[ SECRET POST #4183 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #4183 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 67 secrets from Secret Submission Post #599.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I got into fandom much earlier (my parents had taken me to cons as a kid and I got involved in internet fandom as an 18-year-old college freshman) but I had a very similar experience. There were very few kids and teens at cons when I was a kid and teen, and most people I interacted with online in those early years were older than me. I would try to be vague about my age and the fact that I was in college. When I ran into a teenager (who actually admitted to being a teenager), I would think it was so weird and maybe not a good idea that they were openly admitting to being so young. I was always hyper-aware that fandoms for Star Trek, Star Wars, and Doctor Who, and things like fanfiction and dressing in costume at a con were older than I was, and I had no claim to having invented anything fannish.

I think the flip may be partly due to the larger proportion of younger people in fandom these days. I think the internet makes participating in fandom as a teen much easier, since you don't need money, transportation, or permission the way you would if you wanted to go to a con or a club meet-up or other event. I think Harry Potter also brought a lot of kids into fandom (kids who are now adults, of course).

Another thing may be the fact that age is not readily apparent online, so people are prone to assume most everyone else is like them - "If I'm 16 and doing this, then so are the other people doing this, probably, right?" - even if you know, intellectually, that isn't true. There may also be a bit of willful self-delusion going on. "I don't want to be talking to weird adults, so I will just tell myself everyone is my age.) Finally, there may be some fannish spaces that happened to become more youth-centric (tumblr??? I don't know) and that led people to assume all internet fandom, and by extension, all fandom, is the same.

[sparklywalls]

This is a pretty good explanation and I don't thin there's anything I disagree with. Another thing I'd add is there seems to be more of an attitude that when you "grow up" fandom is a thing that should fall away. Not really sure why people think at midnight on a certain birthday you'll stop liking something you've always liked but anyway...fandom is something I fall in and out of depending on how much time I have. It's true I'm busier now I'm older and yet when I'm at home at the moment in the evenings I'm still maintaining a pretty long streak of reading Marvel related content. But there was a couple of years (2015ish) where I wasn't as bothered because I didn't like Age of Ultron. It happens.

[(Anonymous)]

Incredibly sensible explanation and I'll just add another thing. I think cartoons/anime are part of the issue as well. Anime was always more adult orientated but these days even a lot of things marketed as 'kids cartoons' are written in ways that adults can enjoy as well, bringing adults into areas that were once seen as strictly 'kids' spaces. I don't see a lot of gatekeeping in say Star Trek fandoms the way I do in Avatar: Airbender fandoms for instance. Though way back when there were dinosaurs my entire family used to watch Danger Mouse while eating dinner or Thundar the Barbarian so adults enjoying cartoons was always normal for me.