''Popular / Unpopular'' has everything to do with certain types
of Subcultures. Sociology always fasctinated me, even when I was
in elementary school, before I knew its name.
Every subculture has certain Rules it defines itself by. In
fandom, they make it easy; it's liking a particular music/TV
show/book/movie/game and liking it a lot - sometimes even
dressing up like characters from it and going to conventions
(ComiCon) or concerts (in the case of music), although not
always. It can be writing fictional stories, seeking out other
people of that subculture on the Internet or in real life, and
often trying to convince your friends to join in, sometimes not.
From Pokemon to Minecraft to Insane Clown Posse to Star Trek,
Doctor Who, Hetalia, Twilight (or Zombies/Creatures of the Night
in general), Anime - these are all subcultures.
But these are all OPEN subcultures. They welcome new members;
there's usually no hierarchy, no ''You're popular / you're
unpopular'' within the groups. Sometimes there is but they TEND
to be very open.
But then there are CLOSED Subcultures.
This is where we get to middle school cliques.
Sometimes neighborhoods will do this; gated communities are a
VISUAL example of a closed subculture, complete with leaders and
a hierarchy.
Closed subcultures, very often have ''popularity/unpopularity''
- ''You're In the Circle / You are Out of the Circle''.
Large families (Hatfields / McCoys), tribes and clans in Africa
and ancient Scottish clans, Indian tribes, Gangs - these are
closed subcultures whose entrance requirements are based solely
on the whim of members who have made it past a certain level;
but then constantly judged by the entire group to be either
popular or unpopular, ''is he coming in, or is he going out?''
But compared to the population - even sometimes to the very
neighborhoods they live in, these closed subcultures are often
very powerless. Because they are closed and do not communicate
with the outside larger community, they develop their own
oddness and idiosyncracies that makes sense within the group,
but look weird to outsiders.
It also can make them very attractive, because their coherency
as a group makes it seem like, ''They know what's going on.''
But that's only true within their group. Their Universe is very
tiny and its numbers are usually very small; perhaps a few dozen
at best.
And then there is the Internet.
Popular/Unpopular is a Like/click/friend request away.
Flips everything around. You have open and closed communities
mingling freely, popular/unpopular becomes a number - because
building new friendships is VERY easy.
The walls are taken down.
I've always been popular on the Internet. It's very easy to do.
Have a good opinion of yourself and talk freely online to other
people. If you increase the amount of positive people around you
and decrease the amount of negative people (in other words; find
agreeable people and the right kind of disagreeable people; -
you become popular in your own mind.
And often, the numbers begin to reflect it.
1200 followers on FB, 5600+ on Google+, just broke 5000
followers on Vine (and won't go into my address book) I was
ranked 8th most popular in the world on kgbpeople.com until they
changed myspace - dropped me down to 12th in the USA, 54 in the
world (look me up :P ) -
Online, popularity is easy; nobody has to be unpopular online.
I consider every follower to be a real friend, because it's a
real person I've talked to, know something about, and who I care
about.
They're people I'd hang out with in ''real life'', but can't
because of geographical distance, and honestly, that's fine by
me. In the past, I used to visit people, getting on greyhounds
back in the early 90s and such but that got old and expensive
quick.
If I walked down the street and had 1200 people following me as
I was walking, I'd be consided popular by the community.
Heck, if I had 12 people following me down the street, I'd
either be father to a large family, or might be considered
popular by a few people, perhaps a gang to another, a cult to
another;
So the question: ''Am I Popular?'' is only meaningful in some
groups.
If your family likes you, you may be popular within your family.
If the group you work for likes you, you may be popular at work.
If your friends listen to you, you might be popular amonst your
friends.
If your church likes you, you might be popular in your church.
etc.
So what is Popular?
To me, its meaningless all by itself. I tend to make friends
with people who are open-minded and agreeable. Some people look
to agree, some people look for excuses to exclude someone.
I'd rather be excluded from groups that exclude - it puts me as
a member of a much much much larger set of humanity; ''those not
part of a small group''. With 7 billion people on the planet, it
automatically puts me in the majority and frees me up. :)
