Knowra Internet culture Internet culture Internet culture is the shared practices, norms, humor, and forms of expression that develop through internet use and online communities. It changes as platforms, technologies, and communities change.
Internet meme : A piece of media, joke, or idea that spreads online through imitation and variation. Memes turn shared references into repeatable, remixable forms of online expression.
Virality : The rapid spread of content through sharing across a network. Viral circulation can turn a local joke or format into a widely shared reference.
Usenet : A decentralized discussion system launched in 1980, organized around topic-based newsgroups. Its newsgroups developed durable traditions of public discussion and community etiquette.
Digital activism : Political or social action organized or carried out through digital technologies. Online communities use shared symbols and networks to coordinate collective action.
Mass media : Communication channels that distribute content to large audiences, traditionally from centralized producers. Internet culture often blurs the boundary between media producers and audiences.
Online community : A group whose members interact and develop shared norms through internet-based spaces. Communities create local customs and meanings within broader internet culture.
Algorithmic curation : The automated selection and ranking of content for a particular user or audience. Ranking systems influence which cultural expressions become visible at scale.
Bulletin board system : A computer server that users accessed to exchange messages, files, and games, especially before widespread internet access. BBS communities formed local online cultures before social platforms existed.
Digital folklore : Stories, beliefs, jokes, and customs that circulate and evolve through digital communication. Internet culture continually produces informal traditions that communities pass along.
Folk culture : Traditions and expressive practices shared and transmitted within communities, often outside formal institutions. Digital traditions adapt older forms of communal creation and transmission.
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