Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-26342384-20150609222623/@comment-26487831-20150612183625

Yep, the internet has given rise to way more than just one culture. Even different social media sites seem to have their own unique conventions and etiquette. For example, there are certain kinds of jokes you could use on Twitter that would just fall flat on Tumblr. And anyone who has been part of an internet forum for a long period of time will know the kinds of legends and injokes that develop - popular users of the past are discussed with reverence and awe, certain memes are developed that wouldn't make sense to anyone not familiar with the site's culture.

And in a more general sense, we all need to act different on the internet than we do in real life, or there's a cultural clash, like an American attempting to survive the complex network of foreign social cues and obscure ettiquettes of Japan. There are unwritten rules that govern how we act and relate to one another. If this isn't culture, I don't know what is.

And think how facinating that makes Internet Creepypastas. While they don't all need to focus on internet related topics, I find the idea of horror stories opening up and revealing the strange nature of the internet to be amazing. Just like how the folktales of, say, India provided a sense of wonder at the possibilities of life for its people, I feel Creepypastas are doing something similar for those who are aquainted with this new age of social media and mass communication.

And yeah, Creepypastas can really suck. That's what you get when anyone can write them. But another thing you get is really amazing literature that far surpasses the business conscious popualr horror authors and filmmakers. It's up to you (and us!) to write the amazing kind of horror literature that will resonate with minds of people today, and let them feel the same kind of wonderment the audience of folktales would have heard a thousand years ago. :)