I know it might be retarded to say this about Internet culture, but I highly recommend you guys read Oswald Spengler's "Decline of the West". Although he can get a bit autistic with pseudo-metaphysics, his main ideas are on point, but the Internet is recent and clear evidence that his historical model can apply to even subcultures AS LONG AS there is a higher-ideal(s) and enough stimuli and people to participate. (Despite that, if you want a long-lasting culture, religion IS necessary. Materialism does not a culture make.)