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Week 9 - Fandom

Fandom is the state of being a fan over someone or something but in the case, I will be touching on fandom towards celebrities regardless they are singers, dancers or bands. Although I personally have almost zero experience with fandom, I can still see why certain group of people are obsessed with who they like and what they are doing. There's nothing wrong with it when you're trying to support someone just because you love the songs they wrote or just their personality, but if you're going overboard with it and starts to influence people around you, the person you're support will sure be upset too. Being the most powerful fandom - a south Korean boy band, BTS, according to MTV (2018), has achieved a global success with two consecutive number 1 albums on the billboard charts, a sold-out world tour, and a historic stadium show at citi field in which had over 40,000 fans in attendance. They named their fan base ARMY just like Beliebers for Justin Bieber, Swifties for Taylor Swift and Arianators for Ariana Grande (Ross, 2020). This creates a bond between fellow celebrities and their fans indirectly.

Impact of social media towards Fandom

In the presence of social media, there is also where fans will be able to get an update on what their idols are doing. But through social media, there are always pros and cons. Are these fans being too extreme and weird? One of the example for pros is that sometimes ‘Emotional support K-pop boys’ can help fans with their mental health (Yeo, 2021). He or she will be able to motivate their fans to do better and aim bigger in their lives. Laffan is from the National Anti Bullying Center at Dublin City University stated that Emotional attachment to an idol can be fairly healthy too. Although it might sound ridiculous but some fans are really living for their idols.

Way back in 2017, Jonghyun from SHINee had passed away at the age of 27 and according to BBC (2017), the hashtag #YouDidWellJonghyun and #StayStrongShawols went viral on Twitter (shawols is the term what fans of SHINee called themselves) as they have come together to pay tribute on social media.

Yes Spread Love but...

Through this, fans can unite as one and continue to spread love just because they have so much love towards the same idol. But here also comes the cons of it. For example, some might be expressing their negative sides on social media too. Especially when their idols passed away or found out actually taking drugs, they might act differently and somewhat being over extreme on social media platform. This negative energy will then influence everyone else that have the same thoughts on the incident and some might try to hurt themselves or commit suicide due to disappointment or when they are not able to accept the fact. Dam-young (2017) stated that an Indonesia fan attempts suicide following the death of Jonghyun. As mentioned by the fan who attempted to suicide in her Twitter post that she had lost both her parents and now her idol, she is thinking of giving up her life instead.

Extreme? "Weird"? Social Media Abuse?

Some extremist might even post pictures of them hurting themselves on Twitter or Facebook just to let the community know how upset they were and how important this idol is to them. This is totally against the law as some other people that are thinking of committing suicide might have really done it after seeing someone with similar experience had already done so, therefore following on attempting suicide.

Fandom Wars

Another effect of social media is that fans tend to abuse social media by using it to leave hate speech on posts by other celebrities that they either don't support or their competition such as the rivalry of EXO-Ls and VIPs in 2015 according to Koreaboo (2018). They often compare to each other and argue which is better.

This really creates a bad trend on the social media as you're scrolling your new feeds, you see hate speeches everywhere, attacking, insulting each other. It acceptable to support who you love but don't hate because they are your rivals. In fact, some of these groups are from the same entertainment company and are good friends, so why should fans hate each other for no reason at all. Fans get raged when their group did not win any awards and get jealous when other groups won the title and start backlashing them through social media behind screens.

Conclusion

So is fandom normal? Are they extreme and "weird"? According to Arzadon (2020), there is nothing wrong with fandom culture and to be a fan of someone or something but most importantly there are still standards of behavior that needs to be met and understood by everyone involved. We shouldn't be over obsessive, violent and bully because in the end, everyone is still a person that needs to live a normal life.

Lastly, is fandom a beautiful thing?

Yes!

Is it dangerous?

Yes!

List of References

Arzadon, L., 2021. Is Fandom Culture Bad?. [online] The Tower. Available at: <https://sbadamsthetower.com/4622/ae/arts-entertainment/is-fandom-culture-bad/> [Accessed 9 May 2021].

BBC News. 2017. Jonghyun fans take comfort in 'pearl aqua Moon' images. [online] Available at: <https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42436476> [Accessed 9 May 2021].

Dam-young, H., 2017. Indonesian fan attempts suicide following Jonghyun‘s death. [online] Koreaherald.com. Available at: <http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20171221000714> [Accessed 9 May 2021].

Koreaboo. 2018. 6 Biggest Fanwars In K-Pop History That We’re Thankful Are In The Past. [online] Available at: <https://www.koreaboo.com/lists/kpop-history-remember-biggest-fanwars/> [Accessed 9 May 2021].

MTV. 2018. ARMY: Inside The World's Most Powerful Fandom - | MTV. [online] Available at: <https://www.mtv.com/video-clips/romgsq/army-inside-the-world-s-most-powerful-fandom> [Accessed 7 May 2021].

Ross, A., 2020. The best fandom names in pop. [online] Planetradio.co.uk. Available at: <https://planetradio.co.uk/hits-radio/entertainment/music/pop-fan-nicknames/> [Accessed 7 May 2021].

Yeo, A., 2021. ‘Emotional support K-pop boys’ help fans with their mental health. [online] Mashable SEA. Available at: <https://sea.mashable.com/social-good/11974/emotional-support-k-pop-boys-help-fans-with-their-mental-health> [Accessed 8 May 2021].

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