[iJohnDoe]

Title says 2013. Wasn’t it only in recent years that people were brining typewriters to Starbucks. Maybe it was never considered cool, but it wasn’t treated like this person. Funny how time changes things.

It’s like the “nerds” that were treated so badly in the 80s for being into Starwars and dressing up in their favorite characters. Now Starwars is cool and dressing up garnishes respect based on how elaborate and how much work went into it.

I guess none of the above is surprising. It happens with everything. Inventors, entrepreneurs, and other people that are later respected as pioneers.

[OJFord]

> dressing up garnishes respect based on how elaborate and how much work went into it.

That sounds very much like a 'within the community' sort of thing.

Isn't it just that the internet's made it easier for groups with (varying degrees, of course, of) niche interests to congregate?

[playpause]

I think it’s a bit of both. The internet has also made the niche groups more visible, probably making them grow in confidence/appeal/numbers. So people don’t need to worry as much about being labelled weird by association. Being labelled too basic/boring is also probably more of a concern than before, so the social pressures are aligning more and more with taking part in niche interests, or at least not being seen as scornful of them. I don’t have any numbers to back this up but that’s how it seems to me. Compared to a few years ago anyway.