July Question Meme: Day Two

[rogueslayer452]

Asked by giallarhorn:

How do you feel regarding the generally increased scrutiny that accompanies a lot of shows and how it impacts your ability to enjoy shows?

I think critical thinking is important, of course, and I do enjoy reading and joining in the discussion that further examines the media that we consume.

However, some people tend to take it too far from actual critical thinking to just being plain negative. Fandom can become quite a toxic environment when such negativity about tearing down something someone loves, going so far as saying someone is the problem for enjoying a show they deem problematic, or always scrutinizing every little detail and pointing out what was wrong and why. Some people end up judging far too quickly, already making up their minds on something (especially if it doesn't fit into their little box of perfection) before it even has a chance on proving (and improving) itself. It's not just unfair, but the behavior and attitude that comes from such negative thinking is kind of immature, imho. It's one thing to have honest critique, it's another to get so hung up on and completely immerse oneself in negativity and thereby ruining the enjoyment for everyone involved.

As for me, while being within fandom can be difficult to get away from such scrutiny, it hasn't hindered my enjoyment for the things I like watching in the slightest. I'll listen to the arguments and discussions that I feel offer something to think about, and ignore the negative side of things that are just there to be loud noise.

Comments

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Yeah I agree, I think that fandom can swing too much the other way when it comes to picking apart everything about a show and campaigning for it to be cancelled, some reactions can get really etreme

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

I've seen people campaigning for others to boycott certain things in protest of something or other, and the whole notion behind that is utterly ridiculous. Fandom does take things to the extreme, which unfortunately becomes quite intolerable for anyone to actually enjoy watching or being involved in said fandom.

But this is where you separate watching something and its particular fandom. I've learned from my own experiences that you don't have to participate in fandom if you don't feel comfortable or simply just don't want to. There are many a few instances where fandom turned me away from something, which it's an unfortunate situation because you're basically just listening to the really loud negative parts of fandom and as much as we would like to say we're not affected, there is a certain impact it has on others by proxy. But I've since just decided to live and let live. Fandom may have good points to offer in an argument about something, which I enjoy reading different variations of opinions on certain matters, but it all gets drowned out by the loud obnoxious side. Sometimes, it's just best ignore it and do your own thing.

But at the same time, I feel like fandom needs to bring back the constructive conversation into the community instead of just spewing out random opinions and passing them off as facts, plus having a platform that allows such discussion to be open to anyone in response and not just some random Tumblr post.