# INTERNET CULTURE / forums, memes, attention Canonical URL: https://shipslides.com/d/catalog-culture-internet Raw viewer URL: https://content.shipslides.com/d/catalog-culture-internet/raw Category: Cuisine Slides: 34 Updated: 2026-05-17T20:56:00.836Z Tags: catalog, culture, internet ## Summary 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. ## Slide Outline 1. INTERNET CULTURE 2. BBS & USENET 3. Bulletin Board Systems 4. Threaded discussion at scale 5. Eternal September 6. GEOCITIES & THE PERSONAL HOMEPAGE 7. IDENTITY TIED TO TOPIC, NOT FACE 8. Forums 9. IRC 10. THE BLOGOSPHERE 11. LiveJournal 12. Blogger 13. WordPress 14. THE MEME 15. 4CHAN & REDDIT 16. 4chan: anonymous, ephemeral 17. Reddit: pseudonymous, persistent 18. FACEBOOK + TWITTER CONSOLIDATE THE CONVERSATION 19. INFLUENCERS 20. Bloggers 21. YouTubers 22. TikTokers 23. THE ATTENTION ECONOMY 24. MISINFORMATION & POLARIZATION 25. Speed 26. Sorting 27. Trust 28. WHERE IT'S GOING 29. Niche communities 30. Fediverse 31. Generated content 32. THANKS FOR VISITING 33. Selected references 34. Watch & wander ## Slide Transcript ### Slide 1: 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 2: 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 3: GEOCITIES & THE PERSONAL HOMEPAGE - 03 // 1995+ - The web as DIY zine. Neighborhoods (Heartland, SunsetStrip, Area51) instead of feeds. - Tiled GIF backgrounds, , . - "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 4: 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 - lol that thread on the forum got nuked - mods finally woke up - brb netsplit - * sig has quit (Ping timeout) - new avatar? - yeah, made it in MS Paint ### Slide 5: 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 6: 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 7: 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 8: 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 9: 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 * * * ## Related Decks - [GREAT CITIES / Ten that changed history](https://shipslides.com/d/catalog-culture-cities) - [FASHION / Garments and what they say](https://shipslides.com/d/catalog-culture-fashion) - [FOOD / a global history](https://shipslides.com/d/catalog-culture-food) - [Language / 7,000 voices](https://shipslides.com/d/catalog-culture-language)