>>61>I see people talk around this subject all the time, but very few people explain it for what it really isI haven't ever seen anyone use the term "database consumption" (because it's frankly a bit clunky) but I've seen people discuss the phenomenon in generally more simple terms. "Secondary Fan" is a term I see thrown around alot for someone more interested in the media and culture surrounding a work rather than the work itself. People who like the idea of a work more than the work itself - the example in your post of programmers who are more into "programming" itself, rather than anything ends-focused like "software development" or "video games development" and talk alot about their favourite programming languages but not so much what they're actually doing with them.
Just to go on a tangent, I'm not a programmer, but just as an outsider looking in, "hacker culture" or whatever you'd like to call it, I feel used to be alot more about what you could actually DO with a computer. The computer was this tool that, if you understood it, you could do just about anything with. Nowadays it's just programming language/distro/text editor flame wars and people posting photographs of their riced-out Linux setups.
Back on topic, you're correct I feel in that culture has (and is continuing to) largely shift from the consumption of works themselves to the consumption of "constituent elements of the [work]." 'The Vibe' of something being more important than the actual content of the work. An undue focus on setting over plot and an extreme reliance of (and expectation of adherence to) literary tropes are elements I've noticed from these very postmodern works. Or, a work that seems to be an excuse for 'loremasters' to fill a wiki, which they get more enjoyment out of than actually engaging with the work itself. The big tendency is, I feel, breaking down complicated subject manner into easily identifiable and replicable tropes. I feel like the reason for this is because, not to get all "kids these days" but people are more isolated and generally have less of a sense of community than they did in the past.(tl;dr mass adoption of the internet) "Fandoms" have essentially become communities replacing real-world ones. Most people have limited life experience but alot of experience with media, which causes people to be more derivative in their own work since they have less personal things to draw on.
>What is the end result of this? Will all future media, in-groups, communities, genres, sub-genres, and hobbies be plagued by this forever?"Forever" is a long time but it is definitely a very strong trend in the way people interact with works of art. It will probably be around for a while, but again, it's a trend. Trends come and go. Even today, yeah, you have alot of people engaging with works on a metanarrative basis, where they're more engaged with what surrounds the work than the work itself, but people do still engage with works as narratives in and of themselves, and people still create works intended as self-contained narratives. Even so, we do need to consider that even the best and most prolific fandoms and doujin circles (Evangelion comes to mind) weren't exactly designed with this in mind. Eva is just a very strong, technically and aesthetically proficient work that builds off both other works in it's genre and the personal experiences of it's creator. It attracting a strong legion of "database fans" shouldn't be confused for it having created those database fans in the first place.
The programming example you brought up I feel is the result of programming having exploded in popularity as a career path, so alot of people who otherwise wouldn't be interested in computers took it up since it was a good way to make money. I expect this sort of "database engagement" with programming to fall by the wayside in the next decade or two, since the massive growth of the tech sector is leveling out and there generally has been an oversupply of tech roles that big companies are jettisoning (while blaming AI)
