Cultural Analysis of Image Macros

[Ace Mercury]

http://www.zerosummind.com/2007/05/l337-katz0rz.html

Snip:

If you spend/have spent as much time as I do/have online, you begin to sense some of the latent functions of this medium. The Internet (yes, it is capitalized according to the Associated Press Stylebook) is the true melting pot, the true mixing bowl of subcultures and deviance. Out of it have emerged new cultures.

Sure, people self-segregate, but for people like myself this just makes it easier to buzz from flower to flower. I love to visit the Furries and the Kirk/Spock gay erotic art groups, the Bible thumpers and the body modifiers.

Sociologists must go through a lot of pants when they cruise the digital realm because subcultures are constantly spawning subcultures to the point there is a sort of electronic gravy made from all these people meeting online and simmering in the juices of screen-to-screen communication.

Leetspeak and macros are two of my favorite aspects of Internet-specific subcultures.