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Cascading down my face.
Challenge #15: In your own space, opine on the future of fandom. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
I've written about this before. My feelings towards fandom haven't changed, and my thoughts have grown deeper.
Fandom isn't going anywhere, and for fandom to sustain itself, it needs to understand it's not just you and it's not just about you. The future of fandom will be that while communities and groups continue to grow more fragmented - we'll never reach the heights of LiveJournal as a primary fandom hub again, much as we'll never again sleep in our childhood bedrooms - there needs to be a shift in understanding there's a general culture of fandom, and there needs to be more open communication both within and between those communities and groups, or else outside pressures will destroy what we've worked so hard to create and cultivate.
It goes beyond easily disseminating the latest episode, the newest movies, old back issues. It goes beyond becoming unmarketable in one's fixations and pleasures. It goes beyond ever-increasing open access to fandom spaces. Sharing is easier, and simpler, which removes much of the old up-front investments of time and money - it makes it far simpler to find other people to talk to, which is fandom in its purest form. The sharing of joy.
That, too, has gotten easier. And that, too, is easy to exploit.
Understanding how to keep yourself safe, and your communities from imploding, aren't new skills. And we need to learn them all over again. Adapt them for new spaces and teach them to new people. As fandom fragments, the mixed-age aspect of it starts to fade, and people are unable to act as teachers and are unwilling to become students. Ideally, fans educate and learn from each other regardless of age. Ideally, fans understand the coming together aspect of things happens on all sorts of scales: one-on-one conversations, small group conversations, big community discussions, everyone holding each other and cheering and crying.
As we fragment, as we silo and cloister ourselves, it becomes easier for communities to buckle under pressure. It becomes easier for them to be targeted by negative outside influences and for those influences to spread and manifest themselves in ways that would be unwelcome if they came directly - and recognizing how to change one's own behavior to avoid passing those influences along is hard work, and necessary to perform. And it gets easier to refuse to reflect, acknowledge, learn, grow, and change the smaller and more cloistered the communities become.
Fandom has always been capable of doing better.
Fandom needs to do better for it to sustain itself as the kind of place we've always wanted it to be.
I've written about this before. My feelings towards fandom haven't changed, and my thoughts have grown deeper.
Fandom isn't going anywhere, and for fandom to sustain itself, it needs to understand it's not just you and it's not just about you. The future of fandom will be that while communities and groups continue to grow more fragmented - we'll never reach the heights of LiveJournal as a primary fandom hub again, much as we'll never again sleep in our childhood bedrooms - there needs to be a shift in understanding there's a general culture of fandom, and there needs to be more open communication both within and between those communities and groups, or else outside pressures will destroy what we've worked so hard to create and cultivate.
It goes beyond easily disseminating the latest episode, the newest movies, old back issues. It goes beyond becoming unmarketable in one's fixations and pleasures. It goes beyond ever-increasing open access to fandom spaces. Sharing is easier, and simpler, which removes much of the old up-front investments of time and money - it makes it far simpler to find other people to talk to, which is fandom in its purest form. The sharing of joy.
That, too, has gotten easier. And that, too, is easy to exploit.
Understanding how to keep yourself safe, and your communities from imploding, aren't new skills. And we need to learn them all over again. Adapt them for new spaces and teach them to new people. As fandom fragments, the mixed-age aspect of it starts to fade, and people are unable to act as teachers and are unwilling to become students. Ideally, fans educate and learn from each other regardless of age. Ideally, fans understand the coming together aspect of things happens on all sorts of scales: one-on-one conversations, small group conversations, big community discussions, everyone holding each other and cheering and crying.
As we fragment, as we silo and cloister ourselves, it becomes easier for communities to buckle under pressure. It becomes easier for them to be targeted by negative outside influences and for those influences to spread and manifest themselves in ways that would be unwelcome if they came directly - and recognizing how to change one's own behavior to avoid passing those influences along is hard work, and necessary to perform. And it gets easier to refuse to reflect, acknowledge, learn, grow, and change the smaller and more cloistered the communities become.
Fandom has always been capable of doing better.
Fandom needs to do better for it to sustain itself as the kind of place we've always wanted it to be.
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If we don't learn from each other, all we're going to do is stagnate and fragment, and that's not a good way to sustain dynamic, ongoing communities.
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Not a lot to ask, you'd think, but it feels overwhelming right now.
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