Gaslight. Gatekeep. Girlboss. These are some famous last words. A phrase that started as a joke evolved into a way of life for many fans in various different communities. Fandoms originally were seen as a way to connect to people who share interests and sometimes act as a creative outlet and a way for kids to express themselves. Nowadays, people hate sharing what fandoms they are a part of because it is seen as embarrassing to be associated with the fanbase. Now, mainstream media is finally getting exposed to the toxicity of fanbases and are all together hating on the creators of shows for something that is not their fault; the creators cannot control who likes their content.

One of the most recent cases where a fandom started to attack itself is with “Stranger Things,” a show that had a relatively normal fanbase until the most recent season was released. Soon, it was seen as embarrassing to publicly enjoy the show due to people’s obsessions with one of the new characters, Eddie Munson.  This new addition was detrimental to the series. Soon, fans would start to make edits to show Eddie singing to another girl, even though he was not, when trying to save her. Soon the “stans” of the community became obsessed with this and the idea of being with Eddie. This obviously made the whole community seem cringey, and repelled anyone who thought about getting involved in it.

Something similar to this is what happened with “Rick and Morty,” which soon became known for its smelly, greasy, obnoxious, and entitled fanbase of teenage boys. Unfortunately, this devastating process is happening to the majority of mainstream fandoms and ruining the experience of sharing interests with others and making friends for the younger generation. While the internet is known to connect millions, if not billions, of people, it is getting out of hand with how many kids are being exposed to the internet so young. This is the most obvious reason why this self destructive process is happening to fandoms. The term used for this is “chronically online” which has also been discussed on Beaver Tales.