Departing from the usual pattern for a long form seriouspost about subcultures and community dynamics (~1000 words):
synkretie.net/writings/subcu
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In which I refer to this: meaningness.com/metablog/geeks
And how it pains me every time I see it because I think I'm in a position to know better
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My current interpretation is, "geeks, mops and sociopaths" is the story of a single person's path through a subculture and not the story of a society. That's why it resonates, but also why it breaks down if you stay in the subculture for more than one generation.
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And some subcultures do only last for one generation! But it's still silly to blame entropy for your extinction when what you should've been doing is reproduce, which is to say attract and mentor new members. In the longer-lived cultures, these can even be your own children.
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I think you'd do better to lay out an explicit model of where you think the different local equilibria can be found, rather than setting yourself up to bicker about whether imageboards were better in 2004
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Knowing we're all submodules of a bigger system, it should not be scary to at times intentionally not invest energy into a branch that is a dead-end. It is tempting to view it as a vital part of self, particularly when there's lots of neural connections dedicated to it.
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But "self" as a limited biological system is often not the most useful concept for our strategy as one giant lifesystem