Stan twitter is a brainwashing machine (1 Viewer)

[maruberry]

So this is gonna be a bit different thread from me. I've been thinking on this topic a lot and I thought I should make a thread to make them more understandable to myself and hopefully others.

Stan twitter brainwashes kids.
Kids who are too naive to separate their own identity from that of the fandom.

I think my thoughts are best shown as an example. I will use ARMY as the fandom our new kpop is joining, but this problem is nowhere near unique to ARMY and I am using them only bcs it would be very confusing to use fandom X and group X instead. Believe me, I tried.

Imagine a 13 year old girl. A brand new ARMY, with an even newer Twitter account.
They friend other ARMY on the site, make friends and generally have a good time.

But over time they start to notice negative comments being made about BTS.
A lot of them from this specific fandom EXO-Ls
Her friends who have been on twitter longer, tell her EXO-ls hate BTS and are always out to get them.

This little girl only sees the negative posts EXO-Ls make, so subconsciously her mind begins to associate EXO with negativity.
Why does she only see negative posts by EXO-Ls?
That is bcs of how twitter works. She only follows ARMY.
So the posts she sees are what ARMY are posting, ARMY are retweeting or ARMY are replying to.
The only EXO-L posts showing up on her timeline are ones ARMY are replying to (afterall, why would ARMY be retweeting or posting positive things about EXO and EXO-Ls in most cases), which will most likely be negative ones.

As she begins to see EXO-Ls constantly throw negative opinions and posts at ARMY and BTS, she gets upset and starts arguing back
Since she is young, her arguments when upset consist more of you are stupid, what you like is stupid etc, than actual arguments.

She doesn't see anything wrong with her actions, bcs she sees other ARMY doing it as well
And in her eyes ARMY are the good guys, the victims in this situation, so what she is doing MUST be right.
She is a good person afterall.

Even when an EXO-L tells her, ARMY are like this too, she won't really accept it.
Most of the ARMY she knows are nice. She likes them. Sure there are a few bad apples, but you can't control those. Most are good!
EXO-Ls on the other hand... she knows no good EXO-Ls. And since EXO-Ls are liars anyway, them telling her that ARMY aren't any better either is a lie too.

There is also that they take being an ARMY very seriously. They identify as an ARMY. They feel like they belong in the community, so seeing that community get attacked and get called toxic feels like a personal attack. They are saying I am toxic, I am bad. They are saying this happiness I feel, is bad. This feeling of belonging is bad. This understandably upsets them and makes them only even more negatively minded against those ppl saying it.

And the exact same thing is happening on the other side. Another EXO-L kid is in the exact same position, only the other way around. Another Stay kid is in the exact same position. So goes for Blinks and NCTzens and Monbebes etc...

And the worst part is, that there isn't even anybody there to blame.

It's not like the others who taught that kid this brainwashed mentality did it intentionally. No. Those others were similarly manipulated into this position by the system. Nobody chose it. Nobody sat down and did it on purpose. But this brainwashed girl we just talked about will go on to influence others to have similar opinions to her as well. She has become a part of the stan twitter machine and it might be a while before she realizes it.

Of course these thoughts and actions won't happen so suddenly and blatantly. It will be a more slow and gradual process and a lot of those opinions and feelings will stay unacknowledged by the person herself. But this is the general gist of what happens.

Imo joining stan twitter is the single worst thing that can happen to a kpop fan. In functionality it is similar to falling pray to being an anti-vaxxer, a flat-earther etc... The way these ppl end up believing what they believe to be true is quite similar. My community is right, I like my community. Anybody else saying otherwise is wrong.

By joining stan twitter you can gain yourself a supportive and fun community. But in exchange there is a very high likelihood you will end up brainwashed.

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Thank you so much if read through this all! I hope it makes sense and feel free to comment your arguments and disagreement/agreement!

 

[Suzy]

I don't think this is only specific to twitter honestly. Any platform where we can communicate with other fans can easily sway ones thoughts and emotions. Even I experienced this when I first joined forums. I was a little older than 13 but the environment was so toxic so I automatically disliked certain fandoms and even groups without even knowing anything about them. Interestingly, my feelings didn't change even as I got older but only changed when I was out of that environment. This can even happen in real life. It's easy to be swayed by your environment.

