[personal] the collapse of fandoms part 3

05 Oct, 2024

okay but this post is a rant and personal
which may not apply to some people's experiences.

now that I talked about my experiences with my recent fandoms, I will be talking about the future of fandoms and better/healthy ways to find new intellectual properties to devote to.

children used to watch their films on vhs/dvd but there was MPA rating labels on the covers of each vhs tape/dvd which was safer for them to watch the films. when watching cartoons on TV, they will have a rating label in the upper-left corner in the beginning of the show to let people know it's safe for the kids to watch it. there was TV channels targeted for children and Blockbuster even had a "kids" section of family friendly movies. I believe movie ratings are a benefit for children's mental health and their development.

however, there are still good fandoms of kids media like Bluey, Trolls and the Fairly Oddparents reboot but sadly, there's just a few. I wish kids today were still introduced to a big variety of films, series and things targeted for them to enjoy instead of consuming cocomelon and content farm slop. kids deserve to watch films that educate them, help them understand their life and the world around them.

• that's a classic, avoid/put a limit on engaging with online fandom spaces so you don't have to deal with drama and toxic fans
• another classic, the smaller/the deader the fandom is, the better it is.
• I recommend getting into traditional media (like TV series, films, novels, comic books etc.) because it's a bit more healthier than getting into digital media especially the ones that are native to the internet, i'll explain why..
  • the way you consume a traditional media is by watching the film/show, reading the book, playing the video game and so on. the way you consume a digital media on the other hand is by watching the webseries, browsing the social platform, reading the webcomic and suchlike. I'm not saying digital media is bad, it can be good depending how you consume it.
  • one of my problems with digital media is let's just say if you love a webseries and you want to know more information about it, all/most of their sources are found on social media platforms like tiktok. that's not always a bad thing but it makes it harder to isolate yourself from the fandom because the fandom communities tend to live in social platforms, it's even worse when the communities are toxic.
  • if you want to enjoy a digital media in a healthy way, try using pinterest if you're here for the fanart or you can use tumblr but be careful with the drama but at least, it's less toxic than twitter and tiktok. if it gets difficult, I'd recommend you to just avoid/put a limit on engaging the fandom or going for traditional media instead.
  • the reason why I believe it's best to get into traditional media (especially the ones created before the internet era) on the other hand is because their sources can be found on dvds, vhs tapes, books, magazines, and anything outside the internet, some sources also can be found inside the internet but outside of social platforms like internet archives, wikis and suchlike which is better and easier to isolate from the fandom communities.
  • there isn't that much traditional media like before, it's becoming hard to come across, digital media is taking over and we all know why. you should look back to old films, old series and intellectual properties existing around your childhood or prior to the internet era.
  • I personally prefer traditional media because I'm an oldhead who's used to watching movies on dvd and watching series on tv but sadly, I don't use dvds and tv cables anymore so I watch them on youtube or stremio.
  • in my experience, fandoms of a piece that's native to the internet tend to be full of chronically online people (and full of ipad kids if it's a colorful, cartoony or mascot horror) which is obvious. this is why I want to avoid digital media.
  • I have nothing against digital media itself, I only have something against their fandoms. however I actually support digital media and I like to make digital media myself. most of digital media are created by people who grew up with traditional media such as myself.
  • there are cases where a piece of digital media becomes a piece of traditional media like for example, an author of a webcomic make physical copies of the comic and get sold on libraries/bookstores.
  • you can go for what suits you as long as it makes you happy. who am I to judge? :3
• if you like a video game for its artstyle, lore, characters, etc. but you don't want to play the game because you hate the gameplay or you don't care about playing the game (you care more about the lore and characters), that's totally okay. I do that too and did that with Star Fox when I was younger. you can tell the gatekeepers to hit the road

#advices #fandom #personal #rant