Internet folklore – Folk Culture in the Digital Age

Today, the internet is an incredibly useful tool in every person’s life. We use it to communicate with people all over the world, to read about the latest news, and even to find out more about online casinos like the ones you can find on casinopromote.co.uk. In so many ways the internet has made our lives significantly easier. However, our reliance on technology has also made our cultures and traditions different, especially our folklore. 

What is folklore?

There are many definitions of folklore but the majority of people perceive folklore to be the way we transmit knowledge between one another. Folklore could be the whole society of a country telling stories about their culture and traditions to new generations, or it could be just two people sharing information. However, even though we can imagine people in the past telling stories to one another about their culture and orally passing on valuable information, that is quite difficult to imagine now. Today, we have internet folklore.

What is internet folklore?

Internet folklore, as its name suggests, is the transmission of information between anyone who has access to the internet. It is a much faster way of communication and passing of knowledge than ever in the past, and every person with a computer has at some point been a part of internet folklore. Whenever you watch a youtube tutorial, read a blog post instructing you on how to do something, or even share jokes online, you in some way participate in this form of folklore. 

Can this really be seen as folklore?

Folklore is always present if there is a community of people who share the same culture, traditions or customs. Now, we might not be used to thinking of people on the internet as belonging to one culture, but if you think about it, we all share something in common. How else could we understand niche jokes, know what hashtag to use, or how to behave on social media platforms? We learned it from other people with whom we share the same interests, behaviors, or better said customs. And the best example of the fact that we use the internet to share knowledge and stories between one another is the number of urban legends that we have created over years. 

Urban legends 

Legends have always been fascinating to people and thanks to the power of the internet, they spread much faster today than ever in the past. A few clicks are all it takes for a fake story or a rumor to become an urban legend and to take deep roots on the internet. That’s how people at one point believed that Michael Jordan was coming back to the NBA even though he was older than 50 and had retired a long time ago. Ridiculous, fascinating, and sometimes even hair-raising stories are a huge and powerful part of internet folklore – just look at how Slenderman has become an urban legend capable of making people commit crimes and even attempt murder. 

The sea of knowledge

Of course, the internet is also a powerful source of information and most of us use it every day to learn new things, find out the meaning of an unknown word, or see where to go on a Saturday night. We can learn virtually anything on the internet and find answers to all the questions we have. For that reason, the internet is now an inseparable part of our folklore.