Fandom.txt
You Can Just Enjoy What You Enjoy
i have to admit, there are parts of the internet i no longer traverse. my desire to be caught up to the minute, or know everything there is to know about a certain subject, has been waning over the past few years. one particular part of the internet i stay away from is whatever fandom is attached to entertainment i enjoy.
there is nothing faster to suck all the fun out of everything i like by folks ranging on the parasocial spectrum: from picking out every micro-movement, conversation, or turn of phrase to over-analyzing relationships between cast members to theorizing about the personal lives of people who aren't really up for sharing that part of themselves.
i've learned that communing with other fans of something i enjoy doesn't have to accompany my enjoyment. in fact, i get so much more joy out of just letting entertainment be entertainment rather than attaching any emotional or sentimental value to content that others are making. fandoms do not dictate who we are, and groups of fandoms aren't necessarily mobs that are deserving of generalized disparagement. however, i do think there's something to the idea of learning how to just enjoy something rather than having it be an entire identity or consuming all of your free time so that you don't really get a diverse array of entertainment options.
this wasn't something i've always held as an opinion. before i came to these conclusions, i was:
- visiting subreddits, participating in conversation around the entertainment
- following everyone associated with the project on social media
- following discourse on various platforms about and surrounding the content
- getting into the minutiae of cast and crew's opinions and off-screen personalities
but none of it was making the entertainment actually better. once i stopped treating entertainment as a two-way conversation, i found that i enjoyed things more, actually. i stopped letting others interfere with my enjoyment and stopped feeling like my media consumption was a reflection of who i am. i began rejecting the notion of others' opinions affecting whether or not i found something funny, insightful, or meaningful. i just let go and let it be.
once i let go of all of the attachments to entertainment specifically in order to have something in common with others, i found other, far more meaningful ways of connecting with others that didn't center around sharing the same type of humor or fictional interests. i began focusing more on the things i create, and creating things with others, rather than consumption of others' content. i began putting more of my energy into building up my hobbies and interests and finding fulfillment that way rather than devoting energy to dissecting topics that literally do not matter to anyone outside of the small scope of the entertainment i'm consuming.
there's so many things to connect with folks about that you have a direct hand in changing, creating, or actually participating in that isn't centered around what someone else is creating for your passive consumption.