What is a Fandom?

@JessicaLynn - Interesting. I don't find fandom creepy so much as I find it a little sad. Most people I've known that were part of a fandom were, well, a little bit socially awkward.

It seems to me that sometimes socially awkward people have trouble making friends and participating in normal society. So they obsess over something like a TV show or a movie series to take their minds off of their loneliness. But then miraculously they are able to form their own little communities over their obsession!

While the obsession itself may not be healthy, I think the communities that form around them are. At least they give these people some sort of social outlet!

I find fandom to be just a little bit creepy. I don't think it's healthy to be that obsessed with anything!

However, I've heard of some authors actually making use of their fandoms to help them when they are writing a series. I read an interview with George R.R. Martin awhile ago and he actually utilized a member of his fandom on his latest book.

He hired someone who was a member of a website devoted to his books to help him with continuity issues in the next installment! The members of the fandom were so obsessed with the series that they knew more about all the little details than the author did. I thought that was kind of funny actually.

Think of how difficult fandom must have been back in the days of Elvis! They had no internet to inform them or link them to each other, and they basically just had to luck into catching an appearance on TV.

My mother was a member of the Elvis fandom, and luckily for her, so were several other girls in her class. They found solidarity in each other by having sleepovers and listening to his albums while swooning over a poster of him.

She told me it’s probably a good thing that no one had the internet to turn to back then, because the obsession with Elvis was so strong that it would have been dangerous for all of those crazy women to have access to so much information. Had they grouped together in an organized mob, they might have accidentally killed him!

I became very worried as I watched my best friend lose herself increasingly in a fandom of a certain movie series. We had gone to see the movie together, and while I liked it, I could not share her life altering obsession with it.

We used to go out on the weekends to the mall and the park. We were together a lot. She started spending all of her free time online chatting with other fans. I was losing my best friend.

I tried to talk some sense into her, but I just alienated her further. After two years, she lost interest in the fandom and the movie and returned to real life. We resumed our friendship where we left off, just in time for college.

@seag47 - I became part of a fandom just after internet access became widespread and vast amounts of information could be found. This enabled me to keep up with the object of my affection constantly.

Every day, I checked for new postings on fan sites and the official website. I watched every television interview, read every article, and commented on every post about my favorite movie star.

I made several friends online who felt the same way I did. I didn’t feel as crazy as my friends thought I was anymore. I couldn’t talk to them about the most important thing in my life, because they just rolled their eyes. With the online fandom, I could be free to be myself.

I was a member of the fandom of several bands as a teenager. However, I found it difficult to connect with other fans, because this was in the days before the internet.

Every month when a slew of new music magazines would come out, I would be at the store looking through every page for a photo or story about my favorite band. I would watch for their videos and interviews on television, and I would always have a blank cassette ready to record in an instant.

It is so much easier for fans to keep up with their favorite people nowadays. Websites list all their upcoming TV appearances, let fans watch videos, and have links to any articles that feature them.

Honestly, there is nothing better than being around others who share the same fandom as you. I absolutely love Japanese animation and have a pretty massive collection of comics, DVDs and various toys I have gathered over the years. I have gone so far as to visit Japan with the sole purpose of buying new items for my collection.

While people may think that those in a fandom should branch out a bit, I really think there is something to be said for being an expert in a topic. Talking with those that share your passion is a lot of fun. While we may be a bit strange to those outside our fandom, I think being part of something bigger is great part of many people's identity.

Don't you think it's a good thing to have friends who share your interests?

One of my friends back in college was very much into the fandom of the original Star Trek series. It was always amazing listening to him talk to another hardcore fan as it was like they had their own language. Nothing about the Star Trek series was too small for them to discuss. Not only that, the amount of money he put into his Star Trek collection was absolutely insane.

I really think there is nothing wrong with being part of the fandom that surrounds a popular show or what not, but having friends outside that should be important too. I really feel like my friend had trouble connecting with those who weren't inside the fandom.

I think the only reason we were friends is because I was pretty open-minded and liked science fiction in general. I can't imagine him trying to talk to someone with no knowledge whatsoever of his favorite subject.