It's a Series of Tubes!
A large portion of this week's lecture/discussion has been the film on Anonymous and other sects branching off of it. Anonymous is a group of people (most of them with vast amounts of computer hacking and programming skills) who had found their shared values, beliefs, etc. in posts on an online forum called 4chan. Through this outlet, they became a globalized culture with their own symbols and language. The group's dynamics were always changing as time went on and the "membership" started to widen even into the domain of activism. Eventually those in the globalized community began to diverge slightly, based on their ideas and values, and formed sub-cultures within the Anonymous/4chan culture. One example of this was Lulzsec; a group with a stronger inclination towards chaos and trying to shake the powers that be.
When you look at how this community formed, it appears to be the definition of culture; It formed solely on the basis of shared values, beliefs and symbols. Anonymous not only shares a huge value placed on freedom of speech and information, but they also share symbols, known as memes (see below), as well as a language (the ridiculously vast amount of Internet slang). Anonymous/4chan also develops over time and takes on different forms based on these developments, whether it is producing a new sub-culture within itself, or shifting from merely pranking to legitimate forms of activism. In my opinion, I would say that Anonymous/4chan is almost an even better example of pure culture than most nation-states.
Top Ten Memes
I choose this somewhat small list of memes in an attempt to recognize that although they are not the kinds of symbols we associate with cultural symbols (I.e. a flag), they are still symbols with a shared meaning for a vast amount of people.
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