Fandom as We Get Older

By

Scott D. Parker

 

Being a fan of something is different when you’re younger.

A fellow Gen-Xer and I have discussion about fandom: what it was like as a kid or a young adult and what it’s like as we continue to get older. Recently he sent me a text and I’ve been reflecting on it.

I think my new take is that something has to touch my life in reality for my mind to naturally lock onto it the way it did before. For example, a TV show doesn't actually touch my life. I'm not part of the creation of it, distribution, marketing, etc. My role is the very last step, and it's simply consuming it. So, I just can't get into that when I naturally think much harder and longer about my career, family health, financial concerns.

I think we dismiss those as boring adult things, but they're real. As a teen, the happenings of my favorite band felt real. As an adult, I know I'm just their customer.

I think my friend’s point of view has some merit. When we’re teenagers, our lives center on fewer things: school, trying to get girls or guys to notice us, and all the stuff we consume. Our parents paid the bills, kept the lights on, and made sure we had food. Health care? Mom took us to the doctor. Oil bust threatening dad’s job? In my house, those conversations happened beyond my ears. All I had to do was do kid things.

And content filled those mental gaps.

The Beauty of Fewer Choices

Part of it is discovery. When I watched Star Wars, a whole new world opened up. My mind expanded in ways my young brain could barely comprehend. I needed to know EVERYthing about Star Wars and I consumed it all. This avid and active fandom kept going, to music, movies, TV shows, comic books, and books. Point of fact: I can still recite the trash compactor number from the first Star Wars movie. Every new discovery—from a new-to-be band to a new movie or TV show—meant I dove in deep and learned all I could about them.

Another part is volume. As a young lad, from 1977-1980, there was only one Star Wars movie. Yes, I didn’t have a VHS copy of it, but I saw every re-release, read the book and comics, and listened to the soundtrack and The Story of Star Wars LP endlessly. Plus, without all those adult things to worry about, all I did was consume. With Star Trek, only the 79 episodes existed. Novels came out annually from your favorite authors. You had time to read them, especially with only three network channels, PBS, and your local UHF station. 

The Volume Ramps Up

Yet in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the volume increased. More TV networks. Cable TV. More Star Trek and, after Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire proved there was an appetite for Star Wars, dozens of books, often multiple books published per year. Very soon, the volume began to be overwhelming. You just couldn’t keep up.

And we’re growing up. For me, that meant grad school and all that I needed to do to earn that degree. New book by Stephen King and it’s about 700 pages? Eeesh. Well, I’ll get to it after I finish my paper. New TV show on Thursdays? Well, since that’s when I have to work to cover rent, I’ll just have to tape it and hope I don’t forget. 

Now, one thing I’ve always done is make the time for movie premieres. If there’s a movie I want to see, I’ll be there opening day. I’ve always done that, but often, as soon as it’s over, I’m heading back home to sleep, study (grad school days), or take care of the kid (parenthood).

Streaming (and Real Life) Increases the Volume

After Netflix showed the world the future of television, the content became a tidal wave. In these past fifteen or so years, there’s just so much content. I’ve often had discussions with folks where I ask if they’ve seen TV Show A. They say no and then ask if I’ve seen TV Show B. I say no and then we proceed to explain why our show is good. Granted, I’ve been introduced to some good shows this way, but wasn’t it always nice when everyone tuned in on Thursdays to see what the friends were up to this week?

Oh, and now that we’re in our thirties, forties, and fifties, all those “boring adult things” take the pole position. Keep your job. Raise your kids. Tend to your house. Take care of relatives. Go to church. Ferry the kids to their myriads of activities. Watch their programming over and over while you miss the stuff you really want to watch. 

It can be overwhelming.

Remember how I mentioned I could still recite the trash compactor number from a movie I first saw in 1977? Well, when it came time to prepare for Andor season 2, I had to watch a few recaps to remind myself what happened in season 1. And try hard to remember character names (other than Andor and Mon Mothma), many of which I didn’t. 

It’s different being a fan when you get older, isn’t it? At least at the same level of intensity. Yes, there are tons of fans who retain their youthlike zeal for various franchises and sporting teams and other things we use to fill out time. For those fans, I applaud you. Bravo for making time to maintain that level of fandom. Sometimes I actually envy y’all.

But for me, to circle back to what my friend wrote, I don’t mind being a consumer. I enjoy all the things I consume when I consume them. And some are quite good and make me thing about them long afterwards. 

I’m really happy that all this content is out there and available for me to enjoy. I get to pick and choose what I want, enjoy it for a time, and then put it back on the shelf and replace it with the next thing. I often wonder what it would be like for my middle-aged self to go back in time and tell my younger self “There’s going to be so much Star Wars content out there that not only will you not be able to keep up with it all, you also won’t mind that you miss stuff.”

It would blow his young mind. But then again, he’s young, and has all the time in the world.