See The Otaku prophesy and Merton’s belief.
Sociology and psychology?! With references?
This [article] is very interesting, it reminds me of David Harvey’s theory of social reproduction, which he uses to explain income inequality in American cities. Expanding Marxist ideas on a class system he infers that class groups reproduce as molded by the structural context of society and the economy.
Take the underclass which has found itself socially marginalised through association, education and proximity. I.E. the underclass tends associate with other poor people, they attend the same underperforming schools, tend to not goto college and live in an area where the neighbours are similarly poor. This creates a group of people who, in a community which eschews paid employment and undervalues education, struggle to escape poverty. The community (culture) is often self-depreciating (The Pygmalion effect is a new concept to me) and relatively homogenous.
Now we get to Otaku. Are we (they?) in a similar cycle of social reproduction; Is there indeed, a choice?
In some ways the characteristics of Otaku are similar. You need a be above a baseline of education and IT proficiency, you have to be relatively liberal and open-minded to embrace another culture and most likely, you are going to be within a certain age range because the animé boom is relatively new.
These appear to be structural constraints masquerading as Homophily. Taking the anibloggersphere as an example of rather dedicated individuals, you can see that beyond the baseline characteristics, personalities are at times so disparate, they clash. Different personalities, intelligence, education and personal values is obviously apparent, the rich social mix demonstrating neither internal or external values or opinions is homogenising the group. This is also probably true of forum users and 4-chan users.
While Homophily among Otaku is probably true, how much is similarity between young middle-class Internet users and how much is because we love animé? Is it implying an Otaku would more likely socialise with another user of 4-chan memes than the hot colleague? I think, probably, not. Maybe that idea relies on the stereotype that Otaku are shy, however this could be true of middle-class Internet users or true of neither.
The pygmalion effect, as social phenomena which affects Otakus, is barely evident. Maybe we would be able to communicate in a language incomprehensible to others but I fail to see how socialisation can homogenise the self-image and personal values of such a diverse and widely dispersed community.
This is all of course, unless we are stereotyping Otaku, then yeah of course it’s all true! Along with all Otakus adopting a spectacles, poor hygiene and unhealthy body shape. 
(1) many self-proclaimed otaku flock to anonidate where they find others like themselves to socialize with. It’s extremely common.
(2) you have a convoluted idea of what an otaku really is if you really don’t see how the pygmalion effect applies to the otaku subculture. In Japan, this is more isolated and fits the model so perfectly that you’d be hard-pressed to find a more appropriate group to use as an example. In the western world, things are more spread out. There are different levels of self-deprecation. There are those whose parents, relatives, and peers ridicule them constantly for their minority hobby interests. There are those who have been trolling SA and 4chan since their inceptions, who are extremely big fans of anime and manga, and since they are already used to all of the weeaboo bashing, they tend to bash others over it more than anyone else does.
Poor hygiene, health, and glasses are a Japanese otaku stereotype. Here, I’ve only ever met one other human locally that independently follows anime as much as I do. Most people who think they are otaku really only watch mainstream Japanese titles and products of the Afternoon subculture that filters through over here because certain titles that have a very targeted, otaku-only appeal in Japan tend to have a wide appeal in the West (so much as they become available).
If “young middle-class internet users” means “the average internet user,” they are GROSSLY dissimilar to anime otaku. Speculations about personal grooming habits and physique aside, one thing that is true about otaku is that they devote so much time to their hobbies that if they spend time talking to regular people and DON’T discuss anime at all, they probably aren’t talking for more than a couple of minutes. It’s very difficult to keep up with all of the anime that releases every day because the average person does get a job sooner or later, and otakuism is specifically an extreme obsession with certain hobbies.
Homophily and the pygmalion effect are extremely broad models, so they are very observable. The rise of emo culture also seems to suggest it lately. Regardless, your characterization of the whole thing seems misguided. The psychology of anonymous forum usage has been a fascinating world-wide phenomena that sociologists have been avidly digesting over the years. I would say that the similar societal roles that a large chunk of anime fans fall into are not functions of the online forum communities.
And you’ll find that those users have very different personalities, too. BBS and blog-use are by no means mutually exclusive, and as the concept of meme becomes more and more pervasive, I think those kids in the middle of the moshpit are collectively influencing our culture much more than any blog ring.
Honestly, though, that post was about Japanese otaku. We don’t really have Hikikomori to the same degree here. School phobia exists, certainly, but we have yet to build the online subculture we’d need to cultivate such a reaction in young people that you could really draw a comparison. Here, trends are lighter. People are less shy, less strict about enforcing anonymous, less cruel to people who actually LIKE something like M.S.Negima, etc, etc.
I don’t know…
I must be in a bad mood. :3 It’s just a little depressing when big awesome things happen and you realize that no one else in the room is on to it. Like when I watched the first episode of Soul Eater, I was like, “YUTAKAYUTAKAYUTAKAYUTAPONYUTAPONYUTAPON!!!!!!!!!!! I AM SO THRILLED THAT I THINK I JUST SHAT MY PANTS.”
Most people here don’t even recognize voice actors by ear. I *wish* we had a suitable otaku subculture to withdraw to, but it ends up feeling like there’s more humanity in IRC@2CH’s Nico Nico Douga channel than… Anywhere, really. And if porn spam and video links is an example of humanity, it’s because there may be nothing better.
http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1248823.1249061
^ check out this article
And go watch something cool like Eve no Jikan.
P.S.
People who live in poverty don’t “tend” to go to the same underfunded schools because they choose to or identify with other poor people and devalue paid employment… You have to be landing a little higher on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to be able to ponder the wonders of sociopsychological trends.
By: Sej on 12 November, 2008
at 11:12 am