The word fandom literally means ‘fanatic domain’, and it does sound like a terribly negative thing, but it is always not so. Fandom can transform into a unique, vibrant community where you can make friends, share ideas, and create fan-art or fan-fiction.Cognitive views of learning in fact, fans are valuable, as henry jenkins touches upon in textual poachers (1992) that fans are more than just mindless mass media consumers.Cognitive views of learning instead, he considered fans intellectuals who grasp the chance to see more than what is shown, they look outside the box.

Fandoms are not a bad place to be, and I have been involved in multiple fandoms throughout my life.Cognitive views of learning I have made some amazing online friends even though I have never met them in real life. I have seen the good, but I have also seen the bad. The one negative thing about fandom is definitely the way people forget that some things are just fiction, and forget that there is something like taking things too far.Cognitive views of learning

Back in 2014, when I discovered BBC’s hit show, sherlock, I was enthralled. I loved benedict cumberbatch’s portrayal of the famous british detective a lot, and since the show had huge gaps between seasons, I took to the internet to fill my time and to quench my raging curiosity to know how the show would progress.Cognitive views of learning I stumbled onto tumblr, and in the beginning, my experience was great. I met fan-fiction writers and artists who worked off on popular theories, and who were sharing their work for free.Cognitive views of learning the creativity that abounds was amazing. However, I also discovered what ‘shipping’ meant, and that opened a whole new world for me.

To a layman who didn’t spend any time on tumblr, shipping means people enjoying the idea of two characters being together romantically.Cognitive views of learning the biggest ship in sherlock is johnlock (sherlock holmes and john watson—in the world of shipping, fans usually abbreviate the names together to create one name), and I was pleasantly surprised to learn the general acceptance of a ship that wasn’t heterosexual.Cognitive views of learning mass media doesn’t usually represent the LGBTQ, but here, hundreds of fans were cool about it.

Things didn’t seem too bad until I realised that people were not only attacking the writers of the show for introducing watson’s wife, but also, the actors themselves.Cognitive views of learning I was confused. Don’t people realise cumberbatch and martin freeman are just actors doing their jobs? Their love or hatred for the characters was getting to the actors, and I couldn’t agree with that.Cognitive views of learning this was an example of extreme behaviour.

Currently, the world seems to be going through a massive boy-band phase. One direction evidently started the craze, and right now, korean pop sensation BTS are taking it forward.Cognitive views of learning I like music, and I don’t let language barriers get between me and music, so, I sometimes give some korean bands a listen. Their music is good, but their fandom leaves me much to think about.Cognitive views of learning I feel like the new breed of fans who live on ‘stan’ twitter (the fandom part of twitter is called stan twitter) are the loudest, and often cross lines that they shouldn’t be crossing.Cognitive views of learning

Not every fan I encounter is extreme, but most of them can get quite toxic. BTS makes music about mental health and society, which is great. They are spreading a hopeful message to their fans, and who won’t appreciate that?Cognitive views of learning their campaign for their love yourself album was amazing—their band leader even went off to speak at the UN. However, it seems like some fans don’t practice what they preach.Cognitive views of learning

They have caused massive issues mostly for bands that are in direct competition to BTS. Some other band member said something that BTS fans took the part out of context and launched a whole character defamation drive.Cognitive views of learning the person had to apologise, and when it was proven that his words were, in fact, taken out of context, the fans apologised for the defamation, but it left a bad taste.Cognitive views of learning

The topics of racism are also a huge issue in fandoms. Last year, when a chinese-canadian male artist charted higher than an american female artist, her fans claimed the male artist was using robots to make his music chart.Cognitive views of learning they even posted fake sale numbers to further vilify the artist. It is not unknown that some music streaming platforms aren’t available in china, so, fans use vpns, but it is never a western artist who comes under fire if their sales aren’t strictly american, so why was this chinese man victimised?Cognitive views of learning