very interesting!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the thing is fandoms have always been there, since the birth of mass media, but the way algorithms and doom scrolling work in nowadays internet makes the engaging and the process of becoming 'obsessed' with something way faster and more intense. i used to be a hardcore fan of 1D and i dont remember the experience as isolating, but rather as a way of making friends my age, connecting with a community etc (altho there were ugly parts of being a stan in the 2010s for sure). right now you can be a fictional character fan and have a conversation with them thanks to character.ai, or engage with thousands of short videos about taylor swifts relationships because your algorithm is like that. i remember being a fan as a much more creative thing, in a certain way you could even reclaim the art (example fanfics, fanarts of album covers, among other things)
I still consider myself very pro-fandom, but I've come to recognize that slipping into more toxic patterns and the "stan" mentality is seen as profitable for so many different actors that it happens more and more. And you tend not to realize you've gone wrong--it feels good in the moment!--until the time when the collapse happens, and then you're kind of screwed and know you're the butt of the joke.
I've noticed even regular fandom these days seems more and more plagued by bad online behaviour and this entitlement and purity politics that you can stay out of stan culture entirely and still find what's supposed to be a fun hobby to make friends with into something far less enjoyable. If you anger the wrong people, especially, things can go really bad, even if you're just ficcing or making art.
so fascinating as always! I don’t think this would help in a clinical, psychological way for people who experienced the most brutal and toxic side of fandoms, but I think that people writing memoirs or sharing their actual experiences in these spaces, positive and negative, in a way that treats them as real would help people to process their experiences. the writing about fandom experiences that I usually see is either overly defensive and effusive about fandoms or doesn’t really dive into the personal experiences of the individuals who engage with media in this way. it’s one of the many reasons why I find this Substack so refreshing and recommend it to so many of my friends. I can’t tell you how many conversations I’ve had with other women my age about fandom experiences based on your articles (and how those have helped me to have a more healthy relationship with the media I consume). I think as our generation is aging, any amount of honest conversation about the very real impact that being in these spaces can have on a person (especially as a child/teen/young adult) has the potential to be helpful. but as you noted it’s hard not to end up in rumination.
Thank you so much! It's part of the reason I started writing and sharing at all, hoping to make sense of things and if it helps anyone else at least verbalize and/or understand what they've seen and experienced... well, it won't make it worthwhile, but it makes it meaningful and a small comfort.
This is really interesting to me, as someone who came up through a very different side of fandom (pretty much entirely based in fiction and fictional characters). I definitely get that feeling of "wasted time."
Do you think this approach would make sense for people who have had those toxic experiences with fiction-based fandom, and could there be shared resources, or would it be better separated? The cash/labour extraction you mentioned doesn't factor nearly as much in my experience but there are definitely commonalities.
In any case, I like your ideas. I think it's a relevant conversation to be having since being part of fandom has become, to me, shockingly common. I think there's going to be more and more people having these experiences, and I think giving people tools is a good idea.
Absolutely! I focus a lot on the industry meddling and exploitation because it's quite overlooked, but you can definitely have emotional wounds without ever having spent any money or engaged in any "labour" -- I think our psychology is so complicated, and I've definitely seen it.
very interesting!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the thing is fandoms have always been there, since the birth of mass media, but the way algorithms and doom scrolling work in nowadays internet makes the engaging and the process of becoming 'obsessed' with something way faster and more intense. i used to be a hardcore fan of 1D and i dont remember the experience as isolating, but rather as a way of making friends my age, connecting with a community etc (altho there were ugly parts of being a stan in the 2010s for sure). right now you can be a fictional character fan and have a conversation with them thanks to character.ai, or engage with thousands of short videos about taylor swifts relationships because your algorithm is like that. i remember being a fan as a much more creative thing, in a certain way you could even reclaim the art (example fanfics, fanarts of album covers, among other things)
I still consider myself very pro-fandom, but I've come to recognize that slipping into more toxic patterns and the "stan" mentality is seen as profitable for so many different actors that it happens more and more. And you tend not to realize you've gone wrong--it feels good in the moment!--until the time when the collapse happens, and then you're kind of screwed and know you're the butt of the joke.
I've noticed even regular fandom these days seems more and more plagued by bad online behaviour and this entitlement and purity politics that you can stay out of stan culture entirely and still find what's supposed to be a fun hobby to make friends with into something far less enjoyable. If you anger the wrong people, especially, things can go really bad, even if you're just ficcing or making art.
so fascinating as always! I don’t think this would help in a clinical, psychological way for people who experienced the most brutal and toxic side of fandoms, but I think that people writing memoirs or sharing their actual experiences in these spaces, positive and negative, in a way that treats them as real would help people to process their experiences. the writing about fandom experiences that I usually see is either overly defensive and effusive about fandoms or doesn’t really dive into the personal experiences of the individuals who engage with media in this way. it’s one of the many reasons why I find this Substack so refreshing and recommend it to so many of my friends. I can’t tell you how many conversations I’ve had with other women my age about fandom experiences based on your articles (and how those have helped me to have a more healthy relationship with the media I consume). I think as our generation is aging, any amount of honest conversation about the very real impact that being in these spaces can have on a person (especially as a child/teen/young adult) has the potential to be helpful. but as you noted it’s hard not to end up in rumination.
Thank you so much! It's part of the reason I started writing and sharing at all, hoping to make sense of things and if it helps anyone else at least verbalize and/or understand what they've seen and experienced... well, it won't make it worthwhile, but it makes it meaningful and a small comfort.
This is really interesting to me, as someone who came up through a very different side of fandom (pretty much entirely based in fiction and fictional characters). I definitely get that feeling of "wasted time."
Do you think this approach would make sense for people who have had those toxic experiences with fiction-based fandom, and could there be shared resources, or would it be better separated? The cash/labour extraction you mentioned doesn't factor nearly as much in my experience but there are definitely commonalities.
In any case, I like your ideas. I think it's a relevant conversation to be having since being part of fandom has become, to me, shockingly common. I think there's going to be more and more people having these experiences, and I think giving people tools is a good idea.
Absolutely! I focus a lot on the industry meddling and exploitation because it's quite overlooked, but you can definitely have emotional wounds without ever having spent any money or engaged in any "labour" -- I think our psychology is so complicated, and I've definitely seen it.