A major change that happened during the last five years to me is the divergence f gaming, television, literature, and anima subcultures. Looking back into the history of what qualified as ‘anima’ from 2005 to 2014, the time when I have been most into the genre of television, will show that in 2005, there were a core amount of ‘must- watch’ shows such as Black Butler, Whitetail, etc. That I watched and everyone knew about, however with the rapid increase in variety of supply, it has become more common for there to be Who? Moments from fellow fans when referring to ‘Prussia’, ‘Allis Trance or many other characters I once considered ‘core’ to the fan base. The same applied to video games. Everyone had played Call of Duty or had a League of Legends account if they were to call themselves a ‘gamer’ when I was in middle school. Now those two fan bases are very separate from each other. Other genres, such as Real-Time Strategy and the lesser known Casual market, have created separate niches from each other, myself firmly a devotee to the Real-Time Strategy sub-genre and the XX game genre.
Media in general, thanks to the advent of mass production of cultural media with Twitch, Youth, Faceable, etc. Allows for a mass influx of all kinds of media before unknown and now allows me to share my niche enjoyments with others much easier. Now, a search of any pairing from a book, movie, or television show will yield me endless results. Media is creating a new flood of games, art, anima, literature, plays, movies, and everything else the human mind can create, allowing me access to a lot of new fanfares I didn’t know existed.
Without the internet, I never would have discovered my favorite music genre, Vocalic. I also wouldn’t have met a good deal of my friends. The internet has allowed for new inspections to be made between people and has also grown into a complex and unique culture of its own that stretches the world and I am glad to be a part of it. Despite the increase of media from the internet, at its core, communication and conversation between me and a friend has changed little if at all, whether over phone or face to face. In History Club, even as we talk about Tumbler posts we saw or links on Reedit, how we talk is the same.
Just like old Greek philosophers, we argue over the most mundane differences of opinion, fight over the most abstract and objective facts we can come up with, and still come to no conclusive conclusions. It still feels the same online. Arguments done with text instead of done with speech, but I can still argue with someone over the Instantiates forums for hours, if not days, over the merits of a Value Added Tax as if either of us were really affecting policy. Conversations and arguments still feel the same and it is still Just as satisfying to me as it was for the ancient philosophers.
Even with the drastic changes brought to the shape and composition of the cliques I non from the human necessity to surround myself with people I agree with, the actual substance of how I interact within my groups, has not changed. My groups keeps posted not using the grapevine of gossip or pieces of paper nailed to the forum billboards, but on forum sights and group messages. But what they say and why remains the same. The only thing that has changed, although it is one of the most radical changes in history, are the tools I use to communicate and to take in culture and ideas from others that I have not, and will not, see or know.
