Contemplations
I'm in a contemplative mood.
If there's one thing the year of lockdowns has given me, it's a slew of additional fandoms to wade through. A combination of Netflix algorithm and my own particular brand of media consumption did take me down some odd rabbit holes and a series of six-degrees-of-Kevin-Bacon style viewing choices.
But I did get to thinking about fans, fandom, my own style of fandom monogamy and how the way I approach things in fandom now has changed so much from how I was at the height of my fannish pursuits.
And yes, some of it's me. We get older, our tastes, interests and tollerance for bullshit all change. And some of it's culture and society- things that were A-OK even a decade ago are now "Hooo shit so much side-eye"- But some of it is an odd sense of malicious entitlement that while it has always existed to a degree feels like it's now so much more freely expressed in a forum that's inherently more public and more directly personal to the creators than it ever used to be.
Like you'd always get some asshole in a fan community, stirring shit, stoking outrage or otherwise being a dick. But the difference between now and then is they they used to present that face to fellow fans or maybe shout into the void of the internet at large.
Now, you see so much of that still in existence but it's no longer aimed at fans, it's aimed directly at the creators themselves through the festering pit of voles we call social media comments.
I find it fascinating. And infuriating. And utterly alien, because this is a dynamic that I'm really only just encountering the full demented face of. Perhaps by dint of where my former interests have lain, or as a default of partaking in some pretty chill fan circles but, while I knew it was a thing that happened I don't think I've ever seen it unroll in real-time quite as comprehensively as it seems to keep popping up of late.
What am I talking about?
The celebrity social media dichotomy: You can't do right for doing wrong.
Take a Celeb who doesn't post much on social media. 90% of the comments and tags will be along the lines of "WHY U NO TALK TO US??!" demands for them to post or interact more.
So celeb posts an offhand, idle comment.
The responses all follow exactly the same pattern and it goes as follows:
The sweet: "Yes bestie! Love you!"
The sweetly patronising: "OMG yey! You finally remembered your password!"
The straight-up dickishly patronising: "How long did it take you to find that gif, grandpa? You're such a boomer. Go back to bed."
The entitled but naive: "I demand you do this unrelated but very specific thing I want!"
The entitled and shit-stirring: "Apologise for this arbitrary thing I find offenseve that happened ages ago but I'm going to bring up now just to get people riled up, plus you're an asshole."
And finally... the tired old guard: "Oh not that thing again, we already dealt with that thing like six times already..."
These are commonalities, you find them everywhere. What interests me is across the different fandoms I'm now perusing is the RATIOS. Especially the ratio of shit-stirrers and dick-patronisers to everyone else. Jesus, I can really see why some celebs avoid social media like the plague of crusted weasles that it can be. The whiplash of "Post more! Post more! Now apologise for every thing you've ever fucking said you fucking abhorrent piece of shit" is just... jaw-dropping.
And it kind of encapsulates the generational difference from my first forray on the internet over 20 years ago, to now. Celebrities were *distant*. Fandoms were seperate, covert, like a members-only space with fight-club rules, and if your celebrity suddenly got a social media presence then stalking that thing was akin to the rules of engagement in the real world. You were fucking POLITE cause there was always the TINY chance they might actually notice you there and grace you with a comment. In the same way you don't generally bellow abuse at famous people on the street if you want them to think well of you in passing.
But then this ties in to another point I was contemplating the other day and that's the notion of a curated online experience that people expect to be "safe".
The internet... it was never "safe". You went into those fan boards knowing there was a pretty good chance that sooner or later some troll would spam the place with graphic goatse pictures or links to something equally bizarre. I saw so many graphically dialated anuses in my teenage years, it breaks my MIND that people can get so butthurt over a misplaced emoji or a badly expressed comment that they feel they can DEMAND restitution from celebrities. (And yes, goatse and butthurt in the same sentence. I'm Sorry.)
So where am I going with this stream-of-consciousness ramble?
I dunno. There's a part of me that loves the thrill of creatives I like being active on social media; that still loves the little frisson of potential for that 60 seconds of spontaneous conversation you might get to have with someone you admire.
