UNIVERSAL CONSCIOUSNESS: a short study on fan culture
The internet is a breeding ground for new ideologies and cultural influences. People are drawn to culture, and people will stand behind it as well. However, our definition of culture has broadened within the past few years alone. Whilst before culture was something one could only be born into, culture now takes a new definition into hands. There is ‘new culture’ in fan domains, art forms, personality types, aesthetics- movements of all kinds. People are drawn to these gorgeous movements and ideas, because unlike in previous human history one can now shift in and out of different backgrounds and associations as they please. Essentially- they will be adopting the personalities of their own groups in addition to contributing to the very backbones of the movements themselves.
People without culture, and people with culture they are not proud of, will search for culture in places where they feel adequate. The internet and social media are fundamental to the process of cultural contributions. Culture is also created with the need for entertainment and fascination with storytelling.
What this passage is addressing, is the adoption of personality based on tumblr-established cultures and creation of these personalities through typing-styles and sociological connection. With the basic idea of what culture is now, one can attempt to understand where our internet personalities begin to stray from our personalities in social situation- and where they overlap (A topic I will link to once it has been typed).
For example, in the typical fandom, there are people who contribute media and art in the forms of drawings, stories and alternative theories. Anyone who has ever acknowledged themselves as part of a fandom will understand that these groupings of people will interact as a society on their own levels- with leaders, contributors, workers and observers. These groups will have some similarities, and will function with different mass inside-jokes and ideas based on the media given. Consider the following: Steven Universe, Homestuck, Yuri on Ice, Fall Out Boy, and YouTube Personalities(in a general sense). A cartoon, a webcomic, an anime, a band, and privately produced content by internet icons. These all have in common one essential thing- fan bases and functional contribution. The media pieces itself have virtually nothing to do with the others, however the universal consciousness established within the boundaries of fan culture allows them to be very similar yet independently functional. This is only possible because of the allowance of cultural shifting as discussed earlier. And yes- I do dare call fandoms cultural breeding grounds.
However, Is it not correct to say that the gaps between age groups and personality types grows greater every day? A child raised by the internet and meme culture itself is a stranger in the eyes of any other with no comprehension of vernacular humor. How many people halfway into life have solid comprehension of the vast and hourly changing lands of meme culture? And how many people who understand this insanely fluid internet consciousness make effort to explain or document it? Where on earth is this culture going if we isolate it?
