Current Events > Are there any studies about how communities get perverted by popularity?

(+) Yeah! (+)

At the simplest level, consider how popular memes evolve to the point where they no longer represent the original humor that made them popular. Recent example is the woman screaming at a cat. Originally, it represented someone being dramatic versus someone being confused. Eventually, some dummy misinterpreted the nuance and turned it into generic macro for an argument, with the cat having an equal and opposite reaction. More dummies missed the point, and eventually the format changed.

Now lets look at various subreddits. Youll have a community that creates niche macros, for instance, and as it gains popularity it becomes a repository for generic memes. r/meirl is an example, which used to be about relatable humor before it exploded in popularity. There was a humorous pornographic sub, r/watchitforthecat, that captured moments when a pet would disrupt some insta ho doing yoga or some shit. Now its infested with OnlyFans members prostituting out pictures and videos that just happen to include a cat somewhere in the frame, as they flood every vaguely sexual subreddit with their ads. Ive had to unsubscribe from more than a few meaner spirited subreddits when they became mouthpieces for genuinely spiteful or racist morons, like r/whiteknighting turning from pathetic twitter and instagram captures to an incel and mgtow haven.

Im genuinely curious if theres a formula for when popularity overwhelms nuance and homogenizes identity. Its like cancer.

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