#but being very parasocial

[queerhoodies]

iwtv really needs to have 10 seasons minimum sorry that you don’t like your long hair sam reid but i do not care

[khruschevshoe]

You know, it's rather interesting to me that Taylor Swift's parasocial relationship with her fans is honestly more akin to a YouTuber than a writer's. When I scroll through her tag on tumblr/Twitter, it's far more regarding the connection to her personal life/relationship developments than the actual metaphors/fictional story she might be telling. Everything comes back to how her songs reflect back on her relationships with Joe/Matty/Travis/Jake/insert ex-boyfriend here. And what fascinates me about it is that even though she complains about it, she leans into that very perception because it strengthens the parasocial bond.

The marketing for TTPD so clearly being about Joe Alwyn and the songs to Matty Healy. The marketing/video for Red TV so CLEARLY being about Jake Gyllenhaal, with so many of the new lines in All Too Well specifically being digs at him (I'll get older but your lovers stay my age, casting an actor that looks like him for the video, specific lines in I Bet You Think About Me). The fact that songs like Getaway Car and Bejeweled and Gorgeous and London Boy and Lavender Haze being picked apart at time of release and long after for signs of relationships crumbling. The way she uses surprise songs in relation to her relationship development with Joe/Matty/Travis. The damn TTPD "stages of grief" playlists where she deliberately undid/changed the meanings of old songs just to keep her audience speculating on her love life.

It's not sexist to point out that her wielding her love life is a marketing tool and that the strongest connection to her audience isn't the strength of her writing/the composition of her music- it's her deliberate crafting of a connection between her music and her personal life, leaving the audience invested in her music as an extension of Taylor the Person/Girlfriend rather than Taylor the Artist.

[inkskinned]

"the strike is gonna kill my favorite shows" babe okay if you don't want to think about the human livelihoods at stake (you should really be thinking about the humans though) like. think about what happens after this. when writing pays you enough to eat; more people get to be writers. more stories. more interesting plots and ideas. think about what gets made when artists aren't starving.

you've been complaining for years that tv is going downhill. part of that is because the writers aren't paid enough - a screenwriter needs to be able to live with a very low paycheck while being virtually anonymous, so as a profession it self-selects for a very slim number of people. part of bad writing is burnout and the absolutely criminal amount of influence corporations have over scripts. writing is actually a craft, despite what people who love chatGPT will tell you - and, as a craft; it takes time, diligence, and support.

and yes, i understand. you have a connection to a piece of media, which is what writers want. but we regret to inform you that your blorbo is as real as the image in the mirror - is your reflection actually you? can the reflection ever show anything but the truth? as writers, our work is the reflection. you can't keep throwing our bodies under buses and then being shocked that our work is bitter, 2d, "needs revision". imagine what gets made when the artist is inspired and has the time, space, energy, and fucking budget to actually make what makes them happy.

i love you so much. but also, really - and for real - before anything else, please remember it's human livelihoods at stake.

[wavesoutbeingtossed]

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[thelaurenshippen]

the onion bought infowars. I repeat, the onion bought infowars

[ilkkawhat]

I know I've mentioned the Journal before, but this Saturday marks the one year anniversary of the day that I decided to play Alan Wake 2 for the first time, and my life changed for the better. I've used this journal to keep track of various gameplay stats (not pictured is the AW2 page where I'm literally keeping a tally of how many times I've played it which I'm in my tenth full playthrough); notes such as the stash puzzles, deer heads, etc though I still gotta finish the list of nursery rhymes and maps beyond cauldron lake; dreams I've had involving alan or anything remedy related; doodles and drawings (which is huge for me on a personal level cause I have this like. slightly traumatic experience with drawing early in my life that I won't go into detail here); and even a few poems I wrote...and I hadn't written poems since maybe high school.

This year has been rough on a personal level especially with work but like other cornerstone obsession's I've had, Alan's journey resonated with me on so many levels and gives me strength to keep going. The night I bought and played AW2 on a whim just because I saw a meme that "friendship ended with Silent Hill now Alan Wake 2 is my best friend" will go down as a tremendous turning point in my life. I was on a creative dry spell, I had stopped everything and never thought I'd start again, I had exiled myself from any sort of fandom space/interaction thinking I was poison, isolated myself to such a terrible degree from my family and friends, I was in such a deep depression and a new level of hopelessness than I had ever been in before, and I can just go on and on forever on how much this game means to me but the most important thing Alan Wake taught me is the beginning of the final draft, that realization that all is not lost, that my life is not just a loop of depression then fleeting joy then depression then fleeting joy then depression then fleeting joy (yes, sometimes I wonder if I'm bipolar) and his monologue sums it up best:

A fictional poet once said "Beyond the shadow you settle for, there is a miracle, illuminated." I will not settle for a shadow. I will find the miracle, through the night. It's not just victims and monsters; I see now, there are heroes as well. We can find our way through the darkness. We will break through the surface and crash into the light.

