When Fiction is Reality: How youth are endangering themselves and others in online fandoms
What is it about?
Most of us are fans of something, and online communities have played a central part in allowing people across the globe to find others with shared interests. These fictional narratives and interests have been generally understood to be just that: fiction. However, in recent years a rapidly growing minority of fans have become insistent that people’s fictional interests are indicative of their real-life values, beliefs, and behaviors. What a person enjoys within the confines of fiction has become the basis for which such anti-fans threaten, harass, and abuse other fans. This paper deconstructs how this fandom phenomenon came to be and exposes how it has escalated to the point of putting real people in genuine danger.
Why is it important?
One of the most concerning aspects of this phenomenon is that it has created a false sense of security amongst youth that ‘safe’ people consume ‘safe’ media. Furthermore, the adults pushing the belief that fiction directly reveals one’s moral compass often frame themselves as 'safe' adults amongst the teens following them; a stranger who can be trusted. This environment has created a foundation for cult-ish behavior in which youth grow up decrying scientific evidence, publicly sharing their trauma, and engaging in violent harassment and threats toward others.