During the pandemic, we, fans, have been able to rely on some of our already existing coping mechanisms to deal with the increased strain of our mental health due to the global crisis. Participants in a study about the mental health of PhD students during the pandemic responded that their coping strategies mainly included social interaction and recreational activities. Furthermore,
Lower scores of depression and anxiety were predicted by the strength of the overall social network (…)
Naumann, Sandra, Lena Matyjek, Katharina Bögl, Scholar Minds, and Isabel Dziobek. Update on the Mental Health Crisis in Academia: Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Early Career Researchers’ Mental Health and Satisfaction with PhD training, 2022.
In another survey, this one about Philippine BTS fans, social interaction and recreational activities were both listed as ways that fandom supported participants’ mental health.
Despite being isolated from one another geographically due to the lockdown, the fans felt that BTS was with them throughout the pandemic, through their music, live videos, tweets, pictures, and even the mere thought of them.
Vanguardia, Marc. “Love Yourself, BTS Army: Participatory Fandom and Agency during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Philippines Communication Society Review, 2021, 229.
These digital networks of intimacy allowed for comfort, happiness, and healing to be conveyed and received across miles in the physical realm and created imagined yet profound connections that acted as safe spaces for ARMYs online.
Vanguardia, Marc. “Love Yourself, BTS Army: Participatory Fandom and Agency during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Philippines Communication Society Review, 2021, 231.
By seeing other ARMYs and interacting with them on various social networking sites, the (survey) participants felt less lonely as a part of a community of people who shared not only the same interest and admiration for BTS but also similar experiences regardless of their cultural, linguistic, gender, and other identifying background. (Participants) pointed out that relationships were formed not only as fans of the same idols but as individuals who were included in each other’s support systems.
Vanguardia, Marc. “Love Yourself, BTS Army: Participatory Fandom and Agency during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Philippines Communication Society Review, 2021, 241-242
The individual activities and actions that the participants engaged in as fans of BTS served as a distraction from the bleak reality of the pandemic. By being occupied with tasks such as streaming, voting, and getting updated on the fandom over stan Twitter, the fans were able to focus on accomplishing things instead of dwelling on their problems and concerning themselves with the situation of the world around them. By being able to control something they found an anchor that was constant, and had a sense of agency in a time of almost complete uncertainty. (…) The participants exhibited a high level of consciousness of the positive effects and potential drawbacks of their engagement in the fandom. They recognized the various ways that their actions could affect their well-being, and adjusted accordingly by putting themselves in conducive situations that would provide them the greatest benefit.
Vanguardia, Marc. “Love Yourself, BTS Army: Participatory Fandom and Agency during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Philippines Communication Society Review, 2021, 239-240.
Fandom might be seen then, as a culture that adapted well to the pandemic. It would be tempting to characterise academia as also not needing to change drastically in a world in lockdown.
Drawing a parallel between these two is not a new statement.
In some cases, we argue that academic research interests paralleled fannish passion.
Hayashi, Aya Esther. 2020. “Reimagining Fan Studies in the Age of Covid-19 and Black Lives Matter.” Transformative Works and Cultures, no. 34. https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2020.2029.
However, both fandom and academia have their issues, which were not only carried over into the pandemic but might have been amplified by it . As McMillan Cottom explained in a roundtable about the state of higher education,
Overall, most college leaders saw COVID-19 as an opportunity to do more of what they had already been doing. Schools that had wanted to respond to inequality doubled down on that. School that had been trending toward profit-seeking especially under the guise of a public institution-like Purdue and Arizona State -doubled down.
Shenk, Timothy, Maggie Doherty, Nils Gilman, Adam Harris, Tressie McMillan Cottom, and Christopher Newfield. Academi After the Pandemic: A roundtable on how COVID-19 has changed American universities. Other. Dissent, 2021.
(…) participatory culture of affiliation in the BTS ARMY fandom can be ambiguous at best in its effect on fan mental health.
Vanguardia, Marc. “Love Yourself, BTS Army: Participatory Fandom and Agency during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Philippines Communication Society Review, 2021, 244.
Notwithstanding the positive impacts of involvement in BTS ARMY? The participants generally agreed that some other ARMYs can be very “toxic”, or overly competitive, intense, or aggressive in their way of supporting BTS and engaging in “fan wars” with fans of other groups. To address this problem, some fans distanced themselves from stan Twitter altogether, avoided “toxic” fans by curating the accounts they were following or accounts following them, or decided to temporarily leave or stayed only to focus on ARMY common goals true to the ideals of BTS: The process if compartmentalization of personal and fandom life and interactions between online ARMY friends and personal/in-real-life friends that some participants reported as coping mechanisms for their mental health were a steady reality in network society where inclusions and exclusions always came together.
Vanguardia, Marc. “Love Yourself, BTS Army: Participatory Fandom and Agency during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Philippines Communication Society Review, 2021, 243.
(…) participatory culture of affiliation in the BTS ARMY fandom can be ambiguous at best in its effect on fan mental health.
Vanguardia, Marc. “Love Yourself, BTS Army: Participatory Fandom and Agency during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Philippines Communication Society Review, 2021, 244.
In a world so changed by the pandemic, looking forward, we cannot accept neither the idea that we can go back to normal, nor the idea that we have moved toward a digital utopia. Harris says,
During the protests and reckoning over systemic racism in American life over the past year, students have been a major part of the national energy. But they haven’t had the chance to be on campus, to be in spaces where they can organize. A lot of college leaders, particularly at predominantly white institutions, are very concerned about what is going to happen when students come back. I think a lot of energy that has been pent up over the last sixteen, seventeen months will reveal itself on campuses.
Shenk, Timothy, Maggie Doherty, Nils Gilman, Adam Harris, Tressie McMillan Cottom, and Christopher Newfield. Academi After the Pandemic: A roundtable on how COVID-19 has changed American universities. Other. Dissent, 2021.
We have to reflect on how to adapt to this world, possibly, how to use our current opportunities to change.
What practices can we introduce at conferences that don’t tokenize BIPOC scholars? (…) Let’s diversify editorial boards and conference planning committees. (…) Let’s create alternative funding for conferences and journals, to transform these practices from unremunerated service activities to activities where labor is honored.
Hayashi, Aya Esther. 2020. “Reimagining Fan Studies in the Age of Covid-19 and Black Lives Matter.” Transformative Works and Cultures, no. 34. https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2020.2029.