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INTERNET CULTURE / forums, memes, attention

A 13-slide tour from BBS dial-tones to algorithmic feeds . Best viewed in 800x600 with a Pentium II and a fresh bowl of Bagel Bites.

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A 13-slide tour from BBS dial-tones to algorithmic feeds . Best viewed in 800x600 with a Pentium II and a fresh bowl of Bagel Bites. Key sections include: INTERNET CULTURE; BBS & USENET; Bulletin Board Systems; Threaded discussion at scale; Eternal September; GEOCITIES & THE PERSONAL HOMEPAGE; IDENTITY TIED TO TOPIC, NOT FACE; Forums; IRC; THE BLOGOSPHERE.

Key sections

01INTERNET CULTURE
02BBS & USENET
03Bulletin Board Systems
04Threaded discussion at scale
05Eternal September
06GEOCITIES & THE PERSONAL HOMEPAGE
07IDENTITY TIED TO TOPIC, NOT FACE
08Forums
09IRC
10THE BLOGOSPHERE
11LiveJournal
12Blogger
13WordPress
14THE MEME
154CHAN & REDDIT
164chan: anonymous, ephemeral
17Reddit: pseudonymous, persistent
18FACEBOOK + TWITTER CONSOLIDATE THE CONVERSATION
19INFLUENCERS
20Bloggers
21YouTubers
22TikTokers
23THE ATTENTION ECONOMY
24MISINFORMATION & POLARIZATION

Topics covered

catalog culture internet

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Slide 01

INTERNET CULTURE

>> LOAD slide_01.html ...OK
/ forums, memes, attention
A 13-slide tour from BBS dial-tones to algorithmic feeds. Best viewed in 800x600 with a Pentium II and a fresh bowl of Bagel Bites.
BEST VIEWED W/ NETSCAPE
HTML 4.01 OK
256 COLORS
28.8 kbps
SIGN MY GUESTBOOK

Slide 02

BBS & USENET

02 // 1980s
Modems screaming. Long-distance bills. The first publics of the network.
DIAL-UP
Bulletin Board Systems
One phone line. One user at a time.
SysOps as feudal lords of tiny worlds.
Local boards = local communities.
USENET
Threaded discussion at scale
alt.* hierarchy: anything goes.
Killfiles, FAQs, netiquette.
A culture of long, careful replies.
!!! 1993
Eternal September
AOL opens Usenet to its subscribers. The annual freshman flood becomes permanent. The old culture dissolves into the new mass.
CULTURE.UPDATING

Slide 03

GEOCITIES & THE PERSONAL HOMEPAGE

03 // 1995+
The web as DIY zine. Neighborhoods (Heartland, SunsetStrip, Area51) instead of feeds.
Tiled GIF backgrounds, <marquee>, <blink>.
"About me," "My Cats," "Links to Cool Sites."
WebRings strung pages together by topic.
Identity is hand-built, not a profile field.
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
PARDON OUR DUST
COMING SOON!!!

Slide 04

IDENTITY TIED TO TOPIC, NOT FACE

04 // FORUMS + IRC
Handles, avatars, sigs. You were what you posted about.
phpBB
Forums
vBulletin, Something Awful, GameFAQs.
Subforums & mods enforce local norms.
Lore accretes. New users RTFM.
/JOIN #
IRC
Real-time text. Channels per fandom/scene.
Ops, bots, netsplits, ASCII art.
Cradle of open source coordination.
#irc.indienet — 14 users
<x0r> lol that thread on the forum got nuked
<moss> mods finally woke up
<sig> brb netsplit
* sig has quit (Ping timeout)
<eel> new avatar?
<x0r> yeah, made it in MS Paint

Slide 05

THE BLOGOSPHERE

05 // 2003+
Personal publishing at scale. RSS readers. Comments still meant something.
2003
LiveJournal
Friends-locked posts, mood icons, fandom communities, the first pseudo-social graph.
1999/2003
Blogger
Free hosting, easy templates. Personal columnism for everyone.
2003
WordPress
Open-source backbone. Themes & plugins build a publishing ecosystem.
Why it mattered: permalinks + RSS made conversation across sites possible. Trackbacks, blogrolls, "long tail." A brief moment when many small voices added up.