But on the other hand, I also miss the way that the distance and unobtainable mystery influenced fan behaviour. Because I know I fall hard into the Tired Old-Guard bracket these days, even in fandoms I'm new to. Cause I've ridden this rodeo before. The horse might be different but the dynamics don't really change.
But I see the hateful comments that get slung on even innocuous or celebratory posts and I just want to give them a little hug and say "I'm sorry your fans are insane. I understood what you meant. Please don't let this put you off talking to the rest of us?"
Circling back to my original comments: I have several new fandoms post-lockdown. And pretty much ALL of them have a very intense "Don't read the comments" caveat attached to them. I find myself more and more liking-a-thing-but-actively-avoiding-the-fandom. I'll cruise for pics or fics or news, but I swear to fuck nothing destroys the happy chill of finding a thing/person/group you like only to get sucked into a baffling hate-vortex of cancel-culture-inspired call-outs and fan-baiting unrolling on the internet.
90% of the time I take one look at the lay of the fandom land and just reverse the fuck outta' there cause I no longer have the energy to pick apart the factions, politics and just straight-up insanity of fan spaces these days. I'll just be over here, in my corner, enjoying myself on my own.
Because I think that some of these people forget that one day, they're going to be a lot closer to 50 than 20, and they're going to look back at the bullshit their generation thinks is fine right now, and they're going to understand how fucked up some of it was. Because that's how things work. A constant state of self-improvement is a good thing to be in, but don't let outrage over shitty things that happened before blind you from noticing the equally shitty things you're doing right now. Because at some point they're going to get recognised.
And stop assuming that everything has to be made safe for you. Take ownership of what you consume. Use tags and block-lists and discretion if you know something upsets you, but the big wide world out there isn't going to curate itself specifically to your needs.
And finally, at the end of the day, remember that every single one of us out there... we're all just people. Yep, even that perfect boyband singer or that perfect actress with awards on her shelf, or that jobbing TV extra posting illicit backstage photos... they're people. With actual human emotions, who make mistakes and fuck things up and put their foot in their mouth sometimes without really meaning to.
Yelling at them isn't going to incentivse them to give you what you want, it's just going to make them even more reluctant to interact in the first place.
Or, to summarise:
If there's one thing the year of lockdowns has given me, it's a slew of additional fandoms to wade through. A combination of Netflix algorithm and my own particular brand of media consumption did take me down some odd rabbit holes and a series of six-degrees-of-Kevin-Bacon style viewing choices.
But I did get to thinking about fans, fandom, my own style of fandom monogamy and how the way I approach things in fandom now has changed so much from how I was at the height of my fannish pursuits.
And yes, some of it's me. We get older, our tastes, interests and tollerance for bullshit all change. And some of it's culture and society- things that were A-OK even a decade ago are now "Hooo shit so much side-eye"- But some of it is an odd sense of malicious entitlement that while it has always existed to a degree feels like it's now so much more freely expressed in a forum that's inherently more public and more directly personal to the creators than it ever used to be.
Like you'd always get some asshole in a fan community, stirring shit, stoking outrage or otherwise being a dick. But the difference between now and then is they they used to present that face to fellow fans or maybe shout into the void of the internet at large.
Now, you see so much of that still in existence but it's no longer aimed at fans, it's aimed directly at the creators themselves through the festering pit of voles we call social media comments.
I find it fascinating. And infuriating. And utterly alien, because this is a dynamic that I'm really only just encountering the full demented face of. Perhaps by dint of where my former interests have lain, or as a default of partaking in some pretty chill fan circles but, while I knew it was a thing that happened I don't think I've ever seen it unroll in real-time quite as comprehensively as it seems to keep popping up of late.
What am I talking about?
The celebrity social media dichotomy: You can't do right for doing wrong.
Take a Celeb who doesn't post much on social media. 90% of the comments and tags will be along the lines of "WHY U NO TALK TO US??!" demands for them to post or interact more.
So celeb posts an offhand, idle comment.
The responses all follow exactly the same pattern and it goes as follows:
The sweet: "Yes bestie! Love you!"
The sweetly patronising: "OMG yey! You finally remembered your password!"
The straight-up dickishly patronising: "How long did it take you to find that gif, grandpa? You're such a boomer. Go back to bed."