[haveyoueatenthis]

I'm sorry, I need to say this, but you guys need to think over your responses a few times before you send them. It's easy to tell that a lot of the asks/replies/reblogs we get are impulsive, because they're either way too aggressive ("kys" is never appropriate to say, let alone to strangers), they're overly familiar (you do not know us. please do not call us "baby"), they're already answered by the pinned post, or they're pretentious/judgemental/entitled.

So please, just think before you send. Think about how people might feel upon reading your words. That's all, thank you.

[artfightdramaconfessions]

one of my favorite artists of all time joined AF so i immediately made art for him, and he dmed me thanking me, and now we're friends. turns out if you want art from your favorite artist the best trick is to just befriend them. he's chill and super nice :)

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[godsworstson]

always thinking about the fact that rake is the only one who's still friends with pretty much the whole cky/vlb crew

[customizablefriend]

My true self still loves Tommyinnit I am still an inniter at heart I have not changed

[azurecanary]

I haven't seen anyone talk about this, but i do actually love Aabria pausing the discussion to make sure that Brennan wasn't feeling genuinely uncomfortable about Tabby, we stan GMs taking care of their players

[ouidamforeman]

I think im going to have to start not caring or worrying about if im somehow “supporting” or “promoting” bad things or people with my actions or money because it literally gives me so much anxiety, not because im worried about doing something genuinely bad, because i know how to navigate nuanced moral situations and trust that i will know through discernment when to do or not do something, but because im afraid of other people, especially large groups of other people, thinking i or my friends or anything i care about is evil because we are navigating a situation differently morally lol

Like i just accidentally saw some of The Discourse about “doing Harry Potter fandom at all now is basically delusional and evil and you have to stop” and im gonna be so real however much i don’t like JKR and don’t want to direct my money toward her and will spread word when applicable that she sucks, i truly think if i lived like the people who think about whether like, all of current HP fandom on Ao3 dot edu or whatever is doing Evil by participating in their hobby I truly feel like I would go insane???? My work and fandom isn’t an advertisement and I have so little money I don’t know what the point of this would be other than manipulating me into moral prostration or something and after touching grass lately i find it truly deranged. Like genuinely if you talk to one single mature adult person outside of fandom about this you will see how deranged it is

[tamaxinof]

I feel really bad for having such an intense obsession with dan and phil even though i havent done anything online (or irl) that could actually impact them. like these people dont know me and all i think about is them. of course, a part of it is because its a hyperfixation but beyond that i do genuinely love them and that makes me feel like shit. why do i love these people? is that unhealthy? i mean, its in human nature, right? thats just what people do. of course, im aware that the "them" im referring to are the internet personalities that arent really them in their personal lives (which ill be honest i dont really care about unless they share it with us) but should i love them? the obsession hasnt caused any harm to anyone. in fact, it's saved me from truly hitting rock bottom. but should that be true? isnt it selfish and weird to put/have put my life in the hands of people who dont even know what my favourite colour is? but also i didnt have anything else at a time of complete depression so how is that weird? but also it just is, man. maybe??

[emotoangel]

I need yall to understand I’ve cried minimum 5 times so far over dnp as the ineffable husbands. this is so special to me specifically

[stagefoureddiediaz]

So apparently I’m parasocial and projecting fantasies and opinions onto Oliver for saying that that answer to the article is as clear an indication of bt bones we’ll get outside of watching it happen on an upcoming episode!

I’m not sure this anon understands what parasocial is, or how me stating that is projecting a fantasy but here we are 🤷🏻‍♀️ 😂

they really are delusional and that got them a one way ticket to being reported and blocked!! Sayonara bt shipper

[codecicle]

the difference between condi "accidentally leaks really important information" condifiction and nathaniel grizzly "blurs out every face in a photo manually on his insta story because he didn't ask to take their picture" plays is crazy