I’ve been through the process of falling into a new fandom enough times now to begin to notice commonalities. Unlikely to be all that interesting to anyone else, so under a cut.
Stage 0: Blissful ignorance.
Stage 1: Huh. What is that Thing?
Stage 2: Double-huh. There it is again.
Stage 3: There sure seem to be a lot of people I follow who love Thing.
Stage 4: In which I check out Thing. Hey. You know what? Thing really is kinda cool. There’s this little part over here, especially, that I like. At this stage I will probably start occasionally Liking posts by mutuals containing Thing.
Stage 5: That part I liked? I really like it. Really really like it. These other parts are pretty cool, too. This is the point at which some tentative reblogging starts to happen, making this the first point where my affinity becomes generally visible. There might also be occasional IRL mentions of Thing to my friends/family.
Stage 6: Screw it. I love it. I love it all. I start seeking out and reblogging stuff from the Thing tags, or that I’ve come across on Twitter or YouTube or somewhere. I also usually start queueing Thing at this point, rather than just reblogging immediately. There are two parts to why I do that: 1) I’m starting to get worried about annoying non-similarly-obsessed followers with the amount of Thing in their dashes, so I want to space it out via my thrice-a-day queue. (I also typically start trying to consistently tag Thing at this point, figuring it might help me hang onto followers who are willing to stick with me but want help stemming the onslaught.) And 2) as I mentioned in another long narcissistic rumination a while back, I think of my queue as being in part a legacy that will continue to dribble out content in the eventually-certain-but-hopefully-not-yet-super-imminent-but-who-knows event of my death, and I’ve decided that I’m okay with the idea of Thing being in the lottery for Last Thing Evar. Friends/family begin to push back on the amount of Thing. “Can we talk about something else, please?”
Stage 7: Pretty much OOC/Trash of the Thing. While I still might struggle not to overwhelm the non-obsessed, my heart isn’t in it. If you’re Thing-averse, probably best that we part ways now rather than trying to keep a bad relationship alive. I start following people because they’re a compelling source of Thing. I cast around for ways to devote more time to Thing, like making gifsets and writing overlong meta. Friends/family: “Hey, can I tell you this really interesting thing I saw today about–” “No.”
Stage 8: I’ve calmed down somewhat. I will still reblog the occasional Thing content, but let’s be honest; I’ve probably seen and reblogged most of it already. Since I make it a rule to always Like something before reblogging it, and then only to very rarely reblog something a second time if I’ve already Liked it once, there isn’t much Thing left to reblog. Occasional nostalgic Thing reblogs/posts. Friends/family: Thank god.
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