(No) Sunday Snippet

Oh hello, friends. I hope you are well, or at least managing. I read an interesting take on fandom on Twitter yesterday, about how platforms drive fandom engagement and how current platforms are designed for consumption over community. I am a late-comer to Fandom, to the active participation in such spaces. I started a Tumblr in 2014, so I don’t have much experience with various platforms. But reading this thread made me think that maybe I’m just not suited to Fandom. I dipped very timidly into message boards in the earliest internet days and got so stressed out by them. There were too many threads and too many replies. I hated my online college classes as well, the ones that required you to post a certain number of times and reply to a certain number of posts. There was always someone whose posts went unremarked upon. I felt like mine tended to somewhere in the middle, and the worst of it is that you could QUANTIFY that feeling by looking at the number of replies.

These lingering feelings of DISengagement were a big reason I was reluctant to start a DW, but very kind fannish friends that I made through Twitter encouraged me sign up, selling me on the idea that there are bigger spaces for conversations, but all I’m finding is the same stacking up of long posts, minimal replies, no conversations. And I realize that you have to produce things (content, comments, etc) to get reciprocal engagement. I’m more grateful than I can ever, ever express for the friends I’ve managed to make and keep online, particularly in These Times.

IDK, I kind of think I’m just not cut out for being a Fan. And I don’t think it’s just a platform thing. I think it’s just a Me thing.