Posted: 4/24/2025
To no one’s surprise, the internet landscape has changed drastically in the past half-decade. The advent of COVID-19 and the following quarantine restrictions in 2020 pressured many formerly “offline” people online, and in doing so, fandom spaces were met with a shift in demographic.
It would be ignorant to conclude that the internet wasn’t always headed in a more Capitalistic direction–in fact, it should have been obvious considering popups, scams and black hat hackers have been around since the early 2000s. Previously, the decline in online "quality of life" could more or less be represented by a stable, slow-moving and consistent line on a graph: inevitable yet not imminent. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this metaphorical line and things have never been the same since.
Fandom spaces are no longer populated by those who are familiar with the “rules”--the etiquette of these spaces. What was once a haven for neurodivergent or otherwise quirky individuals is now overcrowded with people who seem to not think much of said fandom or its founding media, often not having any tangible attachment to either. They want nothing more than a hobby they can dip their toes into without getting too involved–a sample at Costco; a passing interest. While no one is inclined to dedicate their life, time and/or savings to a single work or several “nerdy” works (ie. anime, manga, and games; henceforth referred to as “otaku”), these corners of the internet were created by and for those who had no other place to discuss said works. There is a reason why liking otaku products was grounds for bullying in the mid to late 2010’s. The resulting environment is harsh, disorganized, and toxic: fandoms are no longer gated communities for self-proclaimed losers but open venues for everyone and anyone.
In more tight-knight communities online, manners and etiquette tend to be common sense. If you were to visit a forum for a game in the early 2000s to late 2010s, you’d be expected to read any sticky/pinned threads and lurk before involving yourself and mingling with others. In early image board communities, there are phrases for this: “lurk more, newf*g” (4chan) and “半年ROMれ” (2chan, lit. “lurk for at least 6 months [before posting], shithead”. While it may seem overly harsh nowadays, consider how Discord communities have killed this culture: it’s moreso a messaging program yet it disguises itself as a forum, so you’ll see new members asking repetitive or moronic questions without backreading at all. In bigger servers that warrant moderators and admins, you’ll see these poor overworked and seldom paid fools repeating “check the pinned in #channel” like a broken record. Discord’s confused identity has also caused issues for media archivists and former forum-goers: there’s no coherent way to categorize Discord messages (threads, channels, categories and clubs don’t count as proper categorization) and that’s why the never-ending “what is x” & “check the pins” cycle continues–this influx of internet noobs and the ease of use/access Discord provided meant that many forums migrated to the platform, abandoning their hosts entirely.
Spoonfeeding is now the best way of sharing information. Not just Discord, though–you’ll often see similar behavior on TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter. Someone will post something and someone else will ask a question before doing any sort of independent research. This is an everyday occurrence on TikTok in particular and only made worse by the inconvenient backreading method of scrolling through a creator’s archived videos and generally fast-paced content cycle. I’m sure some people might not see the issue with constant spoonfeeding, but taking a step back and looking at the bigger picture is worthwhile. What does spoonfeeding do to people? It makes them lazy. What does laziness promote? Apathy. Why does the average person rely on ChatGPT for everything rather than doing a Google search? Well…there it is. ChatGPT is the epitome of spoonfeeding: it’s a quick and digestible way to get an answer to any question, no further scrolling required. What about those who refuse to rely on AI? They simply Google “question + reddit”...and Reddit is, believe it or not, essentially a forum hub.
There are several other harrowing implications when looking at the arrival of so many fandom noobs. In recent years, things have gotten more hostile, even in these tight-knit communities. It’s also unfortunately obvious that the lower the median age range for a fandom is, the more openly aggressive things are. Children who were heavily impacted or grew up during the pandemic are too young to know about fandom etiquette and reluctant to do any research, meaning that the “new generation” of fans in a space are extremely reactive. “Don’t fall for bait” is a common online rule, yet one that these younger folk tend to ignore. On platforms like Twitter, blocking people is really the best and only way of curating your feed well, yet children are quick to start arguments with others without thinking. When a peer/friend is attacking someone, then a chain reaction starts, causing everyone in their circle to attack said person until QRT culture takes over and starts drama. This mindset has seeped its way into older fandom members, too–because it’s inherently infectious. Post-pandemic living is generally unhappy, and especially hard on adults in their early to late 20s. What better way to relieve stress than to dogpile a stranger on the internet?
It would be unfair of me to insinuate that I’ve never fallen victim to sentimentality and engaged in online discourse or drama–I have, and I’ve been in the center and sidelines many times. Yet as a Tumblr veteran, one who was present for the rise and fall of Homestuck, as well as kin wars, pronoun discourse and thousands of callout posts, I’ve grown tired of repetitive fandom bullshit. It’s really quite tiring.
Have you noticed how everything is now commodified to be as easily-digestible as possible? Another effect of the dumbing-down of fandom and rampant spoonfeeding online is the -core-ification of ideas, or the romanticization and fetishization of them.
