[lengomango]

Is it true that we don't have a monoculture, though?

The author argues that algorithms have reintroduced monoculture: there was a period before the year 2000 when we had a monoculture (because of the scarcity of information) and a period after 2012 when we had a monoculture (because of effective information-sorting algorithms). The kind of cultural fragmentation you're talking about only existed 2000-2012, or in what he calls the 'hipster era.'

Post-2012, 'nerdy' things like comic book movies and gaming streams are basically mainstream to the point of being inescapable. People who remember the previous 'pre-nerd' monoculture are primed to think of those things as niche and marginal interests, but they're really not.

[jeremymcanally]

I definitely could be wrong! I think there will always be cultural centers because people like gathering together (virtually or otherwise). Things like memes and TikTok trends create shared culture, but I don’t think we have a monoculture. The algorithms on these platforms create cultural centers but there are lots of them rather than a meta stream that everyone feeds off of. The vast difference between what I see on my TikTok feed and what my wife and her friends see on theirs is wild. They algorithms are like hipsters that into account things you like haha!

Take a tour around the popular subreddits to see if we have a fragmented culture. I’m often blown away how popular some niche subreddit that I’ve literally never heard of will be even though I’ve been on Reddit for 15+ years! The panoply of ideas and interests on there is super cool to see.