How the Internet Drives Fandom to New Heights

Lucy Blakiston: “If I was allowed to recommend a whole film about fandom here I would, but since I don’t want to take up TOO much of your time, an article about it will do. ‘Turning Red’ is probably the animated film I have felt the most seen in ever, purely because of the devotion the main character (Mei) and her friends felt towards the fictional band 4*Town. Aside from the great music (written by Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas who know a thing or two about the importance of fans), in ‘Turning Red’, fandom frees Mei from her self-doubt, it glues her and her friends together, and in the end, it shows you that there’s nothing wrong with getting emotional and loving things really hard.”

LB: “This is one of our very own episodes of Culture Vulture (our pop culture podcast) based on a piece of writing that I did, basically laying out everything that fandom has taught me, all the skills I was too scared to put on my resumé, the difference between how I was treated compared to my brothers (who liked sports) and how, until we started Sh*t You Should Care About I didn’t feel like I could make a career out of being a fan of things. Oh, how wrong I was!”

LB: “A defining (and disappointing, tbh) era of 2022 was the Harry Styles/Olivia Wilde/‘Don’t Worry Darling’ era, because it showed one of the worst sides of fandom. This piece, written by fandom expert Sacha Judd, looks at the dangers of feeling ‘ownership’ over a celebrity and their life - and how we respond when it doesn’t ‘fit’ our ideal reality (like when they date someone the internet decides isn’t worthy.) It’s an honest and objective look at the online ‘hate engine’ in action, from someone who’s a big fan of the people involved, and yes, it does talk about #spitgate.”

LB: “This essay starts off with: ‘It says … something about the human race that this time last year my Twitter feed was filled with live updates on the insurrection at the nation’s capital, but today is full of people feverishly tweeting their scores from Wordle.’ And goes on to make you think about WHAT exactly it says about the world. Does it say we’re ready for unification rather than fragmentation? Does it tell us that in a post-monoculture world, we were all excited to have a collective love for something again? Was it not that deep and we in fact just loved playing a silly little word game? To find out the answer, you should read this think piece about the Wordle fandom.”

LB: “A piece all about how fan edits are an art form? Yes please! If you scrolled my TikTok ‘For You’ page you’d see video after video of Harry Styles, Matty Healy, Kendall Roy from Succession - and not just their performances—mash-ups of them being moody/ steamy/ hot/ funny - you name it. What you wouldn’t see is the labor of love that goes into creating such edits, and the reaction and collective swoon they evoke in the viewer. And they’re not new! This piece talks about the evolution of the fan edit—from VHS to the FYP. They’re a love language - from the creator to me, from me to my fellow stans who I think would enjoy them, from us to the subject of the edit.”

LB: “While I’m the biggest advocate of being fans of things (and crushing deeply) it’s always important to note that there is a line. The internet is great because it allows celebrities to let you into their life a little bit more (if they want) by doing things like hosting live streams, jumping into group chats, or sharing their tumblr blogs. The internet is also NOT great, because this can lead some people to have incredibly strong parasocial (one-sided) relationships with their fave, which can lead to intense feelings of ownership. These parasocial relationships, coupled with the fact that everyone has a space to share their innermost thoughts (whether they are nice OR nasty) can be a recipe for disaster, as this piece investigates.”