The Importance of Fandom and its Impact on Identity

Originally written for and published on empowordjournalism.com

The concept of fandom is growing substantially in importance as the digital age rises. What was once just a passive audience, has become the ground for avid communities to form. The term, which can very simply be defined as “the state of being a fan of someone or something”, derives from Henry Jenkin’s idea of participatory culture. Participatory culture was coined in 2006 and focuses much more on the social connections formed through mutual interest rather than the state of being a fan in its simplest form. The research paper in which the term originated detailed one of the key bases of participatory culture being the ‘members who feel some degree of social connection with one another and care about other members’ opinions about their contributions’, highlighting that being a part of a fandom can be much more than simply enjoying content.

Fandom at its strongest and most authentic can arguably be found mostly within the fantasy and sci-fi genres, namely with the likes of Trekkies and Potterheads, but recently this has moved exponentially into the music industry. Swifties, Livies and K-Pop stans are beginning to take over social media, but we can clearly see a creativity in fandom that wasn’t there before. Fandom culture has become as much about making content than consuming it, fans are writing and publishing original stories set in the fictional worlds they love, Twitter has become an influx of appreciation edits and videos, and Instagram has started to consist of more fan accounts than genuine ones.

Remixing content and head cannons (the act of deeming a fan-made stories as part of the existing story) have become such a common practice that fan communities are beginning to be the reason for shifts in digital media. Fandoms have become so influential that writers and creators are starting to take fan-made storylines and incorporate them into new seasons of their show, Doctor Who being a keen user of this, with their 2011 Comic Relief sketch specifically being written by a group of young fans.

There is no doubt that fandom has helped many with the formation of identity, giving people a place to express themselves in a way they may find difficult in the real world. Healthline has reported that belonging to a fandom as positive effects on mental health. They reported specifically on sports fans and stated, “being part of any group helps people feel connected, which is a major component of our mental health”.

It also can benefit self-confidence, with everyone sharing similar experiences and communicating with each other on a common ground that is difficult to find in real life, especially as a teenager. It provides a space for users to feel understood and seek advice in safety. Trends in which communities would post pictures of themselves in light of their favourite celebrity (one which I remember taking part in myself as a teenager being #smilesfordnp, referring to the YouTube stars Dan Howell and Phil Lester) did wonders for young girls’ perception of self-image.

YouTube marked an incredible shift in the nature of fandom and community, taking this mostly online concept and moving it to a real-life setting with the likes of VidCon and Playlist Live. It provided a space for online friendships to develop and strengthen offline as well as an opportunity for fans to meet their idols in a (mostly) controlled environment.

Of course, with everything that has influence, there is controversy around the intentions of fandom communities. They have been called toxic on many occasions, with the K-Pop fans being one of the most disliked fandoms on social media. A huge scandal arrived in 2019 when twitter users began spamming political posts with ‘fan-cam’ videos, ruining some genuinely quite serious topics with no-context videos. A Reddit user defined it as “a trend in K-Pop stan Twitter to reply with any kind of fan-cam as a comeback, sometimes to up the views in the original video, to promote their idol/group, to prevent/cease an argument or just to plain annoy you, or even all of the above. Sometimes it can even be disrespectful, but honestly, it's really not that deep”.

While, granted, fandom communities can be overbearing and irritating at times, the belonging that comes with finding a group of like-minded individuals hugely outweighs any annoyance. The platform that social media has given us to be able to express ourselves in a way that we can be the most authentic and true to ourselves we can be is something genuinely beautiful and overwhelmingly important.