[ SECRET POST #2791 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2791 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.


__________________________________________________



02.


__________________________________________________



03.


__________________________________________________



04.


__________________________________________________



05.


__________________________________________________



06.


__________________________________________________



07.


__________________________________________________



08.


__________________________________________________



09.


__________________________________________________



10.












Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 058 secrets from Secret Submission Post #399.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 1 - posted twice ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

Re: Fandom Confessions

[dethtoll]

I don't think it's just that. I do believe that it's a generational thing, but it's more to do with how newer fans are brought up.

Re: Fandom Confessions

[(Anonymous)]

How do you think they're brought up different?

Re: Fandom Confessions

[dethtoll]

Parenting and teaching methods have changed a lot. The 'helicopter parent' has become widespread. Kids are raised practically in captivity, with their behaviour constrained and measured -- like being allowed to play is on a schedule, as opposed to "go outside, it's a beautiful day out." Schools call the cops if one of them gets out of line. Our education system has developed an increasingly narrow definition of "achievement" built on how well they do on standardized testing. We're raising kids to be cattle yet we tell them they're all special and unique snowflakes; they've never known a world without internet, and gratification is almost instant. Not to mention LJ and myspace and Facebook and tumblr culture becoming an echo chamber for the stupidest ideas, growing worse with each iteration. The level of groupthink I see sometimes is frightening, especially among young people who've attached themselves to one cause or another.

The tl;dr is that parenting and teaching methods have taken pre-existing flaws present in almost everybody and legitimized them, and they take those flaws to the internet where everything is amplified, and even now it's still completely possible to cyberbully someone into suicide and face no consequences, so it keeps happening.

Re: Fandom Confessions

[(Anonymous)]

Not trying to start wank but the US-centric view in this explanation really bothers me considering that the biggest change the internet has brought to fandom in my opinion is internationality.

Re: Fandom Confessions

[dethtoll]

The teaching/parenting thing is kind of an issue throughout the English speaking world, though, the UK included.

Internationality is definitely a welcome change, but that doesn't change the fact that some of the biggest, noisiest, most obnoxious voices in fandom are Yanks.

Re: Fandom Confessions

[(Anonymous)]

AYRT

I think in my entire school career I took 3 standardized tests. Every other test has basically been "you have 2 hours to write an essay about this question. You'll be graded according to how well you argue your opinion." The wank I've seen in forums in my native language back in the day still wasn't full of well supported arguments and civil discussion.
You can teach people to think independently and use their brain all day long but as soon as the kind of passion fandom generates enters the picture all reason goes out the window.

And I don't disagree that the English speaking part of fandom is mostly made up out of US-Americans but there's always that assumption that everyone is American unless explicitly stated otherwise. I've thought people were American until they casually mentioned being Dutch, Brazilian or whatever.

Re: Fandom Confessions

[dethtoll]

I speak from a US-centric perspective because I'm from the US -- but that doesn't mean I don't consider the contributions of people outside my perspective. It's just that the state of the English speaking part of the internet -- which is, you know, most of it -- is largely being driven by the US.

When I was in high school I think I took about 5, maybe 6 standardized tests. We would spend maybe a couple weeks beforehand preparing for it. The way schools in the US and the UK and I think Canada as well are doing it, they teach to the test year-round now.

Re: Fandom Confessions

[diet_poison]

they teach to the test year-round now.

I'm definitely not a "get off my lawn!"-er, but gah, THIS makes me mad. Education has become an enormous clusterfuck and it's continually getting worse.

Re: Fandom Confessions

[diet_poison]

Are you American? If so, I'm curious as to where you went to school and whether it was a public school.

Way too late cause time zones

[(Anonymous)]

No, I'm not; I'm German.

The point I was trying to make was that there is way less of a "there's only one right answer"-culture and more of a "you have to support your opinion with logical argument"-culture when it comes to teaching here in Germany. Multiple choice tests are practically unheard of; it's all analysis exercises.

Yet German fans display the same "my opinion is clearly right and you're simply wrong" attitudes that everyone seems to think of, when they say fandom has gotten worse. So the explanation that it's the teaching style that causes this behavior doesn't cover it for me.

Re: Way too late cause time zones

[diet_poison]

ahhhh, ok. I understand your point. Thanks for clarifying.

Re: Fandom Confessions

[kallanda_lee]

Overprotective/helicopter parenting is not an US exclusive phenomenon.

Re: Fandom Confessions

[dethtoll]

Definitely not. It's practically a negative stereotype about Asian people at this point.

Re: Fandom Confessions

[kallanda_lee]

It is fairly common in Europe, too.