaving a community and anonymity.

 

[xxashxx]

RE: Internet Culture-What Is It?

You bet it has a huge culture. Think of it as a online book of everything that we use. Every page we create is some kind of news the weather sports and much more to it as well. The internet is where we all get our information and we can watch most things from TV as well and also listen to music and watch music videos as well so yeah it has a huge impact on the world XD.

 

[Carpey]

RE: Internet Culture-What Is It?

Well just as you said, CJ, the internet is pretty much infinite, so different cultures would be infinite too. With the huge diversity of websites for different purposes and atmospheres, there is always something new to discover on the internet. This means that cultures should be constantly changing online- just as in the real world. However, the internet is a single place where people gather and interact, so I think there has to be one single culture that is static and exists in every corner of the internet.

This one culture is based around the idea that there are no limits and your voice will be heard. Nobody can stop you from making a GIF with a Chicken McNugget on Prince William's face as he gets married. At the same time, you're making that and uploading it to the internet because you know that it's going to make someone's day and rack up Likes. The same goes for other kinds of things like creating a website to help people with math, or even me replying to this thread. I'd be crazy to type this much on a phone keyboard if I thought nobody was ever seeing it but me.

It's a simple idea, but very powerful. The internet would not be what it is today without people thinking their opinions would be heard and cared about by someone else. Also, you can't have an internet without LOLCATS!!

Spoiler: !WARNING:YOU MAY DIE!

 

[Teal]

Thinking there is one Internet culture would come from one's own limited picture of the Internet. But there are many subcultures on their own platforms like 4chan, reddit, meme-sites etc. which share one common view, but even those sites split into many different subcultures and views.

Maybe if there is one common thing about the whole Internet is the belief of freedom of expression, as almost everyone sees censoring the Internet as bad (SOPA etc.). Another thing could be the "new" view of copyright / sharing, because well over half of the Internet (be it young or old) thinks copying stuff from other people is ok as long as they don't claim they made it themself. As I did with my avatar. I usually only use official stuff or ask for permission though.