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How do I understand social media/internet culture?
Posted by on December 15, 2025 at 7:30 pmI'm a zoomer so it's kinda expected of me already, but I'm just not really well-versed with the online world. I honestly would've been better off without it but in today's age, you gotta take advantage of this ever growing sector of society, and all businesses know this very well. And I especially gotta figure this out, when I'm gearing up to go to business school.
Idk where to start though. It's like the wild west out there and everyone has seemingly already formed their culture, unspoken rules, and etc. which I haven't even begun to scratch surface of. That as well as large interconnected communities of fandoms and just people sharing their interests and such networking with others, and I'm just stunned because it's nothing like real life.
Another example, my friends are freaking out over people like Laufey, Clairo, Sombr, etc. who blew up online and are inspired to draw art because of some random internet celebrity with 1 million followers yet I've never heard of any of them.
Meanwhile, I find musical talent by scrolling through my Spotify algorithm according to my personal likes (yeah I know it's bad), and my favorite artist is Daniel Warren Johnson whom I've discovered through a comic book that was lent to me, and etc.
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1 Reply
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online culture isn’t one thing, it’s lots of overlapping micro-cultures.
It helped me to stop trying to “know everything” and instead see platforms as systems: algorithms reward certain behaviors, communities form around shared language, and trends repeat.
You don’t need to follow every creator to understand it, observing how attention moves is far more useful, especially for business.
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I don’t think anyone could ever understand all of the internet or social media. It’s too big and constantly changing. Maybe figure out where your people typically “hang out” online and then start learning how to navigate and engage on that platform. I think most people just gravitate to their own interests, so start there. Search and engage with subjects that you want to know more about. You can also check out the artists and content creators that you hear others rave about for context, I’ve found I’ve learned a lot about the culture that way.
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