Fandom vs. The Real World

[radio_silent]

This is a little bit different from my normal posts, but I want to talk about social networking. As in, TwitterFacebook  LiveJournalYoutube and now GoogleBuzz. Social networking, and fandom.

Comments

[jenepel]

I think it's really difficult to bring fandom into ordinary life, because you're completely right in saying there is a line drawn. People have an automatic negative reaction to it, which is ridiculous when you consider how much fabulous artwork, writing and general creativity fandom produces every day. It makes sense to me that it could be used as a background for any internet, graphics or writing related job, but just because it makes sense doesn't make it true. I think people who aren't on the "inside" just won't understand and will probably write it off.

All that said, I would say I'm somewhat honest about my fandom interactions to people I know in RL. I used to be completely closed mouthed about it, but probably about two years ago or so I met some friends (through Nanowrimo) who turned out to be in fandom as well, and suddenly it started to bleed into my RL. Now my family and most of my RL friends are aware that I participate in some fanfic (well they maybe know about the Gilmore Girls virtual season I run) and that I have an online journal. But recently I've gotten into AI fic, and that's RPS, which even I felt unsure about before, and I KNOW that people in RL would be completely freaked out by that. So I'm feeling more and more the need to lock down my journal or separate it in some way.

Part of my issue is also the stigma that comes connected to LJ itself. People see it as a site for younger people, a site for "journals" rather than blogs, and I always feel a bit strange linking to it. So I've considered creating a second blog to move more of my RL stuff to, that I could then in turn link people to through FB, Twitter, etc. But I do worry that if I did that I would have no followers there. IDK.

Anyway, sorry for the long reply, but this is something I've thought about a lot! In general I think it's just like anything else (TV, music) where people draw conclusions about (or look down on) things they don't participate in and know nothing about.

[radio_silent]

It makes sense to me that it could be used as a background for any internet, graphics or writing related job,
yay! i completely understand about people not getting it, but i love that you validated the fandom creations in some way. because they are pretty amazing (not mine here, but there's some great stuff out there).

well they maybe know about the Gilmore Girls virtual season I run
um, they should, because it's pretty amazing! : )

i completely understand about RPS. i understand it, and i'd probably even read it, but i have a moral line drawn there for myself. i'm not really judging the people who create or read it--but i feel that in the VERY least i have too much fic to read and shows to watch as it is!

But I do worry that if I did that I would have no followers there. IDK.
SAME. lj is such a wonderful, relatively close community--before i joined i couldn't even imagine making friends with people on the internet. like, i didn't get how people did it. but maybe our tight kintted-ness makes it hard for people on the outside to understand what's great about lj. because it definitely has advantages over blogs--the disadvantage might be that it's so self-contained.

Anyway, sorry for the long reply, but this is something I've thought about a lot!
are you kidding? i love long replies! and it's nice to know i'm not the only one thinking about this stuff. : )