‘A society has many groups, each with its own set of rules, and people belong to many groups simultaneously’ (Becker, 1963, p. 8). Howard Becker describes in his book Outsiders: studies in the sociology of deviance (1963) the functioning of sub-cultures. I believe the functioning of sub-cultures are quite the same, but nowadays sub-cultures exist in a different world, namely a digital world. 

With the advent of Web 2.0 our digital culture is developed. The world becomes smaller. The digitalization created a culture of connectivity. This culture of connectivity affects sub-cultures. The digital culture provides a greater range. For instance, the subculture fandom increased by the arrival of Web 2.0. The interaction between fans became more quickly. The quick interaction causes easier tensions regarding the social norms and rules.

A good example is the existence of the sub-culture Fifty Shades of Grey fandom. Twilight fans loved to write and read more stories about Bella and Edward. These stories are called fanfiction. E.L. James her story Masters of the Universe arose commotion, because Stephanie Mayer and the fans didn’t accept the sexual toned story. Writing about a sexual relationship between Bella and Eduard was not done according to Mayer, author of Twilight, because of several reasons.

She didn't define herself as outsider

This example visualizes the speed of our globalized world. One day someone is labelled deviant and the other day the outsider becomes the master of a new sub-culture. Besides showing the speed of the society this example points out Becker’s inspiring view on how an outsider is created. According to Becker deviance is created by society. Society/social groups will label someone as an outsider. For example, E.L. James is seen as a rulebreaker by writing about a sexual relationship, therefore the social group labelled her as deviant, while she didn’t define herself as outsider. I find Becker’s view on how the society responds most interesting, because this change of thinking is refreshing. The social norms are created by groups.  

In our digital world our private becomes more and more public. This may not be something negative, but we must be aware that the social norms and rules are scrutinized even more. Labelling gets faster, because communication and interaction is just a button away.

Reference

Becker, H. (1963), Outsiders: studies in the sociology of deviance. New York, NY: Macmillan Publishing Company.