Slide 06

THE MEME

06 // 1976 → 1996 → forever
Dawkins coins the term in The Selfish Gene (1976) — a unit of cultural transmission. The internet hands it a delivery system.
"Just as genes propagate themselves... so memes propagate by leaping from brain to brain."
Image macros, reaction GIFs, copypasta.
Mutation rate >> biological evolution.
Fluency in memes = membership in the in-group.

Slide 07

4CHAN & REDDIT

07 // ANON / PSEUDO
Two opposite answers to the same question: what happens when nobody (or everybody) knows your name?
/b/ — 2003
4chan: anonymous, ephemeral
No accounts. Threads expire. Boards specialize.
Engine of meme creation — and toxicity.
Raids, lulz, eventually politics.
2005
Reddit: pseudonymous, persistent
Karma + subreddits + voting = soft hierarchy.
Hobby tribes alongside news, memes, AMAs.
Mods as unpaid culture infrastructure.
* * * in 2003 you were a handle * in 2013 you were a profile * in 2023 you were a feed * * *

Slide 08

FACEBOOK + TWITTER CONSOLIDATE THE CONVERSATION

08 // WEB 2.0
The "social graph" replaces the open web. Your friends are now an API.
Real names (mostly) replace handles.
Walled gardens out-compete RSS readers.
Content moves into the platform; links die.
One feed, one inbox, one identity per network.
~ socialweb.exex
http://platform.example/feed
@friend: just had a bagel
@brand: BUY THE THING
@stranger: hot take incoming
[Suggested for you] another stranger
[Sponsored] same stranger but louder

Slide 09

INFLUENCERS

09 // 2010s+
Audience-building becomes a career path. Bedroom > broadcast tower.
2003-12
Bloggers
Niche authority. Affiliate links. The first "personal brand."
2005+
YouTubers
Vlogs, tutorials, gameplay. Adsense funds parasocial empires.
2018+
TikTokers
Algorithm picks you. Format dictates form: vertical, 15s, hooks.
Common thread: attention compounds like capital. The platform owns the rails.

Slide 10

THE ATTENTION ECONOMY

10 // FEED == ECONOMY
Algorithmic feeds optimize for time-on-site. Outrage, novelty, identity threat outperform.
Engagement ≠ satisfaction.
Recommendation = editorial decision at scale.
"For You" is also "for them."
Creators learn the gradient and chase it.
[ENRAGING TAKE]
[CALLOUT THREAD]
[friend's wedding]
[interesting essay]
[city council notes]
Pink bars = served first. Repeat × 1B users.

Slide 11

MISINFORMATION & POLARIZATION

11 // FAULT LINES
The same rails carry rumors, reporting, and recruitment — at the same speed.
VECTOR
Speed
Falsehoods travel faster than corrections; the retweet beats the retraction.
SHAPE
Sorting
Algorithms cluster like with like; cross-cutting exposure decays.
EFFECT
Trust
Confidence in shared facts erodes. Every story has a parallel story.
The medium isn't neutral. The interface chooses what is loud.

Slide 12

WHERE IT'S GOING

12 // WHAT'S NEXT
A pluralism of smaller rooms — and a flood of synthetic content.
SMALL
Niche communities
Discords, Slacks, group chats, Substacks. Membership over reach.
OPEN
Fediverse
Mastodon, Bluesky, ActivityPub. Federation as a hedge against single-platform capture.
Generated content
Text, image, video at zero marginal cost. New filters needed: made by whom, for whom?
The pendulum: from many small sites → few huge platforms → many small sites again, plus an ocean of machines.

Slide 13

THANKS FOR VISITING

13 // FIN
Sign the guestbook on your way out.
REFS
Selected references
Dawkins, The Selfish Gene (1976)
Turner, From Counterculture to Cyberculture (2006)
Phillips & Milner, The Ambivalent Internet (2017)
Tufekci, Twitter and Tear Gas (2017)
Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism (2019)
Know Your Meme (knowyourmeme.com)
YOUTUBE
Watch & wander
history of internet culture »
meme history / know your meme »
END OF TRANSMISSION
* * * thx 4 reading * sign the guestbook * email me ur cool links * * * geocities 4eva * * *

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