The funny thing is that while I don't doubt in my mind that a lot of the folks with anime/furry illustrations in their blogs are generally younger, I suspect many of them are still knocking on 30 at least.

What happened? Anime and furry fandom became more socially acceptable across contexts. Why? Probably because of the ridiculous degree to which we are connected online and the way this has eroded our ability to segregate identities. A lot of people you have seen online have always been huge losers, but many of them are more open to flagrantly displaying it now.

Is this good? Dunno. I think making some of these subcultures more mainstream can suck for the subcultures themselves. I've never found it all that off-putting personally, but that could just be a reflection of my own biases as a long-time online loser.