Current Car Culture

I am by no means a professional writer. I just ramble.

I really really lament the current state of car culture right now. Tracks closing, people doing idiotic "swimming", takeovers, clout chasing, etc.. I am only 28 years old. I can't speak to what the culture was like only 10 years ago, but there is no denying that general perception and the community itself is not doing great. Here in NorCal, I regularly see posts of morons at takeovers, or even clout chasers (for some reason?) posting their Ls like crashing.

Tracks. I haven't been to a track day yet, but I told myself this is the year for sure and I intend to hold myself to that. It's really a shame that I see tracks closing or having financial issues. People build houses and move near a racetrack and then complain about the noise. What did they expect exactly??? Cars are loud. It's the same as when people start living near airports and complain about the noise. It truly doesn't make sense but they don't care. I just watched a video from Donut about Irwindale. I am aware there are multiple factors that led to the track closing, but it's still such a shame. 

Social media. Probably my biggest gripe with current car culture. No, it isn't all bad. In my experience, I've made a lot of great connections through social media. Quick anecdote; I recently got a Porsche Boxster. While scrolling through instagram, I found an account with very few followers and not many views that had posted a cool video of cars driving along. I followed, their account got popular overnight, and the guy organized a meet with other fellow porsche owners. It was an amazing event and I met some really cool people with a lot of knowledge and connections on Porsche related stuff. Obviously a positive. On the other hand, I personally believe that these same platforms encourage people to do, record, and post moronic and inflammatory content. Takeovers, rage bait builds, "swimming", and people's egos being hugely inflated. These things have consequences like insurance rates and car prices increasing. It's kind of insane honestly.

There is probably a lot more I could say but I'll leave it there for now. I love cars. All I want is to meet fellow enthusiasts, hang out, and share our passion.