Culture is the customs, morals, standards, achievements, expressions and characteristics that can be used to define a group of people. Culture is at its root an expression of what groups of people value.
Culture has influenced society since the first communities were established. It shapes how we interact with one another.
As time goes by and events transpire a metaphorical water passes under the bridge and creates a change in community culture. Sometimes it’s a life altering technology that brings change. Other times it’s war, poverty or disease. Regardless of the reason, culture helps form the common bonds within communities and these bonds change over time.
With the proliferation of the internet, a cultural revolution took place. Society no longer needed to accept the standardization of everything. Instead of the one size fits all model, we now benefit from the discovery of value along the long tail of possibilities. Instead of ideas and products produced for the masses, we can enjoy unique concepts for the few.
With this discovery came a new golden age for freedom of expression and creativity. Where once an individual may have felt like they were alone on an island, they can now find community around the world through digital connections.
This digital community has it’s own broad culture that filters down into infinite subcultures. A metaverse that values and rewards uniqueness. Rewarding the speed with which a person can provide individual takes and new representations of life. It’s as if culture, the bonds that brings communities together, has become its own form of value. A currency of the digital age. A persons ability to define a community, bring people together and create culture is now a wealth building endeavor.
In a world where you can have almost anything at the click of a mouse, you are rewarded for your ability to facilitate this phenomenon through unique expression. By filtering out the the noisy information on the internet to define new subcultures of interest.
Moving forward, culture building will be a critical foundation to the information age. We are now within the grayed out are between epochs. The industrial age gave way to the modern age which is now giving rise to the information age. As we look back on this time, we will see the true wealth generated by people and institutions that understood how to generate cultural value in this transitory period.
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