What Does It Mean to Be a Bad Fan on Social Media?

News Media Commentary
Title:	What Does It Mean to Be a Bad Fan on Social Media?
Commentator:	Jake Pitre
Date(s):	March 4, 2019
Venue:	online
Fandom:	Pan-fandom
External Links:	article
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What Does It Mean to Be a Bad Fan on Social Media? is a 2019 article about bad fans and social media, written by Jake Pitre and published on Catapult. It was recommended in the March 8, 2019 edition of The Rec Center.

Some Topics Discussed

• harassment, cyberbullying, community formation, and moderation on social media platforms like Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, and Instagram
• RuPaul's Drag Race
• Steven Universe
• identity and representation

Excerpts

What does it mean to be a bad fan? Now that anyone with internet access has the ability to easily share opinions with the world, we’re faced with evermore discussions about how to interpret the things we like and who has the correct take on something. Simultaneously, social media has also helped mainstream fandom and fan practices. As a result, the scholar Allison McCracken told me, “fan participation—like all media engagement—is a cultural act with a politics. This has always been obvious to non-white, queer fans, but is now becoming more generally acknowledged because of social media.”

Of course, it seems incoherent for devoted fans of something like Drag Race or Steven Universe to essentially ignore the messaging of what they love in order to defend it. Though it’s naive to think so, the love and support of those shows do not seem like they would invite such hatred (even RuPaul, a capitalistic queer if there ever was one, wouldn’t risk the safety of the show’s queens just for more clicks).

If nothing else, then, I think this reveals that the problem could be the system, not the individual. The corporate leaders who designed the policies that govern how we consume and how we use their platforms are also responsible for making fan spaces carry this extra weight, precisely because they have taken apart what we used to know as social engagement.

Even so, there is so much good that still manages to express itself on social media and within fan communities. My own experience is largely tinged by the kindnesses and creativity to be found among those that appreciate the same art (including Drag Race and Steven Universe) I do—connections form, education happens, and mind-blowing creativity is facilitated. It’s not just about finding like-minded folks from all over the world, though that is part of it. But at their best these online fan spaces make for deeper understandings of the art itself (and each other) by mixing and sharing many perspectives.

It can be invigorating as a writer, for example, to see fans of all ages engaging critically with this art, and developing labels, warnings, norms, and practices (“callout culture,” for all its perceived faults, is fundamentally about moderation and community standards) often more sophisticated than anything Facebook, Twitter, or whoever else can come up with because they have the benefit of context and specificity. Even though they sometimes get it wrong, people are held accountable for their actions and their creations.