I could write a lot about what made the olden days online feel better than today–setting aside the fact that at least some of that feeling is just nostalgia I mean.
But really it was just better because it was exclusive. Nothing gets better when more people can participate. One of the most horrifying things a game developer (or whatever) can say is something like, “with this new version, we’re making things easier and more accessible than ever.”
Nothing can be a niche anymore. Star Trek was never a huge property. I know a lot of people are aware of Star Trek, and maybe they saw The Wrath of Khan or some episodes of TNG or the movie with the whales–but the core fanbase has always been relatively small and fanatical. The franchise was primarily a slower moving thing, more about diplomacy and understanding than action and melodrama.
But nothing can be a niche anymore. If a property has name recognition it must appeal to everyone, everywhere. So now Star Trek is full retard: nothing but explosions, screaming, death and melodrama. Oh, and they’re churning out soulless, uninspired sequels/prequels/spinoffs as fast as they can, to fully maximize the value they can get out of the trademark. How many new movies/shows/webisodes/etc have they announced in the last year? four? five?
Shit I guess I did wind up writing a lot anyways.
I’m convinced the change was web 2.0 and the deployment of algorithms, most likely sentiment analysis.
All of the sudden you went from having no visibility to immediately having insight into any trend whatsoever. All the social media platforms were able to track any trend, no matter how niche, and open up a way to market and commodify them.
I think “nerd culture” in general, too, was always the most easily commodified. Even before the onslaught of Funko-Pops, specialty shops usually had comics, tabletop gaming, figures and maybe manga/anime to cover their bases. In fact, as far back as I can remember, there’s always been a big focus on merch. But the difference now is that you’re really just buying references to an IP (figures, funko-pops, T-shirts), rather than creative products like art books, etc. Unless you go to a book store like Barnes and Noble, where they’ve cornered the market. Any way you look at it, nerd culture has been completely atomized by retail.
What does this have to do with the internet, though? I’d argue that social media perpetuates atomization of nerd culture in retail, not only by tracking trends, but also by diluting what makes IPs interesting. An MCU meme image is gonna get a lot more traction than someone’s critical analysis of some TNG episode. You’re simply not going to find those in-depth engagements online anymore simply due to the nature of the beast we’ve created out of our own love for convenience.
There’s also something to say about nerd merch and the speculative nature of collecting useless stuff in the hopes it’ll be valuable that’s egregious in the space which further exacerbates things, even if they’re shitty. That level of commodification doesn’t help with diluting things, either.