Editing Internet culture

{{short description|Culture that has emerged from the use of computer networks}}
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{{Cleanup rewrite|date=October 2024}}
{{Sources exist|date=March 2025}}
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{{Internet||name=General}}
'''Internet culture''' refers to culture developed and maintained among frequent and active users of the [[Internet]] (also known as [[netizen|netizens]]) who primarily communicate with one another as members of [[online communities]]; that is, a culture whose influence is "mediated by computer screens" and [[information communication technology]],<ref name="Rheingold-1998">{{cite book |last=Rheingold |first=Howard |url=https://archive.org/details/virtualcommunity00rhei_0 |title=The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier |publisher=HarperCollins |year=1993 |isbn=0-06-097641-1 |chapter=Daily Life in Cyberspace |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/virtualcommunity00rhei_0 |url-access=registration |chapter-url-access=registration}}</ref>{{rp|63}} specifically the Internet.

Internet culture arises from the frequent interactions between members within various online communities and the use of these communities for [[computer-mediated communication|communication]], [[entertainment industry#Electronic entertainment|entertainment]], [[electronic business|business]], and [[recreation]].

Studied aspects of Internet culture include anonymity/pseudonymity, social media, gaming and specific communities, such as fandoms, and has also raised questions about [[online identity]] and [[Internet privacy]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Silver |first=David |date=February 2004 |title=Internet/Cyberculture/ Digital Culture/New Media/ Fill-in-the-Blank Studies |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1461444804039915 |journal=New Media & Society |language=en |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=55–64 |doi=10.1177/1461444804039915 |issn=1461-4448 |s2cid=32041186 |access-date=2020-11-27 |archive-date=2020-09-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200903090556/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1461444804039915 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Increasingly widespread Internet adoption has influenced Internet culture; frequently provoking enforcing norms via [[shaming]], [[censure|censuring]] and [[censorship]] while pressuring other cultural expressions [[underground culture|underground]].<ref name="Phillips 2019">{{cite journal |title= It Wasn't Just the Trolls: Early Internet Culture, "Fun," and the Fires of Exclusionary Laughter |journal=Social Media + Society |year=2019 |last=Phillips |first=Whitney |volume=5 |issue=3 |doi=10.1177/2056305119849493 |s2cid=199164695 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

== History ==
{{Further|History of the Internet}}
{{Undue weight|date=February 2022}}
{{Split section|History of Internet culture|date=February 2022}}
The cultural history of the Internet is a story of rapid change. The Internet developed in parallel with rapid and sustained [[technological change|technological advances]] in [[computing]] and [[data communication]]. Widespread access to the [[Internet]] emerged as the cost of infrastructure dropped by several orders of magnitude with consecutive technological improvements.

Though Internet culture originated during the creation and development of early [[online communities]] – such as those found on [[bulletin board system]]s before the Internet reached mainstream adoption in developed countries – many cultural elements have roots in other previously existing [[offline]] cultures and subcultures which predate the Internet. Specifically, Internet culture includes many elements of [[telegraphy]] culture (especially [[amateur radio|amateur radio culture]]), [[gaming culture]] and [[hacker culture]].

Initially, digital culture tilted toward the [[Anglosphere]]. As a consequence of computer technology's early reliance on [[ASCII|textual coding systems]] that were mainly adapted to the English language, [[Anglophone]] societies—followed by other societies with languages based on [[Latin script]]—enjoyed privileged access to digital culture. However, other languages have gradually increased in prominence. In specific, the proportion of content on the Internet that is in English has dropped from roughly 80% in the 1990s to around 52.9% in 2018.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The digital language divide |url=https://labs.theguardian.com/digital-language-divide/ |access-date=2022-05-11 |website=[[The Guardian]] |archive-date=2022-05-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220527053415/https://labs.theguardian.com/digital-language-divide/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Chart of the day: The Internet has a language diversity problem |url=https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/12/chart-of-the-day-the-internet-has-a-language-diversity-problem/ |access-date=2022-05-11 |website=World Economic Forum |language=en |archive-date=2022-05-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220511022049/https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/12/chart-of-the-day-the-internet-has-a-language-diversity-problem/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

As technology advances, Internet Culture continues to change. The introduction of [[smartphone]]s and [[tablet computer]]s and the growing computer network infrastructure around the world have increased the number of Internet users and have likewise resulted in the proliferation and expansion of online communities. While Internet culture continues to evolve among active and frequent Internet users, it remains distinct from other previously offline cultures and subcultures which now have a presence online, even those cultures and subcultures from which Internet Culture borrows many elements.

