Can I just
rant about what I dislike about the (online) fandom for a minute?
For some fans it seems to be difficult to draw the line between idols (or let's say Japanese culture in general) to be a hobby, a way of life, or a form of escapism from their normal daily lives. But then again, I guess that same issue applies to someone who's buried in books or plays an MMORPG 24/7. Shokotan mentioned "being greedy at your hobby" as a positive characteristic, but with idols there seems to be a higher risk of becoming obsessed or losing your sense of rationality. Getting into debt to meet or support your favorite crosses a line.
It's hard to draw a line between enjoying your hobby and being a creepy or obsessed fan with no life, bluntly speaking. With idols there are a lot of things that can be considered questionable, both socially and ethically speaking. For example, when a 50 year old man pays a lot of money to shake hands with and talk to a 13 year old girl, is that someone enjoying his hobby or a sad individual? Instinctively we all know that an idol group like we see in Japan would never work in the west, so we know there is a grey area somewhere. Interestingly, as I'm writing this Christafari commented on this as well, check out his insights here:
http://ask.fm/Cristafari/answer/109894740319 I definitely agree that creepy knows no age limit and that some of the older fans are indeed wonderful people. However, when I see old and lonely people in the audience of idol shows, I can't help but feel I do not want to turn out like them. Then again, maybe neither did they, but they have this outlet which brings them joy in their lives, as shallow as it may be sometimes. I participated in handshake events as well, but I never bought multiple copies to vote in an election, or worse, for something as irrelevant as Request Hour. That's were I drew a line, very early on in my fandom.
By the way, I know there are many people who don't like the Senbatsu Election. It's exactly like what Russell Brand has been campaigning for recently:
if you want to it to stop, don't participate! Don't buy the CDs and don't vote. If people continue to fall for the same marketing schemes, it will continue.
One of my most disliked elements of online fandom is the formation of camps or cliques who feel their favorite group is highly superior and keep hating on other groups. Very annoying and pointless. Maybe it's like this: I started following SKE48 from the very beginning so I feel (or rather felt) really connected to them. It might be the same for people who started following AKB48 later on and followed HKT48's rise from the start. I don't think those people realize the same thing happened to older fans five years ago.
Related to this are the fans who just hate on pretty much everything 48G does nowadays. I think it's like this: when you once loved something deeply, but you see it's declining in quality, that sucks. Some fans seem to develop a sense of sarcasm which is first used jokingly, but as time goes on it becomes more negative to a point where it's just constant hate. I'm not even sure if these fans realize that they're being negative almost all the time. I wish these people would just move on. That's a hard thing to do, especially if you're rooted in the online community, but it would be better for the fans themselves as well as the other fans who still enjoy the group.
On one hand it's great everybody has a medium to voice their opinion, but on the other hand people need to learn how to voice their opinion and sometimes just stay quiet.
Nobody cares about all the things you hate. Another thing which strikes me as odd on Twitter especially is that trolls are seen people who bring entertainment to the fandom. On fora or online gaming, or wherever, these people would have been banned or ignored ages ago. Yet on twitter these people usually have 500+ followers because their rants and constant hate are considered entertaining by many fans. I don't get this at all. It's fine to respectfully disagree with someone, but you don't have to be a dick about it or make a war out of it.
Another thing which pains me deeply is the slow
death of forums. I helped to build the AKBar as a mod for five years and we had some great times. I particularly enjoyed the Dear J contest which had more submissions I could've ever imaged. As time went by my interested in the group started to decline a bit and we got less people participating. It's the same across other fora as well, even leading to the closure of some of them.
Twitter and Tumblr took over for fleeing thoughtless comments and picspam. What I like about Twitter is that you can reach a very wide audience and it's easier to comment and jump into a random conversation. The downside there is no real community feel (other than aforementioned cliques) and the discussion are shallow. Furthermore, on our forum we built some nice archives and it's fun reading old threads. It's like a time machine, really. Sadly,
not even Acchan needs a time machine anymore.
I think I came to the following conclusion: Fandom is best enjoyed with contemporaries. Meaning either people roughly the same age and/or people who started following the group around the same time. It's nothing personal, but the way these 15 year old HKT48 fans experience the fandom is too far away from how I experience it. No sensible discussion is possible between these groups it seems, so better stick with your own "clique". See how I contradict myself here, haha. Ideally I would want one big happy community, but realistically speaking that's just impossible. Please note that that doesn't mean there should be any rivalry or hate between different fans. Also note that there are plenty of younger fans who I enjoy talking too, so it's not as black and white as I may have made it out to be.
In sum, everybody enjoys their fandom differently. Sometimes it matches with other people and sometimes it clashes. My boundaries when it comes to what I'm willing to spend or how much I'm willing to participate are different from other people's but neither of them are right or wrong. Find your own friends, find your preferred platforms and
let your favorite idols make you happy.
Topic: The AKBar48 Postwhoring Thread (Read 1665245 times)