No, I think you're right that fandom is changing. My own perspective is that it is much less conversational than it used to be -- both in terms of people engaging less (even as fandoms grow to enormous proportions) and also in terms of having conversations rather than battles. The post above certainly seems to suggest that it is now a form of behavior totally disconnected from the canon source.
And yes, I do think the different ways that people now consume content has changed the way they engage (or don't) with others. For one thing, it is far easier to be spoiled now since people could easily be a year or two behind on a canon and be catching up via On Demand or Netflix whereas once even DVDs (or video tapes) were several seasons behind and a show wasn't yet in syndication. I think that made people depend on others more and the commonality of experience gave people a shared investment.
There are shows I was fannish about and would have likely been in a fandom but I was behind due to lack of availability and I didn't want to be spoiled. There are things I'm glad I missed as the fandoms got more disillusioned but also things I would have enjoyed at the time like meta.
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onlyembers
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Date: 2018-03-04 06:07 pm (UTC)And yes, I do think the different ways that people now consume content has changed the way they engage (or don't) with others. For one thing, it is far easier to be spoiled now since people could easily be a year or two behind on a canon and be catching up via On Demand or Netflix whereas once even DVDs (or video tapes) were several seasons behind and a show wasn't yet in syndication. I think that made people depend on others more and the commonality of experience gave people a shared investment.
There are shows I was fannish about and would have likely been in a fandom but I was behind due to lack of availability and I didn't want to be spoiled. There are things I'm glad I missed as the fandoms got more disillusioned but also things I would have enjoyed at the time like meta.