One cultural antecedent of Internet culture was amateur radio (commonly known as ham radio). By connecting over great distances, ham operators were able to form a distinct cultural community with a strong technocratic foundation, as the radio gear involved was finicky and prone to failure. The area that later became [[Silicon Valley]], where much of modern Internet technology originates, had been an early locus of radio engineering.<ref>{{cite news
   |last=Abate
   |first=Tom
   |date=29 September 2007
   |title=High-tech culture of Silicon Valley originally formed around radio
   |url=https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/High-tech-culture-of-Silicon-Valley-originally-2500151.php
   |accessdate=18 January 2022
   |newspaper=SF Gate
   |archive-date=18 January 2022
   |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220118202217/https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/High-tech-culture-of-Silicon-Valley-originally-2500151.php
   |url-status=live
   }}</ref> Alongside the original mandate for robustness and resiliency, the renegade spirit of the early ham radio community later infused the cultural value of [[decentralization]] and near-total rejection of [[regulation]] and political control that characterized the Internet's original growth era, with strong undercurrents of the Wild West spirit of the [[American frontier]].

At its inception in the early 1970s as part of [[ARPANET]], digital networks were small, institutional, arcane, and slow, which confined the majority of use to the exchange of [[plain text|textual information]], such as interpersonal messages and [[source code]]. Access to these networks was largely limited to a technological elite based at a small number of prestigious universities; the original American network connected one computer in Utah with three in California.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Markoff|first=John|date=1999-12-20|title=An Internet Pioneer Ponders the Next Revolution|url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/12/biztech/articles/122099outlook-bobb.html|access-date=2023-03-08|website=The New York Times|language=en|archive-date=2008-09-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080922095019/http://partners.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/12/biztech/articles/122099outlook-bobb.html|url-status=live}}https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/12/biztech/articles/122099outlook-bobb.html </ref>

Text on these digital networks usually encoded in the ASCII character set, which was minimalistic even for established English [[typography]], barely suited to other European languages sharing a Latin script (but with an additional requirement to support accented characters), and entirely unsuitable to any language not based on a Latin script, such as [[Mandarin (language)|Mandarin]], [[Arabic]], or [[Hindi]].

Interactive use was discouraged except for high value activities. Hence a store and forward architecture was employed for many message systems, functioning more like a post office than modern instant messaging; however, by the standards of postal mail, the system (when it worked) was stunningly fast and cheap. Among the heaviest users were those actively involved in advancing the technology, most of whom implicitly shared much the same base of arcane knowledge, effectively forming a technological priesthood.
[[File:CitadelBBSwindow.litlnemo.png|thumb|A [[screenshot]] of a bulletin board system]]
The origins of [[social media]] predate the Internet proper. The first bulletin board system was created in 1978,<ref>{{Cite web|last=Edwards|first=Benj|date=2016-11-04|title=The Lost Civilization of Dial-Up Bulletin Board Systems|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/11/the-lost-civilization-of-dial-up-bulletin-board-systems/506465/|access-date=2022-02-04|website=The Atlantic|language=en|archive-date=2021-12-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211206140131/https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/11/the-lost-civilization-of-dial-up-bulletin-board-systems/506465/|url-status=live}}</ref> [[GEnie]] was created by General Electric in 1985<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|last=Allebach|first=Nathan|date=2020-07-31|title=A Brief History of Internet Culture and How Everything Became Absurd|url=https://medium.com/swlh/a-brief-history-of-internet-culture-and-how-everything-became-absurd-6af862e71c94|access-date=2022-02-04|website=The Startup|language=en|archive-date=2022-02-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220204213838/https://medium.com/swlh/a-brief-history-of-internet-culture-and-how-everything-became-absurd-6af862e71c94|url-status=live}}</ref>{{Unreliable source?|date=February 2022}}, the mailing list [[Listserv]] appeared in 1986<ref name=":1" />{{Unreliable source?|date=February 2022}}, and [[Internet Relay Chat]] was created in 1988.<ref name=":1" />{{Unreliable source?|date=February 2022}} The first official{{Dubious|date=February 2022|reason=was it really the first?}} social media site, [[SixDegrees.com|SixDegrees]] launched in 1997.<ref name=":1" />{{Unreliable source?|date=February 2022}}

In the 1980s, the network grew to encompass most universities and many corporations, especially those involved with technology, including heavy but segregated participation within the American [[military–industrial complex]]. Use of interactivity grew, and the user base became less dominated by programmers, [[computer scientist]]s and hawkish industrialists, but it remained largely an academic culture centered around institutions of higher learning. It was observed that each September, with an intake of new students, standards of productive discourse would plummet until the established user base brought the influx up to speed on cultural etiquette.

