Penelopes Part In Would You Fall In Love With Me Again Right.

okay so I'm a chronically online teenage girl who loves analysing anything and everything and recognizing patterns with people. And there's several things I've noticed as of late. and this may be all over the place because it is late but I need to get this out of my head and put it somewhere. this is also a long post I'm so sorry

The rise of Whataboutism, fandom spaces becoming main stream and how it ties to the internet. (I fear this may be already talked about but wtv please let the other analytical people find this and discuss with me)

So there's this phenomenon I've noticed on TikTok (please don't come for me but I've noticed it's largely Americans too) with Whataboutism. I'm going to use a more literal example that I've seen with my own two eyes. Someone will post a recipe and it will contain coriander. Someone will comment "what if I don't like coriander?" (I've noticed this especially on non-western recipes too) Or someone will draw a beautiful ship fanart and someone will comment "love the art hate the ship!" Or "imagining this is x ship"

And it drives me (and others probably) insane because just scroll, don't comment.

ANYWAYS how does this tie to fandom spaces?

Well recently since around 2020 I have noticed fandom spaces growing larger. (I have been in fandoms, using wattpad since 2018 I believe HP girlie's unite) And it makes sense everyone was inside so we could only engage with others online and therefore already established online communities would grow larger. However this also meant that people who have never engaged in fandoms are now joining. Which means fandoms are becoming largely mainstream. Even "mainstream" fandoms becoming more mainstream like marvel, DC and Harry potter.

And this isn't only limited to fandoms I've noticed this with reading now too.

I started watching MHA back in 2020 and let me tell you the fandoms were shit. Then in early 2021 I discovered the dreamsmp and oh my god that was another shit show. Everyone was online and that meant everyone was in this vacuum of "contraversies" it gave me a headache I remember literally only using discord and YouTube bc of all the drama.

okay sidebar done sorry.

What does newer fandom members mean? Well it means people who haven't engaged in fandom culture are now reacting in a new way to this new community. Which leads to ship wars blown out of proportion and people getting wayyy too involved. And people posting spoilers. Yes fandoms spaces are a fun way to engage with other people who have similar interests as you especially if you don't have many people who share the same interests. But this also means people live in a bubble where you are only engaging in like minded individuals and not talking to others who oppose your thoughts and opinions. Which is important to grow as a person. (I know fandoms are meant to be fun but if you're critiquing media you have an opinion and opinions can change)

this is sounding so pro conservative IM SORRY I'M SOUTH AFRICAN I'M NOT AMERICAN NOT PRO CONSERVATIVE I'm just trying to say listen to other people in fandoms with an open mind when they talk abt why they may ship or dislike a ship. That relates to anything and everything too regarding opinions, theories etc.

As we know the internet is a vacuum and algorithms mean you will see content you like. So you will only engage with like minded individuals. So you will not generally hear thoughts, feelings, opinions of other fandom members unless you go searching for it. It's a similar phenomenon to the gym bro/trad wife to alt right pipeline. So on top of your internet being directly curated to you. Meaning you essentially live in a bubble both online and in real life. You're also becoming increasingly individualistic. Resulting in shit like "Well I don't like this ship so this doesn't concern me" okay fair but babes scroll. Like it genuinely confuses me why people don't just scroll, even when I was even more chronically online than I am now I would just not interact with shit I didn't fuck with? wtv I wna touch on reading spaces since I've been into reading since birth

Also there was the "reading isn't political" bit a while ago. Which is so fucked. I think fandom culture and generally "nerdy" hobbies and interests becoming mainstream due to online spaces growing in 2020 did a number on already troublesome fandoms. Like the does it contain smut thing on TikTok. People liked reading smut as a relaxer which fair, so they joined online communities to find more book recs and other people. Which made reading as a hobby grow and dark romance grow in popularity. This then led to a once relatively small portion of the overall book internet community growing into something much larger. And because the internet is a vaccum this meant they were only being recommended smut books or they just enjoyed it. But didn't consume in moderation so obviously they got a bit addicted. So now they were in other spaces within the book community. I understand that reading for some is a form of escapism however you cannot turn off your brain while reading, this is not a show. I actually cannot relax in any way while reading or watching a show because I am analyzing and paying attention. Reading will always be political because in some parts of the world you weren't allowed to read because you are a woman. ALSO I understand these communities existed beforehand and I'm not trashing smut (I like reading smut as much as the next person) But now because of the overwhelming popularity of these different spaces and as well as these people living in vaccums it's becoming a tad insane.

I'm losing braincells I'm so sorry I feel like I'm rambling.

OVERALL

living in a bubble is bad for your brain. Give your brain a break maybe indulge in other hobbies where you can switch off your brain. like baking or running or gardening. I also think this has ties to seratonin and being stuck inside making us all sad so this stuff gave/ gives us our dopamine hits so we get too emotionally involved. But even though I am in a biology elective I am wayyy too uneducated to delve deeply into that. Anyways touch grass and realise nothing (regarding fandoms) is ever that deep and in a few months/ years you'll wonder why you were so high strung abt this stuff. If you like reading take a break from the smut, read a whodunit, (me personally I love Hercule Pirot) and touch grass.

Also if you thinking reading isn't political crack open a history book about a topic but from opposing sides and tell me its not political. Read a poem.

we love the lesbian and bisexual useless duo (jayce and vi)

OMG OMG

teyana Taylor as Akasha

I can see her eating as hard as Aaliyah did

GUYSSSSSSS

One day I'm gna go deeply into why jinx and silco's relationship is unhealthy and how it parallels to ambessa and caitlyn AND how at a later stage silco's love for jinx resembles the love Vander had for vi and powder. Because I'm so tired of seeing silco was such a good dad posts.

Born again by Lisa IS SO DAMN GOOD OH MY FUCKING GOD

It reminds me of dua Lipa's future nostalgia era in the best way possible.

no the traveler doesn’t know him as ajax. if the traveler knows their character stories he wouldn’t have had to explain to them his abyss thing in fontaine aq. it’s only his family, pulcinella and us(players).

I'm pretty sure I remember his little brother referring to him as Ajax in front of the traveler during his character story. So that tells me the traveler at least has an idea that Ajax is his real name. Especially since he told us Childe is a fake name. Also, the traveler tends to be close to characters within the story so I wouldnt put it past him to tell the traveler.

Agents of shield confession:

I HEAVILY shipped ward and sky for season 1

In my defense I was like 12 and didn't understand toxic relationships

ALSO may and ward are an odd combo ik it was only sex but still from the beginning I was like Coulson is her man that's her husband.

I won't lie I'm one of those annoying people who prefers reading the physical copy over the digital copy. Especially if it's a story I Iove. Id much rather own the physical book and be able to come back to it whenever I want then having it on something digital. what if the thing breaks what then? And I know backing up stuff exists however I do not have the time nor energy to do that. I'd rather own a physical copy. For me it's much more stimulating to have the book in my minds. And if that means I have to wait to read the stuff I wanna read, thats fine I don't mind waiting because it means I get to appreciate it even more.

(I'm also a download over stream person but I don't have a laptop to be able to do that anymore. It's so much better to own a copy of something rather than borrow it like streaming does. It's leading to losing so much unfortunately)