For the record, using “-core” when referring to a concept is not new–it originated in the music scene with “hardcore” and is still used for genres such as “breakcore”, “happy hardcore”, so on and so forth. However, Tumblr is where this phrase was attached to visual aesthetics. This snowballed into how “-core” suffixes are used today, likely due to Tumblr’s tagging system and the relatively simple to understand nature of slapping “-core” onto a word, see: cottagecore, animecore, etc. There is a problem with one of these terms, though: “animecore”. Animecore was initially often paired with “Japancore” on Tumblr posts before these tags were pointed out as being fetishistic of Japanese culture, which was followed by the gradual decline of “Japancore” and similarly, “animecore”. It’s worth mentioning, however, that “animecore” is now often used on TikTok and Tumblr once again, meaning that the phrase and surrounding aesthetic has experienced a complete resurgence.
Indeed, animecore and my hatred of it is the reason I began writing this article. Animecore often refers to late 90s to early 2000s anime illustrations and moe art style. Many young netizens have grown fond of animecore and it’s not uncommon to see people deep-dive into the moe to eroge rabbit hole out of their love for the visual style despite not being old enough to feel the impact of said style. Not only minors, of course–you’ll often see adults who use imagery of Toro Inoue, Saya and/or Sonico to represent themselves without engaging with the source material at all. These characters are no longer taken seriously, nor the work that they’re from: they are being dumbed down to “aesthetic icons”. There is no such thing as “Juminocore”--please stop naming aesthetics after yourself while pretending you’re original. And no, “anemoia” does not exist, it’s merely a yearning to experience something long gone. Think those cheesy YouTube comments that say, “I was born in the wrong generation!!” Also, using Japanese if you’re not Japanese nor learning is extremely cringe and I probably hate you if you do it.
Before you accuse me of gatekeeping or being mean, please understand that I am an “og”--the “oldhead otaku” label on my about page is most certainly not for show. I’ve visited Akiba (Akihabara) dozens of times, I support indie creators, I play doujin games, I purchase merch, I love old series, I was there for most online happenings. The otaku label is one that has been met with ridicule and tarnished time and time again, so I feel that my frustration and disdain for the disrespect towards otakuism and dumbing-down of beloved series is warranted. Akihabara is no longer how it used to be: tourists run rampant, SEGA is gone and replaced by Bandai Namco (a company hated by many otaku), scalpers are the ones selling out shops. The online fandom/otaku landscape isn’t the only place that’s changing, but the real world as well. Where are we to go, both on and offline? If fandoms are dumbed down with “tourists” repeating moronic questions and discourse, with no evolution of what we discuss or how we engage with our favorite media, what are we doing?
Did you notice how much 4chan slang I used in this post and how utterly embarrassing it made me seem? This is to shine a spotlight on how many Discord/Twitter users do the same. 4chan, known for being a piece of shit place with piece of shit people, has also been hit with romanticism at the hands of people who never experienced the worst parts of the site. If you unironically use words like “tourist”, “slop” (yes, slop is a term from 4chan and one with antisemitic roots), “filtered” and “spoonfed” in an attempt to seem cool or trendy, you are a massive loser, and I probably hate you too.
At the end of the day, “is it that serious?” Yes, I think it is.
With how utterly miserable fandom spaces are nowadays, the marginalized people who originally inhabited those corners of the internet are being forced to look at or engage with content and discussion that is going to make them equally miserable. We need a reminder that things don’t have to be this way and no one is forcing us to be the worst version of ourselves, especially if the original intent was to share a hobby or series that you enjoy. It’s alright to take a step back or block others, it’s also alright to be cringe or weird–while I’d like to say “no one will judge you, fandom spaces are meant for peculiar people”, that’s not the case anymore. Nonetheless, restricting ourselves and attempting to act perfect in fear or retaliation or humiliation is counterproductive to what fandom spaces are meant to be for. The reason fandoms exist is to have fun and if that’s no longer the case for you, carve out your own corner. There is nothing more painful than forcing yourself to fit into a mold in a world that is already cruel to people like you.
Other shit I couldn’t add:
- Stop calling yourself an otaku if you aren’t Japanese. There are equivalent words in English (nerd and geek) which mean the same thing. The word “otaku” has an extremely long history so please stop being moronic.
- I wanted to add a bit about how harmful the “is it really that serious…” rhetoric is on TikTok/Twitter but didn’t have the time–TLDR; it’s thinly-veiled ableism.
- "Juminocore" was specifically mentioned because OP inspired tens of thousands of people and the term is widely used. It is not a unique “aesthetic” and has existed in Japan for a decade+.
- The romanticization of 4chan also applies to 2chan, considering how many people use "2chan cat" imagery...despite having never used the site! Lol.
Thank you to Sav for proofreading :-)