Commercial [[Internet service providers]] (ISPs) emerged in 1989 in the United States and Australia, opening the door for public participation. Soon the network was no longer dominated by academic culture, and the term [[eternal September]], initially referring to September 1993, was coined as Internet slang for the endless intake of cultural [[newbie]]s.

Commercial use became established alongside academic and professional use, beginning with a sharp rise in unsolicited commercial e-mail commonly called [[email spam|spam]]. Around this same time, the network transitioned to support the burgeoning [[World Wide Web]]. [[Multimedia]] formats such as [[Sound|audio]], [[graphics]], and [[video]] become commonplace and began to displace plain text, but multimedia remained painfully slow for [[dial-up Internet access|dial-up]] users. Also around this time the Internet also began to internationalize, supporting most of the world's major languages, but support for many languages remained patchy and incomplete into the 2010s.

On the arrival of [[broadband]] access, [[file sharing]] services grew rapidly, especially of [[digital audio]] (with a prevalence of [[bootleg recording|bootlegged]] commercial music) with the arrival of [[Napster]] in 1999 and similar projects which effectively catered to music enthusiasts, especially teenagers and young adults, soon becoming established as a prototype for rapid evolution into modern social media. Alongside ongoing challenges to traditional norms of [[intellectual property]], business models of many of the largest Internet corporations evolved into what [[Shoshana Zuboff]] terms [[surveillance capitalism]]. Not only is social media a novel form of social culture, but also a novel form of economic culture where [[sharing]] is frictionless, but personal [[privacy]] has become a [[scarcity|scarce]] good.
In 1998, there was [[Hampster Dance]], the first{{Dubious|date=February 2022|reason=was it really the first?}} successful [[Internet meme]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last1=Friedman|first1=Linda Weiser|last2=Friedman|first2=Hershey H.|date=2015-07-09|title=Connectivity and Convergence: A Whimsical History of Internet Culture|url=https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=2628901|language=en|location=Rochester, NY|ssrn=2628901}}</ref>

== Identity – "architectures of credibility" ==
{{Update section|date=September 2024}}

One early study, conducted from 1998 to 1999, found that the participants view information obtained online as slightly more credible than information from magazines, radio, and television, information obtained from newspapers was the most credible.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Flanagin|first1=Andrew J.|last2=Metzger|first2=Miriam J.|date=September 2000|title=Perceptions of Internet Information Credibility|url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/107769900007700304|journal=Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly|language=en|volume=77|issue=3|pages=515–540|doi=10.1177/107769900007700304|s2cid=15996706|issn=1077-6990|access-date=2020-11-27|archive-date=2021-02-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225055451/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/107769900007700304|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Credibility online is established in much the same way that it is established in the offline world. [[Lawrence Lessig]] claimed that the architecture of a given online community may be the most important factor in establishing credibility. Factors include: anonymity, connection to physical identity, comment rating system, feedback type (positive vs positive/negative), moderation.<ref name="Lessig-Book">{{cite book |last=Lessig |first=Lawrence |url=https://archive.org/details/code0000less |title=Code 2.0: Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace |publisher=Basic Books |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-465-03914-2 |url-access=registration}}</ref> 

=== Anonymity ===
{{See also|Anonymous post}}
Many sites allow anonymous commentary, where the user-id attached to the comment is something like "guest". In an architecture that allows anonymous commentary, credibility attaches only to the object of the comment. Sites that require some link to an identity may require only a nickname that is sufficient to allow comment readers to rate the commenter, either explicitly, or by informal reputation.

=== Connection to physical identity ===
Architectures can require that physical identity be associated with commentary, as in Lessig's example of Counsel Connect.<ref name="Lessig-Book" />{{rp|94–97}} However, to require linkage to a physical identity, sensitive information about a user must be collected and safeguards for that collected information must be established – users must place sufficient trust in the site. Irrespective of safeguards, as with Counsel Connect,<ref name="Lessig-Book" />{{rp|94–97}} use of physical identities links credibility across the frames of the Internet and real space, influencing the behaviors of those who contribute in those spaces. However, even purely online identities can establish credibility. Even though nothing inherently links a person or group to their Internet-based persona, credibility can be earned, because of the time required.<ref name="Lessig-Book" />{{rp|113}}

=== Comment rating system ===
In some architectures, commenters can, in turn, be rated by other users, potentially encouraging more responsible commentary, although the profusion of popular [[Shitposting|shitposters]] belies this. 

