Why are people insistant and elitist on being the first to discover something? Or hiding it from other people?

You know the type of moron --- they like to be the first to discover some television show or some meme or something. Then they go about hiding the knowledge as if it doesn't exist like an elitist. Insisting that people that don't have said knowledge are either less of a person or uncool. The internet really obliterates this barrier, but there are still some people that will get pissed off that they're not the only ones who know [or enjoy] their favorite television show, or book, or philosophy for that matter. Why do we hide important ideas and virtues in general? I mean the themes to some content can contain important messages that should be shared... What are your thoughts?