 

[maruberry]

I don't think this is only specific to twitter honestly. Any platform where we can communicate with other fans can easily sway ones thoughts and emotions. Even I experienced this when I first joined forums. I was a little older than 13 but the environment was so toxic so I automatically disliked certain fandoms and even groups without even knowing anything about them. Interestingly, my feelings didn't change even as I got older but only changed when I was out of that environment. This can even happen in real life. It's easy to be swayed by your environment.

True enough. As long as you feel a part of the community it can happen.
As it is Stan twitter is just the biggest one for it.

 

[Ahsoka]

Honestly stan Twitter is such a harmful place for so many people. I've been on there and there is positivity, but there's so much uncensored negativity and hate. That's why I prefer forums, it's moderated more and hatred is limited, and by having that environment you can form communities based on similarities other than just who you stan. On the other hand there are people who see the forum as a community and hate other forums because of it but you cant have everything ig.

 

[maruberry]

Honestly stan Twitter is such a harmful place for so many people. I've been on there and there is positivity, but there's so much uncensored negativity and hate. That's why I prefer forums, it's moderated more and hatred is limited, and by having that environment you can form communities based on similarities other than just who you stan. On the other hand there are people who see the forum as a community and hate other forums because of it but you cant have everything ig.

Forums can create this mentality too, but it is amplified on twitter.
On forum as the standard you see everything. The good and the bad from all sides.
On twitter, you choose right from the start what you see.

 

[Ahsoka]

Forums can create this mentality too, but it is amplified on twitter.
On forum as the standard you see everything. The good and the bad from all sides.
On twitter, you choose right from the start what you see.

Yes it strongly depends on the forum. KPS/KS (dont fight me everyone) I feel is better at this than twitter for sure, AKP, OH, Hallyu+ from what I've see are also better. All of them still have pockets of antis but they're overshadowed by everyone else.

 

[lexus]

This is why I refuse to have a stan twitter account. Too much crap to deal with

 

[yeji]

I do get your view point and do agree with it. But tbh I still enjoy twitter. I just follow people I see doing positive things and who don’t join arguments so my tl is usually quiet.

 

[maruberry]

I do get your view point and do agree with it. But tbh I still enjoy twitter. I just follow people I see doing positive things and who don’t join arguments so my tl is usually quiet.

Well it's not like this is what always 100% happens the MOMENT you step onto twitter.
This requires you to consider yourself a part of that specific community, for them to carry their prejudices and opinions onto you.

If you follow a varied collection of users with different backgrounds and interests, it is a LOT less likely to happen.

 

[Wicked]

This kind of hits too close to home, it wasn’t on Twitter but I did almost fall into that trap of anger and resentment because of the certain exo-ls I was exposed to at the time.

However, I have had a vastly different change in environment since then and I’ve met people like you, @Vikki, and so on. Now I feel elated to be friends with exols or any other fandom who is interested in being friends. I like meeting different fans and their backgrounds and so on. I even find their stanning for their faves cute sometimes.

 

[NASA]

Tumblr around 2016/17 was like this too. In 2017 I was at my peak weary of Exo-Ls even tho I used to be one myself cuz unlike Army, I never actually became a big enough Exo-L to go and befriend other Exo-Ls. I think there was also a time where it wasnt just Armys and Exo-Ls vs each other but fandoms outside of this would just sort of perpetuate the stereotype. Antis who weren't even fans of either group would also dress up their twitter accounts to look like an Army or Exo-L and these were likely not their main accounts either so they could go a lot harder with the bashing without feeling responsible for their actions ig. Many new kpop fans also get their news via Koreaboo and Allkpop who literally reported on the fandom drama to make it all just that much worse cuz now the two fandoms start feeling like its an even bigger deal. The entire BTS/Exo rivalry was literally not between them it was just their fandoms, the groups just wanted to be friends. This fanwar felt like an absolute bloodbath lemme tell you.

Ik the thread isnt about this fanwar specifically it was only an example but I feel like there was still a lot more to it, tho you broke down how stan twitter works beautifully.

 

[jasque]

It's basically a cult
The kind of fans the companies dream to achieve the most, probably

 

[Tickita]

I totally agree. I'm not 13 but I had a phase where charts, rankings, and streaming mattered way too much to me. When it never did before. And the live arguments when someone makes one mistake is ridiculous. Some of these teens & YA live for the drama and the back-and-forth.

Right now I'm spending < 1hr on twt, but eventually I may deactivate altogether.