=== Feedback type ===
Architectures can be oriented around positive feedback or allow both positive and negative feedback. This feedback can take form through likes or upvotes, dislikes or downvotes, emoji reactions, rating systems, and written responses like comments or reviews. While a particular user may be able to equate certain responses with a "negative" evaluation, the actual meaning may be contextual.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Marin |first=Lavinia |date=2021 |title=Three contextual dimensions of information on social media: lessons learned from the COVID-19 infodemic |journal=Ethics and Information Technology |volume=23 |issue=Suppl 1 |pages=79–86 |doi=10.1007/s10676-020-09550-2 |issn=1388-1957 |pmc=7449515 |pmid=32868972}}</ref> 

=== Moderation ===
Architectures can give editorial control to a group or individual not employed by the site (e.g., [[Reddit]]), termed moderators. Moderation may take be either proactive (previewing contents) or reactive (punishing violators). 

The moderator's credibility can be damaged by overly aggressive behavior.<ref name="Rheingold-1998" />

== See also ==
{{Portal|Internet|Society}}
{{div col|colwidth=20em}}
* [[Anonymous (group)|Anonymous]]
* [[Cicada 3301]]
* [[Creepypasta]]
* [[Cyber law]]
* [[Cyberdelic]]
* [[Cyberpunk]]
* [[Digitality|Digitalism]]
* [[Information ethics]]
* [[Infosphere]]
* [[Internet trolls]]
* [[Meme]]
* [[Netnography]]
* [[Postliterate society]]
* [[Rules of the Internet]]
* [[r/wallstreetbets]]
* [[Technology and society]]
* [[Techno-progressivism]]
* [[Technocriticism]]
* [[Technolibertarianism]]
* [[Technorealism]]
{{div col end}}

== References ==
{{Reflist|2}}

== Further reading ==
* [[David Gunkel]] (2001) ''Hacking Cyberspace'', Westview Press, {{ISBN|0-8133-3669-4}}
* {{cite book |last1=Lévy |first1=Pierre |title=Cyberculture |date=2001 |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |location=Minneapolis |isbn=9780816636105}}
* Clemens Apprich (2017) ''Technotopia: A Media Genealogy of Net Cultures'', Rowman & Littlefield International, London {{ISBN|978-1786603142}}
* Sandrine Baranski (2010) ''La musique en réseau, une musique de la complexité ?'', Éditions universitaires européennes [https://univ-lille3.academia.edu/SandrineBaranski La musique en réseau]
* David J. Bell, Brian D Loader, Nicholas Pleace, Douglas Schuler (2004) ''Cyberculture: The Key Concepts'', Routledge: London.
* [[Donna Haraway]] (1991) ''Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature'', Routledge, New York, NY
* [[Donna Haraway]] (1997) ''Modest Witness Second Millennium FemaleMan Meets OncoMouse'', Routledge, New York, NY
* [[N. Katherine Hayles]] (1999) ''How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature and Informatics'', Chicago University Press, Chicago, IL
* [[Jarzombek, Mark]] (2016) ''Digital Stockholm Syndrome in the Post-Ontological Age'', University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN
* {{cite book | last = Paasonen | first = Susanna | author-link1 = Susanna Paasonen | title = Figures of fantasy: Internet, women, and cyberdiscourse | publisher = Peter Lang | location = New York | year = 2005 | isbn = 978-0-8204-7607-0 }}
* [[Sherry Turkle]] (1997) ''Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet'', Simon & Schuster Inc, New York, NY
* {{cite web|url=http://www.tiara.org/dissertation/amarwick_dissertation_proposal.pdf|title=Becoming Elite: Social Status in Web 2.0 Cultures|last=Marwick|first=Alice E.|year=2008|work=Dissertation|publisher=Department of Media, Culture, and Communication New York University|access-date=14 June 2011|archive-date=31 January 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120131122700/http://www.tiara.org/dissertation/amarwick_dissertation_proposal.pdf|url-status=dead}}
*{{cite journal|first=Donna|last=Haraway|title=A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century|year=1991|url=http://www.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/Haraway/CyborgManifesto.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120214194015/http://www.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/Haraway/CyborgManifesto.html|archive-date=2012-02-14|access-date=February 4, 2009}}
*{{cite journal|first=N. Katherine|last=Hayles|title=Virtual Bodies and Flickering Signifiers|date=Fall 1993|url=http://www.english.ucla.edu/faculty/hayles/Flick.html|archive-date=2009-03-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090317043044/http://www.english.ucla.edu/faculty/hayles/Flick.html|url-status=dead|access-date=February 4, 2009}}

{{Commons category|Internet culture}}

{{Culture}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Internet culture| ]]
[[Category:Cyberspace]]
[[Category:Computer folklore]]
[[Category:Subcultures]]