It used to be that the internet caused a boom in the amount of subcultures you could be a part of. But now I think the opposite is largely becoming true; because most people under a certain age spend most of their free time on social media, every subculture eventually becomes essentially enmeshed with the monoculture on social media, where odd or empathetic behavior makes you a strong target for bullying.
I think it depends on the infrastructure of those networks. For example, on Facebook people are exposed to strangers a lot, on Discord the communities are isolated. On Reddit, each subreddit has its own rules, but there are also (automatic) moderators working across the entire website, so some things get enforced globally.
Shortly, websites like Discord support subcultures, websites like Twitter support those who bully subcultures.
It used to be that the internet caused a boom in the amount of subcultures you could be a part of. But now I think the opposite is largely becoming true; because most people under a certain age spend most of their free time on social media, every subculture eventually becomes essentially enmeshed with the monoculture on social media, where odd or empathetic behavior makes you a strong target for bullying.
I think it depends on the infrastructure of those networks. For example, on Facebook people are exposed to strangers a lot, on Discord the communities are isolated. On Reddit, each subreddit has its own rules, but there are also (automatic) moderators working across the entire website, so some things get enforced globally.
Shortly, websites like Discord support subcultures, websites like Twitter support those who bully subcultures.