Fandom Snowflake Challenge Day 14
Day 14
In your own space, talk about what you think the future holds for fandom.
I, like pretty much everyone else it seems, really don't know. I think one of the problems (?) with fandom is that it's so big and diverse, and it's only getting bigger. That makes it difficult to make broad proclomations about the future. Especially when issues with the internet and government regulations are so up in the air as well... Anyway. Here are more just some of my thoughts on the subject of the future of fandom:
- Megafandoms will continue to overshadow smaller fandoms and be hubs of toxicity. Megafandoms are accessible to a lot of ppl (which is not itself a bad thing), and they're the kind of things that it's easy to create a fandom identity around. That is, from what I've seen, where the bigger problems come in. Both bc of just the size of them and the way ppl make them so personal, there's a lot of toxicity and it becomes more highly visible. So I think we'll continue to see that more and more.
- Fandom will remain/continue to be on multiple platforms. Tumblr had mostly become the nexus of fandom, then they shot themselves in the foot (even before December tbh) and ppl had to decide where else to go. Pillowfort and Dreamwidth seem to be the biggest contenders for replacements atm, but I don't think either of them can take Tumblr's place. Dreamwidth isn't the... style, I guess, that most fans prefer these days, and as much as I'm enjoying being on Pillowfort, I don't think they're going to be able to attract enough ppl with their currently stalled growth (as well as some questionable mod decisions). I am on the fence whether it's good or bad that the platform behemoth has gone down (I mean, I'm happy not to be on Tumblr anymore, but elsewhere is just so slow in comparison) bc I'm not sure fandom needs to all be in one place. I mean, everyone prefers different platform styles, and even different fandoms have norms that work better on different platforms. I think fandom will remain scattered over several platforms, with more new ones coming up. We'll see if any of them can overtake the others.
- Streaming services will die off, or at least become conglomerates. This isn't necessarily fandom, but it's something I was talking to a coworker about today. There are so many streaming services and more being announced all the time, and it's becoming unsustainable. Paying for one streaming service is fine for most ppl, two ok, but then we're getting to the point where you have to have a dozen streaming subscriptions to watch all the things you might want to watch. It's expensive, and that's already being shown in increased pirating numbers. So I think pirating will continue to grow again until they realize that having all these individual streaming services isn't something that's going to work.