The internet can be a weird place, they say. Well, it’s just a vast ecosystem of niche communities that have their own obsessions. While everyone’s too familiar with the mainstream online culture, there’s a world of weird but fascinating subcultures that are thriving on social media. With that, here are the 8 internet subcultures you’ve probably never encountered yet.
8. Airport Carpet Enthusiasts
If you’re a frequent traveler, you’ve never paid attention to the carpets you’re stepping on. There’s this Instagram account by SVA student Ackshita Senthilnathan, about an entire community dedicated to documenting and cataloging unique carpet patterns in airports around the world. One famous carpet is from Portland International Airport, which is a teal colored one with a geometric pattern. Sadly, it was replaced in 2015, and fans mourned.
7. Witch House
There’s a subculture called witch house that’s credited to artists who experimented with dark and genre-bounding sounds. Eventually, it became a clichéd pop culture meme among music writers and hipster trend followers. It emerged during the late 2000s as it’s characterized by occult-themed electronic music and distorted vocals. Artists use Unicode symbols in their names, like †‡†, and appeal with imagery of horror films and lo-fi production.
6. Soulbonders
Soulbonders refer to people who are non-fictional counterparts to fictional characters. They have this belief that fictional characters actually exist as separate entities that are living in their consciousness with their own thoughts and feelings, like humans. The members of this community get to communicate with these characters and form relationships with them beyond typical fandom.
5. Seapunk
The seapunk is a niche subculture, likened to a microcosmic music genre that is played in urban hubs like New York and Los Angeles. Its aesthetics featured neon colors, dolphin imagery, and aquatic themes with electronic music. It started as a joke on X (formerly Twitter), and it hit with the mainstream pop culture by Rihanna and Azealia Banks.
4. Health Goth
Health Goth went from being a niche of abstract art enthusiasts to a fashion trend. We’re talking about muscle-bound gym heads wearing head-to-toe Rick Owens to Alexander Wang’s H&M collaboration. It merges fitness culture with goth fashion, which celebrates wellness and darkness. It eventually inspired mainstream activewear pieces.
3. Living Dolls
Living dolls is a subculture that combines cosmetic surgery with diet and makeup to appear as dolls. Think of large eyes, big lips, and an airbrushed complexion like that Barbie doll you’ve had. It’s also about dressing up in Victorian or Lolita-inspired fashion. This subculture thrives on Instagram and YouTube, where they share transformation tutorials and lifestyle content as a form of self-expression.
2. Otherkin
Otherkin have been around since the early ’70s, but it exploded with Tumblr. It’s a subculture of people who believe that they aren’t human beings. Instead, they pose themselves as ethereal beings like vampires, ghosts, and elves. They’ve had a long history of mockery and trolling on the internet, but it’s how they express themselves in digital spaces. They even share their “kin-types” or an experience of disconnection from their human bodies.
1. Liminal Spaces and The Backrooms
This gained popularity in 2019 when a creepypasta story about the Backrooms was posted on 4chan. It’s a story that illustrates an image of a liminal space, like a hallway with yellow carpets and wallpaper, where you can be trapped. By 2022, a subreddit was created called r/LiminalSpace, which features over 500,000 members who share liminal space photos from their local malls or fast food restaurants. It gives an eerie feeling that mixes nostalgia with isolation.