Fans can be a powerful force, we have seen time and time again what potential they have, particularly in large numbers. Shows like Community are back on the air because the fans fought for them. Films like Twilight, regardless of quality, will thrive because of their dedicated fan base. Fans create communities, come up with teams, slogans and spend hours debating with each other on the internet. There's a wonderful side of fandom, where people can find others who love the same film or TV shows as them.
However, there's a dark side of fandom too, and today I'd like to address that side.
When I was a teenager there was no such thing as facebook or twitter. The most I did on the internet was chat with friends on msn or send emails. The complex online world of today did not exist when I was 16. My favorite shows were Dawson's Creek, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Roswell. I had the posters on my wall, dreamt of marrying one of the many good looking male leads, and wished I could look like one of the many beautiful female leads. The stars of these shows felt like a million miles away from me, and growing up in New Zealand, they pretty much were. I, like many young fans, got wrapped up in the world of these shows. Fell in love with the characters as they fell in love with each other, and fantasized about living in their fictional worlds. There were no blurred lines however, I knew that I was firmly on the ground of reality while these stars appeared to fly. I loved that they seemed that way to me. Unreachable but something to aspire to.
Today the lines have blurred. The stars no longer fly but instead walk among us in reality. Thanks to online social networks like twitter and facebook we can now know more about celebrities than we'd ever hoped to know. I follow a bunch of different celebrities on twitter, each of them tweeting about random aspects of their day. Every now and then they'll say something Hollywood regarding a premiere or expensive vacation, but for the most part they tweet just like the rest of us. And why shouldn't they? I mean they are just like the rest of us. The only difference is that their job is in the spotlight, doing something so many of us wish we could do, and they get paid a pretty penny to do it.
But here is where the confusion lies. These celebrities are walking among reality with us, but they are still as unreachable as they were when I was 16. Just because they are on twitter, confessing to things I didn't need to know does not mean that they are your new best friend. It does not mean that you have the right to publicly criticise them, judge them, hold them accountable for things their character does on a show, things the writer writes or the director directs. Feel free to send them a tweet telling them you like their work, you're a fan etc. If you're lucky they may pick yours amongst the millions of tweets they get a day and respond. Most of the time it will go unnoticed however. This is no different than when people used to write and mail fan letters to celebrities. Rarely did they respond back then. Social networks like twitter have made reaching out to celebrities so accessible that most do not understand the sheer volumes of messages celebrities receive each day.
Matt Davis who plays Alaric on The Vampire Diaries
I have been reading about a twitter war that's been going on in regards to a group of Vampire Diaries fans who reached out the the show's stars asking for a tweet from Paul Wesley for a fan who had recently passed away. Matt Davis who plays Alaric on the show did not appreciate the quantities of messages he got and dismissed them. Fans got mad, attacked and made him out to be the cruelest person. I have to ask a question here. What right do fans have to demand anything from celebrities? It's tragic that a young fan died, but people die every day, and celebrities can't get caught up in that because at the end of the day they are just doing a job. If they choose to respond then great, if not then let it be. It's your right to ask, it's theirs to refuse. To attack a celebrity because they didn't give you what you want only proves that today's fans don't quite get it. Celebrities that tweet are in the majority having a one-way conversation. They speak, you listen. You speak, they don't hear. That's how it's always been. The wall between reality and fiction still exists, it's just invisible now.
I think it's great when celebrities reach out to their fans. Social networks like twitter have made it possible for them to interact with their fans more, give a more personal appreciation for their support. But there will always be a divide between celebrity and fan. There has to be, for safety and also in order to keep the mystery. You are a fan because you aspire to be like them, which means you see them as something higher than yourself, something you can strive to be like. If we break down this wall then that disappears.
Stars belong in the sky where they can shine their brightest. I never want to live in a world where the wall breaks down and that sky goes dark.
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