The Power of Tweeting : Stan Twitter
Twitter is a powerful participatory media. Tweeting has brought public commentary to a whole new level. The lure of twitter is it’s a mode of communication that can be self-indulgent, communal, political, a hobby, job, or for general use. The spectrum is endless. You can engage within or outside your circle. There’s a trending page and even a search engine. It really is an open forum. It’s like, if you’re not on twitter how do you get your news?
As an observation, I’ve found that Stans use Twitter the most as it’s the easiest one to engage in a conversation and to circulate content. As long as you have access to technology and have the vocabulary to do so, it’s fairly easy. It’s convenient for users to post comments, pictures, and videos about their fandom for the world to see (if it’s a public profile). It can incite an interaction, reaction, discourse, culture shift, or impact inside or outside of “Stan Twitter”.
I would consider Outside Twitter as locals who tweet about their personal lives and don’t engage in fan/pop culture at all or not aware of all the memes.
This is an example of a Stan account, someone who has a celeb profile but their account is devoted to their favorite artist’s updates.
The tweeting function is vital to Stans because that’s how they bond, give opinions, but also to get noticed. Most won’t see tweeting as a form of power and deem it as trivial but users have the potential to influence.
By sharing your comments and opinions, the open forum is read and seen by many to potentially gain publicity.
Stans will come together to retweet (repost) a comment that is widely shared to gain viral attraction. Or Stans will tweet about the same subject at the same time in order for it to get trending. That’s how they use participatory media to get noticed by higher ups in terms of brands, shows, companies, and of course their favorite artist.
Examples:
Hayley Kiyoko Stans and also fans of the show Friends were able to get the show to stay on Netflix by tweeting their disappointment. Under Hayley’s Tweet is a bunch of her stans supporting her opinion and getting her to 11,000 retweets that Netflix noticed.
Brooklyn 99, a comedy show that was cancelled on Fox were able to get their show picked up by NBC because there was so much outrage and by their Stans and public figures alike. Basically, Stan Twitter and celebrities came together to revive the show just by tweeting.
Britney Stans were able to investigate a lead into Britney’s alleged conservatorship and are claiming she’s being held hostage. They started the #FreeBritney hashtag for awareness on Twitter and got both Britney and Jamie spears’ attention.
Thirst Tweeting from Stans has gotten the attention of celebrities and T.V. shows such as Late night Jimmy Kimmel. But here's one from Buzzfeed about Nick Jonas.
When researching, the only problem I find is that sometimes it’s hard to distinguish whose just a local user and whose a full on Stan on Twitter. I would argue that locals participate in Stan culture but not to the extent of others. Sometimes it’s quite easy to point Stans out when they have anon/celeb pic profiles or use lingo like “Daddy” , “legend”, “Mom”, “Slay”, “Tea”, or “Serve”. A lot of this slang language was developed by LGBTQ+ community, Black Culture, and Drag Queens. It’s just Stan twitter is constantly using them and it’s become an indicator.
As long as there is a common agenda, publicity can occur on a small or large scale.
Stans have really come a long way by navigating participatory media in their favor. They have so much influence that Stan tweets have the potential to gauge in levels of public approval, disapproval, and debate on a particular artist/movies/shows/figures. Since tweets are equivalent to giving out your opinion, peers and higher ups would like to read or counteract them. Tweeting can shift the market or dominate the conversation.
No way is this a form of grassroots activism, but it’s in the same lane of using your “voice” and bringing awareness. Their collective participation in tweeting creates impact but also networking skills (Gladwell). Being able to reach many people through trending and retweeting is an asset.
These fan communities are reflective of what the internet can afford us. The comment and sharing feature embedded onto these social media networks allows users across the globe the opportunity to participate more than they have before. It’s an open forum for anyone to chime in. Their engagement is being seen by the masses and media outlets. Stan culture/Twitter has given a voice to many users for good but also bad. Good in terms of getting to connect and have fun as a past time, but bad for hate. Unfortunately, Stans are more known for their harassment and verbally abusive behavior as sitting behind the screen makes them bold.
A side effect of participatory media and Stan culture is that now these Stans feel invisible enough to spew hate and unnecessary comments out of malice. They troll so much that they take pride in it. It borders on giving out wrong information or just cyberbullying. They’ve gotten celebrities like Alessia Cara, Pete Davidson, Normani from Fifth Harmony and probably many more to take breaks from social media. They use twitter as a hateful tool to be stubborn and invasive.
I can’t deny that it’s kind of cool to see such passionate and motivated communities coming together. But I wish it wasn’t as toxic as a lot of people would agree.
Burton, B. (2018, May 11). Can online outrage from fans save Brooklyn Nine-Nine? Retrieved June 4, 2019, from https://www.cnet.com/news/online-outrage-about-fox-brooklyn-nine-nine-might-save-the-show-hulu/
Gladwell, M., & Gladwell, M. (2019, April 22). Small Change. Retrieved June 4, 2019, from https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/10/04/small-change-malcolm-gladwell
Kheraj, A. (2019, April 25). How the #freebritney movement took stan culture too far. Retrieved June 4, 2019, from https://i-d.vice.com/en_us/article/8xznkz/how-the-freebritney-movement-took-stan-culture-too-far
Lee, E. (2018, December 04). Netflix Will Keep ‘Friends’ Through Next Year in a $100 Million Agreement. Retrieved June 4, 2019, from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/04/business/media/netflix-friends.html