The entitled but naive: "I demand you do this unrelated but very specific thing I want!"
The entitled and shit-stirring: "Apologise for this arbitrary thing I find offenseve that happened ages ago but I'm going to bring up now just to get people riled up, plus you're an asshole."
And finally... the tired old guard: "Oh not that thing again, we already dealt with that thing like six times already..."
These are commonalities, you find them everywhere. What interests me is across the different fandoms I'm now perusing is the RATIOS. Especially the ratio of shit-stirrers and dick-patronisers to everyone else. Jesus, I can really see why some celebs avoid social media like the plague of crusted weasles that it can be. The whiplash of "Post more! Post more! Now apologise for every thing you've ever fucking said you fucking abhorrent piece of shit" is just... jaw-dropping.
And it kind of encapsulates the generational difference from my first forray on the internet over 20 years ago, to now. Celebrities were *distant*. Fandoms were seperate, covert, like a members-only space with fight-club rules, and if your celebrity suddenly got a social media presence then stalking that thing was akin to the rules of engagement in the real world. You were fucking POLITE cause there was always the TINY chance they might actually notice you there and grace you with a comment. In the same way you don't generally bellow abuse at famous people on the street if you want them to think well of you in passing.
But then this ties in to another point I was contemplating the other day and that's the notion of a curated online experience that people expect to be "safe".
The internet... it was never "safe". You went into those fan boards knowing there was a pretty good chance that sooner or later some troll would spam the place with graphic goatse pictures or links to something equally bizarre. I saw so many graphically dialated anuses in my teenage years, it breaks my MIND that people can get so butthurt over a misplaced emoji or a badly expressed comment that they feel they can DEMAND restitution from celebrities. (And yes, goatse and butthurt in the same sentence. I'm Sorry.)
So where am I going with this stream-of-consciousness ramble?
I dunno. There's a part of me that loves the thrill of creatives I like being active on social media; that still loves the little frisson of potential for that 60 seconds of spontaneous conversation you might get to have with someone you admire.
But on the other hand, I also miss the way that the distance and unobtainable mystery influenced fan behaviour. Because I know I fall hard into the Tired Old-Guard bracket these days, even in fandoms I'm new to. Cause I've ridden this rodeo before. The horse might be different but the dynamics don't really change.
But I see the hateful comments that get slung on even innocuous or celebratory posts and I just want to give them a little hug and say "I'm sorry your fans are insane. I understood what you meant. Please don't let this put you off talking to the rest of us?"
Circling back to my original comments: I have several new fandoms post-lockdown. And pretty much ALL of them have a very intense "Don't read the comments" caveat attached to them. I find myself more and more liking-a-thing-but-actively-avoiding-the-fandom. I'll cruise for pics or fics or news, but I swear to fuck nothing destroys the happy chill of finding a thing/person/group you like only to get sucked into a baffling hate-vortex of cancel-culture-inspired call-outs and fan-baiting unrolling on the internet.
90% of the time I take one look at the lay of the fandom land and just reverse the fuck outta' there cause I no longer have the energy to pick apart the factions, politics and just straight-up insanity of fan spaces these days. I'll just be over here, in my corner, enjoying myself on my own.
Because I think that some of these people forget that one day, they're going to be a lot closer to 50 than 20, and they're going to look back at the bullshit their generation thinks is fine right now, and they're going to understand how fucked up some of it was. Because that's how things work. A constant state of self-improvement is a good thing to be in, but don't let outrage over shitty things that happened before blind you from noticing the equally shitty things you're doing right now. Because at some point they're going to get recognised.
And stop assuming that everything has to be made safe for you. Take ownership of what you consume. Use tags and block-lists and discretion if you know something upsets you, but the big wide world out there isn't going to curate itself specifically to your needs.
And finally, at the end of the day, remember that every single one of us out there... we're all just people. Yep, even that perfect boyband singer or that perfect actress with awards on her shelf, or that jobbing TV extra posting illicit backstage photos... they're people. With actual human emotions, who make mistakes and fuck things up and put their foot in their mouth sometimes without really meaning to.
Yelling at them isn't going to incentivse them to give you what you want, it's just going to make them even more reluctant to interact in the first place.
Or, to summarise:
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