craze or a classic<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s important here is not the fact that all of these fans exist on television, but the way they are being portrayed in the media. Yes, devoted fans have always existed, and so have fan crazes like the ones surrounding Twilight<\/em> and Harry Potter<\/em>. What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s new, however, is that devoted fans are no longer framed as a crazed minority, some weirdoes who are trying to escape from reality. They are portrayed as cool, sometimes funny, but increasingly normal. But where does all of this come from? How did participatory fans all of a sudden make it into some of the most successful TV shows?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
One reason could be that TV producers have discovered the continuous source of revenue participatory fans can provide. Unlike \u00e2\u20ac\u02dceveryday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 fans that only follow a film or television series for some time before turning to something else, engaged fans stay with their chosen show(s) and film(s) over years, if not decades and even their life. Maybe studio bosses and producers have come to realize that this devotion means additional income from media content that is long past its original airing and its zenith, and so they may now try to engage participatory fandom by showing it on-screen in the first place and in a positive manner at that.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Or maybe it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all for fun and ridicule. Both How I Met Your Mother<\/em> and The Big Bang Theory<\/em> feature relatively geeky main characters, and their devotion to fandoms like Star Trek<\/em>, Star Wars<\/em>,\u00c2\u00a0and Marvel Comics is often the cause for humor and comedy. However, the positive and amiable depiction of these characters\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 fan dedication suggests otherwise. Fan references and fan commitments may be comedic at times, but they always also highlight the importance of a fandom in a characters\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 life, and what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more, the way his\/her fandom bonds a protagonist to his\/her friends and significant others.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Which leads me to my third possible reason: Maybe the general public has begun to accept and respect participatory fans. Maybe they have seen engaged fans\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 continued and lasting commitment to their fandoms, have realized that they are not just following some form of extreme craze, and that they actually (surprise, surprise!) get a lot more out of their fan objects than mere escapism. And maybe they started to think that in a time where we are trying to let anyone live in a way that makes them happy, regardless of social backgrounds, sexual orientation, and religious affiliation, for example, participatory fans could be allowed just the same \u00e2\u20ac\u201c without being derided or made fun of, but with being accepted and respected.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
As a hopeless optimist and idealist, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like to think that it is mainly reason three \u00e2\u20ac\u201c increased general tolerance and respect. If this is not the case, then I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still ok with any of the other reasons, as long as participatory fans continue to get their screen time, and do so in a good light.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
*I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not exaggerating here. These words actually came up in conversations with countless non-participatory fans throughout the last ten years of my life.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It’s been a while now since geeks have made the sudden and rapid evolution from social outcasts to trendsetters. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re amongst the coolest people out there at the moment, causing sales of large, geek-style glasses to increase and kids to explore their \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcnerdy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 sides in hopes of being the next Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/civicpaths.net\/groupblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/civicpaths.net\/groupblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/civicpaths.net\/groupblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/civicpaths.net\/groupblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/civicpaths.net\/groupblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/civicpaths.net\/groupblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/civicpaths.net\/groupblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/civicpaths.net\/groupblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/civicpaths.net\/groupblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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