In-person gatherings create the scenes that sustain online subcultures

Evidence

The importance of conferences and social interactions to technologically mediated cultures has been well documented. From MIT’s Model Railroad club and Stewart Brand’s original hacker conference to today’s free and open-source software “cons,” these events not only allow for face-to-face interactions between people who share common interests, but also create “scenes” of people who become friends, work together, and support each other. Despite near-constant discussion and chit-chat through the online communication tool du jour, it is often in-person socialization and collaboration that bring to bear the geographical importance of a scene. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 154

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to scholarship on subcultures and scene theory (e.g., Will Straw’s ‘scene’ concept) and to how offline meetups anchor online communities, relevant to the reader’s foundational influencer-culture framing. — connects to: Early online communities aimed to augment local place, not escape it — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 131; Shared journeys among strangers create the sense of an imagined community — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on…, 223; Small remote gatherings can beat huge in-person lectures as attention ecosystems — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 289 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Shared journeys among strangers create the sense of an imagined community #expands (0.85) — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 223