The Internet as Style Communities
I tried dividing the internet into eras in order to better understand it. But, like fashion, every year spawns different communities of style that are occurring simultaneously. So, perhaps the better way to approach internet culture is to look at timeline in tandem with community (that is, the platform).
Twitter is having its moment. Those of us that are on Twitter know its snarky, fast-paced personality that reacts with tidal-wave like intensity to information, events, videos, and opinions. I’ve noticed that this violent movement has spawned a kind of sub culture, popularized by author Jonny Sun whose tweets bring a quiet, meek, and earnest sincerity to the mix of online rancor. His book Everyone’s a Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too further captures the feeling of being a well-meaning stranger, lost in the diversity of the internet.
Jonny Sun is an example of what I’m calling a “lowercase culture” for now, since it is often characterized by stylizing text in all lowercase sincerity (“plz drink more water bc i care about you”). Ideally inclusive and generally supportive, the lowercase crowd values doggos, cattos, and uplifting content.
Jonny Sun also has an Instagram, which he often uses to share his posts from Twitter. But Instagram is a different beast with a different kind of personality. Athletic, creative, put together, and polished, Instagram is home for carefully positioned lattes, vacations, tender moments, and beautiful images. Seattle lifestyle blogger Monica Church comes to mind, whose images are well edited, well traveled, and well balanced in terms of activities, locations, and selfies.
There are new platforms emerging as well, meaning new modes of style and new communities with their own sets of values and rules. My involvement with Patreon has opened up worlds of hyper-creative illustrators, musicians, and educators who spend their time sharing their work through crowdfunding. The energy here is vibrant, and since each creator is fueled by their fans, the sense of belonging and camaraderie is abundant. I’ve found that those who are successfully making money on Patreon manage to continue an ongoing relationship with their patrons, which makes the community incredibly tight knit.
Similarly, it would be a disservice to forget about the podcast sphere, which has captured the feeling of “hanging out” and widely distributed it to anyone who needs it. The extremely popular comedy podcast My Brother My Brother and Me is loosely structured around conversations between brothers Justin, Travis, and Griffin McElroy. I asked around to see what exactly MBMBaM does correctly, and writer Elias Higham told me “What successful podcasts do well is make you feel like you are one of their friends.” Rife with inside jokes, casual comedy, and occasional glimpses of sincerity, MBMBaM brings you to the table to hang out with fun company.
The list goes on, but like fashion, online culture is centered around a response or a need, and they affectations of style fall into place as these communities grow. This is useful to us in describing these emergent groups because it provides context of how they form and differentiate from each other. Also, like fashion, they always change. The next platform, movement, or response is notoriously difficult to predict. The best plan of action is no plan, then, as a participant or an entrepreneur. If you follow what you like and find your people, the styles and groups that emerge will do so seemingly without warning, allowing you to catch a trend or opportunity as it blossoms.
