Decoding Millennials & Fandom: When teens say "shipping," it has nothing to do with boats - Alison Hillhouse, MTV Insights

Generations of teens have been quotobsessedquot with pop culture amp8211 from fainting at the sight of The Beatles to memorizing epic lines from The Godfather and Dirty Dancing and stampeding malls to see 90210 heartthrob Luke Perry But today39s techfueled Millennials possess new tools to take the content they are most passionate about and unapologetically look for ways to throw themselves into itWelcome to the world of quotfandomsquot amp8211 online subcultures that orbit around cult TV shows movies celebrities books comics and more Fandoms can involve people of all ages but tend to be dominated by teens and 20somethings So on the howls of last night39s Teen Wolf finale on MTV amp8211 a franchise with a huge following of its own amp8211 below is a primer on what you need to knowWhat does fandom culture say about MillennialsFirst geeking out is cool Clever GIF sets crafting alternate endings to a plot and knowing obscure lines are social status to the Millennial generation which prides itself on smarts and creativity Millennials are earnestly enthused about things teens from yesteryear might have dismissed or kept wellhidden Second fandoms are a vehicle for Millennials to exert power over quotpeople in chargequot from the ground up For example Dr Who fans were able to get a crying Statue of Liberty written into an episode after fantasizing about it online What are popular fandoms If you dig deep enough on the internet you39ll probably find a fandom for anything and anyone but some of the biggest among MTV39s Millennial audience include TV shows Dr Who Sherlock Supernatural and Teen Wolf Books to Movies Divergent The Hunger Games and The Fault In Our Stars Musicians Austin Mahone quotMahoniesquot and early 3900s bands like Linkin Park Where do fandoms live Fandoms mostly live in social media particularly Tumblr and feel like a teenage girl screaming crying and laughing hysterically all at once Fans post animated gif sets of favorite scenes poignant moments funny quotes or hot characters with tags like MyOvaries meaning he is so hot my ovaries are exploding Why is it important fans watch TV LIVE Watching a TV show live is imperative so that fandom communities can participate in cultural conversations in real time amp8211 an extremely valuable source of social currency They sit armed with quotreaction GIFsquot to tweet the second something reactionworthy happens in the show often from movies For example a GIF of Doc Brown looking like he stuck his finger in the flux capacitor was posted by the fandom during the mass murder scene on Game of Thrones What about IRL In Real Life Fandoms also live IRL in real life particularly when fans engage in cosplay dressing as characters and attend Cons to meet other fandom members ComicCon has achieved a SXSW quotcoolquot status and other Cons are growing eg LeakyConHow do I speak Fandom Fandom is a foreign language Here are a few words to get you started Shipping Stemming from the word relationSHIP when fans champion the idea of two characters becoming romantically involved often creating a morphed couple name for them like quotSterekquot Styles and Derek from Teen Wolf Teens explain to us that some fandoms such as the Glee fandom put nearly 100 of their energy into shipping couples In fact Glee fans were actually able to convince writers to make quotBritannaquot Brittany and Santana a reality on the show IRLamp8230sort of The Feels Kind of what fandom is all about It is uncontrollable unrestrained emotion that is so intense and multifaceted that fans cannot articulate it so they just call it the feels It can be caused by anything from a death or cliffhanger ending to a shared meaningful glance between characters Keyboard Mashing How fans articulate quotthe feelsquot online by mashing keys randomly eg quotadsfasdfasdfasdfasdfasdfasdfasdfasdfquot Canon What actually happens in the story the real plot line as written and produced Headcanon Plot lines imagined by fans canon in their heads For example when Carey Mulligan was written off Dr Who fans pitched the idea that she quottimetravelled to the 1920s and became Daisy on The Great Gatsbyquot Even though it didn39t happen in the actual story they still accepted it as fact because it helped them continue to enjoy the show This has now become official quotheadcanonquot of the Dr Who fandomThe bottom line for many teens fandom life As Lea 17 explains quotI have friends and family who aren39t even into anything like a showamp8230 I39m like how do you live I don39t know how to not be obsessed with somethingquot A sentiment worth paying attention toAlison Hillhouse is the Vice President of Insights Innovation at MTV where she focuses exclusively on understanding the behaviors and psychological underpinnings of Millennials She decodes everything from the intricacies of fandom culture to high school cliques to the creative ethos of the generation The insights her team uncover help MTV fulfill its research imperative for amp179radical audience intimacy

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Decoding Millennials & Fandom: When teens say "shipping," it has nothing to do with boats - Alison Hillhouse, MTV Insights

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