We make self-introductions oftentimes when meeting new people around. Can you still recall any fuzzy memories of asking others “Who are you,” or maybe “What’s your interest” These sorts of commonplace questions? Wait a moment, have you ever thought about why we keep doing this on a regular basis?
How does online self-introduction look like?
During the digital era, online community via all kinds of media platforms has been developed maturely. Individuals no longer introduce themselves in a face-to-face manner, whereas they present who they are by revealing that they participate in various communities on social media based on certain shared characteristics and interests. Apparently, communities on the internet that gather people together because of shared interests displace the simple procedure that frequently appears in offline self-introduction. We tell others who we are by showing our tastes in music, clothing, culture, hobby, etc, instead of merely speaking to them through monotonous verbal descriptions that, for example, “I am an undergraduate and I love hip-hop culture”. Instead, self-introduction alters from an offline plain statement to this: I share hip-hop songs on social media accounts every day because that’s the enthusiastic part consisting my current identity.
The mundane phenomenon has already told individuals your characteristics. Let them know your persona by way of subscribing to your passion and how you intertwine with other fans. I call this contemporary self-identification since fandom culture in the digital era transforms itself to a great extent into online fandom communities, activities, and works.
The process of investing great passion into engaging with a community of fans owing to shared hobbies or interests is what we call fandom. Most importantly, “…fandom is often pursued as a hobby, but it has elements of passionate identification that take it beyond a mere pastime and make it part of the identity of the individual.1” When networking on social media, we address ourselves by marking where we are located among various communities of fans with the aim of sharing common enthusiasm in the object of fandom. In other words, this phenomenon is also seen as the marker of our self-identification online.
For instance, musical fandom is a prevalent phenomenon happening on social media platforms. The function of “Reels” on Instagram opens up a superb discussion of Lana Del Rey’s music videos. Those fans maintain updates of both live and edited short videos of Lana Del Rey’s concerts all the time. Specifically, a personal account “delreydear” (which is also followed by Del Rey herself) posts exquisite images and videos of this American singer. Music fans ritualize the simple but necessary behavior of being part of fandom. Continually sharing “delreydear”’s posts to other friends and adding these to the story is a fandom behavior indeed. What’s most significant is enabling others to know your music preferences by letting them notice how you subscribe to this fandom behavior on a regular basis.
The relationship between fandom and online persona
Every user builds a persona on social media platforms because we consistently post and forward the posts on social media which can express our enthusiasm. Fandom culture owing to the development of new media evolved to be a means for our generations to construct personas. Being a fandom on the internet has footprints everywhere, such as putting your favorite celebrity’s Instagram account on your profile, and showing your Spotify-starred songs on your story of Instagram. The behavior of posting what you are into on social media proves to be the externalization of your interests. Therefore, persona construction is an easy process and the identity of being a member of fandom benefits us to build a preferred persona on digital media.
- Mark Duffett, Understanding Fandom: An Introduction to the Study of Media Fan Culture (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013), 24. ↩︎
Bibliography
Duffett, Mark. Understanding Fandom: An Introduction to the Study of Media Fan Culture. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013.
The article brings me back to the time when I observed the phenomenon of “fandom”, and I also have been experiencing it. For instance, before my uni started, students would voluntarily create an Instagram account for everyone to upload an introduction post so that people know each other better. I personally will look into the profile first and see whether we have the same interests, which makes me decide whether I should make the first move. However, I did feel guilty sometimes as to knowing a person should have face-to-face contact but not just depending on the digital world. This alteration of self-identity is an intriguing part of modern internet culture, as people create personas depending on their interests and interactions in various fan communities.