We live for the algorithm, everything we post we like, and share gets tagged categorized and put into a system that will try to serve you more of what you liked before. I love to learn about things that are a bit strange and honestly off putting I don’t think everything is for everyone it’s one of the reasons why sub-cultures exist in the first place.

But in the age of social media, content makers and opinions as facts era that we live in it makes the things we love feel awful.

I connected with friends over a love of marvel comics when I was a kid, now its tough to take a look on social media at all with out seeing hot takes on a marvel movie or a comic book or a show that people don’t like or love or barely watched and understand. Can you say you’re apart of a culture if you only exploit it for likes and sponsorships?

Subcultures thrive on being select and exclusive, if you know you know. I’ve dedicated hours and money into building a solid comic collection not for money or clout but because I enjoy great stories and want to be enveloped in the world, and support the artist and writers I enjoy. Taking deep dive into who makes your favorite character tick.

But comics and comic related things are mainstream now which means mainstream commercialization of the culture. Its not profitable for just a few million people to be fans of the X-Men, we need all men in the age group 18-35 to want throw money at the screen.

The same can be said for anime, manga, and any sub-culture you can think of. We no longer have sub-culture we what’s profitable, and if it became stagnant how can we make more money off if still while cutting resources.

I believe we have diluted so much of the things we love that we no longer know what we like or why we like it, it’s just something thats on in the background. The ease of access to so many things has exhilarated this but I think all is not lost.

We need gatekeepers, but not in the way as it was before. I don’t want to tell anyone that they can’t enjoy the thing they love thats not what that kind of gatekeeping I’m looking for. I’m looking for gatekeeping as a means to preserve history and the meaning of things we love.

To ensure that the subcultures we love remain meaningful and respected and not just another way to make a quick dollar. I believe we can use the existing platforms and social media we have to encourage genuine participation and contribution rather than some superficial involvement.

Social media has mad everything feel flat and boring because everyone is following the same trends, or using the same blueprint as the next person I think its time we take back our power from these platforms and algorithms and make them work for us.