A Culture Shift for the Ages
Don’t look now, but times are a changing, folks. Things that were once seen as nerdy and often ridiculed by the vast majority of the population is now hitting its stride in the mainstream. While this has been gaining steam for quite some time, it didn’t really dawn on me how big of a shift we’re seeing until last night.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock in the last 24 hours, popular Twitch streamer Ninja played Fortnite with Drake (yes, that Drake), Travis Scott (yes, that Travis Scott), and JuJu Smith-Schuster (yes, that JuJu) last night. Not only did Ninja blow past the viewer record for a single streamer with a peak of over 635,000 viewers, but he set off a firestorm that demonstrates just how far both Fortnite and gaming in general have come.
It all started when he finally got Drake into a game after working through some technical difficulties. The minute they loaded up into the game, word spread like wildfire. My Twitter feed was filled with people that had never before talked about Fortnite, or at least not as much as they were last night. Included in that bunch? None other than Travis Scott himself. He seemed to have a bit of FOMO, as he promptly put himself in the narrative and within minutes, he was also in tow. JuJu later joined in on the fun after getting back from Best Buy with his new PC (yes, he really went out and bought a new PC just to play Fortnite).
While those were the only ones who managed to participate directly in the fun last night, there was no shortage of others who were watching things unfold.
Never before have we seen something like this. A video game straight up dominated the internet for a few hours. That just doesn’t happen.
As big of a moment as last night was, it was but another (albeit large) drop in the bucket that is mainstream culture finally getting on board with the stuff that used to be considered niche.
Prior to Ninja and Drake shutting down the internet, we had a couple of high-profile celebrities declaring their love for one thing that has existed in the fringes of American society for quite some time.
Anime.
Yep, that’s Erik Killmonger himself and Kim Kardashian openly talking about their love for anime. In 2018.
Now, say what you want about Kim, but there’s no doubt that she’s about as mainstream as mainstream can be. Not only that, but she’s about as far away from your “typical” anime lover. The fact that someone who is a part of the famous elite that likes to pride themselves on being, for lack of a better word, bougie is admitting to being “obsessed” with anime is not something anyone could have predicted.
In the case of Michael B. Jordan, he’s been woke on anime for YEARS. Not only that, but stuff like Dragon Ball Z (not the most deep cut in terms of anime, but still) has been popular with black men for awhile. Still, him continuously professing his love for anime while he’s at the highest peak of his career (so far) says something about the acceptability of anime in mainstream culture.
Now, more than ever, it feels okay to be a part of nerd culture. This is a vast difference from the point society was when I was in middle school and high school. Back then, I was ridiculed by the popular kids for playing games and nerding out about the stuff that I loved. While it was perfectly acceptable to play Mario Kart, playing and watching Yu-Gi-Oh! was one of those things that the cool kids didn’t do. God forbid watching anime or reading manga.
In 2018, though? All those people are starting to realize that this stuff is actually pretty fucking cool. Welcome, y’all.
As we saw with the worldwide success of Black Panther, people are okay with something a little different. The majority is now accepting things that us in the minority have been accepting for decades.
While I don’t claim to have any idea of big this shift will truly end up being or how far it will go, it’s incredible watching it unfold before our very eyes.
What a time to be alive.