There are very few media franchises that I identify as a fan of. This isn’t because there aren’t plenty of things I enjoy, but because in the age of the internet, my perceived barrier to fandom has become incredibly high.
I was reminded of this recently while watching a recent episode of Um, Actually, a YouTube game show (I guess technically it’s a dropout.tv game show) that tests participants’ knowledge of minutia in various nerdy lore. I was surprised that none of the contestants were able to answer a question about Game of Thrones correctly, when I knew the answer before the host had even finished reading it. The subject of the question is directly referenced in the TV show, and possibly in the books as well (but I don’t remember for sure), so the question was not about some tiny detail hidden in the depths of Game of Thrones mythopoeia, it was about a prominent part of the series’ world building.
I’ve read the books, and I watched the first few seasons of the Game of Thrones TV series, but I lost interest and stopped following it somewhere in the 3rd or 4th season. Hence, I would not consider myself a Game of Thrones fan. It’s possible I’d maintain this distinction even without the internet, since I know plenty of people who participate in watch parties every Sunday night when new episodes are airing, but with the internet, I definitely couldn’t consider myself a “real fan”. Being aware of communities full of people devoting seemingly endless hours to dissecting the series’ content and creating content of their own makes my having read the books and knowing the answer to a trivia question seem inconsequential in comparison.
The internet also reminds me of the knowledge (/obsession) that I lack about things I do consider myself a fan of. For example, it would be hard to deny that I’m a fan of Rocket League, but I don’t think I’d be able to make it through the end of this Rocket League specific game show, and I know very little about the eSports (that is, professional competitive play) side of Rocket League.
I don’t really have a point to make about this phenomenon or a statement to make about whether I think it’s good or bad. It’s just something I’ve observed about myself and how I relate to media and the communities that are out there on the internet. All the more power to those who consider themselves fans of all sorts of games, movies, books, and shows, but the depths of all the fandoms out there make it hard for me to count myself as part of more than just a few.
