Fandom Through Social Media Affecting Wellbeing

Abstract

As a society who is constantly consuming and modeling after other lives, “fandom” and the celebrities and products that have shaped us are becoming an increasingly more important part of our lives the more interconnected(but oh so disconnected) we get. As I realized this, I decided to conduct this study through Twitter and Instagram using Content Analysis to decide if the folks who I’d seen who were clearly so wrapped up in fandom and social media were doing ok mentally and if this phenomenon itself had any profound effect on that. This study poses the question of if there’s a negative effect of fandom based in social media circles, studying the behavior of those who act with over the top fandom and see signals and patterns that indicate things about their mental health. In reality there are probably positive effects of this phenomenon as well but it’s clear that negative comes along the way too. This study was done with a history of trauma and struggle related to identity/self worth and crises over social media and the world it hints at, and hopes to clear up the gray area between that world and real life in hopes to propagate more mindful usage of social media and investments in fandom through social media platforms. (Furtzaig 2019.)