Does Online Fandom Ruin the Television Viewing Experience for You?

You might have been looking forward all summer to the new and old television shows airing in the fall and waiting with anticipation for it to finally arrive. Or you may have been bored, flipping channels one day until something caught your eye. In either case, you take a strong liking to a particular show, and indulge yourself in it (maybe even recording and saving the shows to watch them over and over and over again).

Those first few weeks of watching your new favorite television show are fabulous. You get to sit back, relax, and have fun while being introduced to some very likable (and hated) characters and getting intrigued by the story lines. Then you feel compelled to know more about the show and the people behind it. Unlike a couple of decades ago (or even just a decade ago), you can now talk with hundreds, maybe even thousands, of other fans of the show with ease. Thanks to the spreading popularity and availability of the Internet, you can go online now and looking up all the information you want about the show and communicate with others on discussion forums.

Day in and day out, you find yourself posting and surfing around tv fan sites, even choosing to sneak in some time at work when you can get it. And at first, everything is great: you're talking about the show with like-minded people and reading what everyone else has to say about it. But then something happens. It could be people expressing a strong dislike for a certain character, actor, or relationship on the show. It could be people venting about where the storyline is going. Soon, you find yourself immersed in the negativity, and you may be arguing with those other fans about it more than anything else.

With the advent of the Internet, there's been many positives for online fandom, like access to more behind the scenes information and spoilers about upcoming episodes. However, being an online fan of a tv show can encourage "group think" more often than we'd like due to the online culture of the places we visit. If that group think tends to be negative, it can taint your viewing experience, and you'll eventually have fonder feelings for the show back before you became an online fan of it. I've involved myself in discussion online about my favorite tv shows over the last eight years, and the more I do that, the less I enjoy the shows for what they are: entertainment.

We have several sayings that can be summed up as this: the kind of people we associate with influence the kind of person we become. The thoughts of others influence your own thoughts to the point where, instead of watching a show and coming to your own conclusion, you're looking for 'evidence' in the show to match your newly found conclusion. Here's what I mean:

-Every word or action by a certain character you don't like can get twisted around in your head to prove how much of drain he or she is on the show or other characters... just like you and your online buddies have been discussing. But previously you didn't really care one way or the other about the character.

-A certain look or gesture by a male character somehow "proves" that he's really in love with her and doesn't see her as just a friend, and you go online spending all your time trying to convince the naysayers who try to shut you and other fans of the relationship down and it turns into another flame war. Or you may be on the other side, thinking those fans are crazy to see something that obviously (in your mind) isn't there and you take part in lambasting them.

-The flaws in a storyline get picked apart and ragged on. When you go back to watch those episodes, instead of just enjoying them (or ignoring the parts you don't like) like you usually do, you see the flaws too and you start analyzing to the point where it gets in the way of your enjoyment.

Even if you don't have strong feelings one way or the other about certain aspects of the show, when you're on a tv fan site where most people do and they're not afraid to express it, you may still be frustrated because you don't really have an avenue to talk about the show the way you want to talk about it. Everyone else is too busy fighting with each other, and you'll spend more of your time either trying to play peacemaker, or getting more depressed about the show through reading all those negative comments thrown around.

So what's an online tv show fan to do? You do have a few options. You can try to find a site that has the kind of culture you do like or one that moderates discussion and tries to keep bashing to a minimum. On some sites you'll have the option of putting the more negative people on an ignore list where you don't have to read their posts, so you could try that too. (It won't be completely effective, though, because the people you don't have on your ignore list can still quote them). If you're on a site that gets plenty of discussion, maybe you can gravitate towards the more neutral threads and only participate in those to keep the influence of negativity a minimum. Or you can take the drastic option: stop visiting tv fan sites where fans gather and discussion the show altogether.

If you think it's bad now, as people get more and more comfortable with the Internet, it'll probably end up getting worse. So have your 'battle plan' ready on how you're going to deal with others on tv show fan sites. Will you be flying with the eagles or swimming with the fish?