My X notifications have been flooding since redownloading the app. The amount of fan pages I devoted my time to interacting with was shocking, until I saw all the reposts of new celebrity sightings or inside jokes. As I rolled my eyes, I realized being a part of a fandom isn’t fun anymore.
This distaste for fandoms has appeared mostly in Taylor Swift’s “Swiftie” culture. An ex-fan, user @kikiandhercat, shared on Reddit about exactly why they don’t interact with Swift’s brand.
“She claims to hate the insane parasocial relationships that many of her fans have with her, but she enables it so heavily,” they wrote. “The line has been irreversibly blurred between Taylor Swift the person and Taylor Swift the brand. She’s become this larger-than-life, untouchable, uncancelable force that could never be threatened.”
It seems celebrities are impersonal compared to what they used to be. Swift used to be praised for the dynamic she built with fans, but she hasn’t gone above and beyond since her last “Secret Session” in 2019, when she would invite fans to listen to her album before release.
It is common for fans to leave fandoms once the canon, or original content, has ended. In a Swiftie’s case, it is toxicity and the criminalization of criticizing Swift. For other fandoms, it is as simple as the story ending. Possibly, the end of a book series or the series finale airing causes most fans to move on. Some fans even leave because of major plot developments that cause unhappiness, similar to how fans feel toward Swift.
Lack of content and satisfaction are not the only reasons fans leave fandoms. Another reason is overconsumption of overlapping projects. This is called fandom burnout, where fans are mentally exhausted from the volume of content or the direction of content. It has been seen in franchises like Detective Comics, Marvel and Star Wars.
In 2025, DC rebooted its cinematic universe with James Gunn’s “Superman,” which had mixed reviews at first because of the devotion to Zack Snyder’s run with the DC cinematic universe. However, reviews of Gunn’s Superman were positive, as it proved what people loved about the iconic superhero.
Even with exhaustion from the volume of content, it takes one movie to shift the course and bring hope to fans. In the case of “Superman,” it brought new fans to read comics. However, fandoms still feel empty, as if they aren’t driving culture anymore.
Navin Chetty wrote in an article on Medium about how pop culture has lost its character. Chetty says that even though the 2010s birthed “cringe,” it was a transition for millennials to escape their childhood and become adults, which caused culture to turn “corporate.”
Now, it seems culture and identity are cringe. People are afraid to criticize celebrities or else they will be criticized. People are afraid to make waves because their digital footprint lasts forever.
Fandoms are meant to be fun. We are meant to be middle-school-level obsessed with “Off Campus,” Olivia Rodrigo or “Dancing With The Stars.” We don’t have to perform in our fandoms like we are destined to work for the brand we love.
The fix to reviving fandoms so they are fun again seems to be built on being open-minded and caring less about people’s perceptions of you. Write bad fanfiction or share your opinions without the fear of being attacked. Oh well, I might draw fanart later.
Cassidy McClurg is a junior studying journalism at Ohio University. Please note the opinions expressed in this column do not represent those of The Post. Want to talk to Cassidy about their column? Email cm303824@ohio.edu
