intergenerational fans

[firecat]

There's an "intergenerational fandom survey" being signal-boosted here:

https://fictional-fans.dreamwidth.org/70308.html

I tried to fill it out but I had problems starting with the question "when did you join fandom?"

Comment I left over there:

what does it mean to join fandom anyway? I didn't join it so much as soak in it for decades until I became increasingly saturated.

Comments

[lilacsigil]

"When did you join fandom" was a much easier answer for me - I wrote fanfic for years by myself, not realising other people did this, being in an isolated rural area, and within five minutes of getting online for the first time, found X-Men fanfic! It's a very clear dividing line.

[firecat]

Very cool!

[snippy]

It's closed already? Also, which "fandom"? I tried con fandom and bounced.

[firecat]

Exactly.

If fandom is thinking up original stories about characters I liked, or imagining that I was them, or dressing up like them? I "joined" when I was around seven. But I didn't know anyone else who did those things.

If it's writing fanfic? I "joined" when I was I was around fourteen. Although I didn't know fanfic was a community thing. My friends and I were just really into this one band, and used to try to imagine how we could meet them, and one thing led to another.

If it's standing in line on the opening day of a movie? Around twenty.

Going to a convention? Around thirty.

etc.

[silveradept]

I decided to use when I got LJ as "joining fandom," even though I've been doing a lot of fannish things beforehand, but it was when I specifically was being social with others online about fan stuff. (Otherwise, I'm in fandom way earlier based on my watching and reading and writing fic.)