Stan Twitter is an ever-growing disease community. Every night, every day, as you take a bite, eat a cake, a "stan" is creating his account on Twitter. Every day, hundreds of new ones sign on. Maybe referring to it as a "community" is being too optimistic, considering these people are usually divided and against each other. Be that as it may, it is growing so rampantly that a time will come when the whole planet will be ravaged by stans. It is indeed a cultural phenomenon. So some questions arise. Is this good or bad? Are kids wasting their lives? What could we do if we put this energy elsewhere? And lastly, what will stans accomplish at the end of the day, considering energy can only be created and never destroyed, and they are pouring tons of their energy into "stanning".
Let's get to these one by one!
Stanning isn't inherently good or bad. There are people who profit from it, and there are those who do not. It is just something people channel their energy into. You can vicariously live through the accomplishments of a person, yet not actually have anything to do with them. It isn't going to hurt your life if your "fave" "flops", but you can always celebrate their successes. In a way, it is, selfish. But haven't we been selfish forever? What about wars? You slay the king of a rival kingdom and become their new leader. Well, isn't stanning similar? When we bully the stans of "flop" artists, are we not looking to convert them into "stans" of our "faves"? Food for thought. Maybe in a world that is so politically correct, we evolved a way to still be able to fight someone. Clearly, an actual war is unlikely in most of civilised society today.
But that brings us to the second question. Are kids wasting their lives? Well... the answer is complicated. Like I just mentioned, energy can never be destroyed. So if stanning is something that is happening, it is benefitting someone. And indeed, it is benefitting the artists who we stan. I have several pop music CDs and no CD player. Never even opened them. Why did I get them? Well, they prove I am a good stan. See? I just spent my hard earned money on buying something that I am never going to consume, however, the pockets of said artists got loaded anyway. It is easy to see why no one in the media speaks out about it. Because they all have stans. And to criticize their "stanning" is to poke a hole in the plate that feeds you. So kids are wasting their lives. They are enabling a system that does not benefit them in any way. It is a system that takes away from their time. Picture a stan who has no money to spend (unsurprising since they are spending their time "stanning" instead of actually making something out of their life). Well, there is still a way you can support your fave, streaming! Streaming is free. Giving one stream to your fave's album does not prove you are a good stan. But don't worry, you can just stream on repeat all day and all night! Right, that proves I'm a good stan, right? Haha, yeah. But it also consumes a lot of your precious time that could be spent doing something for personal improvement. Waste. of. time.
What could we do if we put this energy elsewhere? Honestly, that question reminds me that stanning isn't all bad. When I signed up on Wikipedia, as a little naïve child, I had little idea of the addictive service I was subscribing to. And Wikipedia, too, is free! It's another way to make ourselves think we are creating something of value even though we aren't being remunerated for it. But I digress, it has really improved my English skills. My Grammar wasn't all that good when I started, really. Some great people who reviewed my good articles kept correcting my mistakes little by little, and eventually I got a hang of it. So if you're reading this, you are probably a Wikipedia editor (duh!). And I want to tell you, that this expression of stanning isn't all bad. You can learn language skills, team work, civility, co-operation, kindness, and collaboration through it. But for argument's sake, what if we put this energy elsewhere? Maybe we could change the world. Maybe we could all have our own popular blogs where we could rally for help for sick people. Maybe we would have developed some respectable, tangible, skills that would look pretty on our resume. Maybe we could have become pop stars ourselves (looking at you, Lil Nas X). What if we just channeled this energy into our personal business? I think our lives would be better. And if we channeled it into helping those near us that are underprivileged, and in need, their lives would be better. But we choose to spend our time inflating the egos of the already-rich. Who do not know us, and maybe never will. And even if they did, we would be just another stan? Nothing special.
Finally, what will stans accomplish if they keep doing exactly what they are doing? We aren't factoring in any fictional scenario to answer this question. This is just exactly where we are headed, in real-time. We are going to have a bunch of 25 year olds with no real mechanical skills, because they spent their teenage "stanning". 30 year old virgins who never had real life experiences because they lived through their computer screens instead of going outside. Maybe we will stop loving ourselves, because who cares, we can just vicariously live through our love for our favourite celebrities. Some 35 year olds who somehow manage to find someone to mate with, but have no idea how to be good parents. The positive side, on the other hand, is when stanning is used constructively. Yes, there is a good part! Stans make great wikipedia editors once they get over their fancruft / fluff phase. In fact, I have seen a lot of stans on Wikipedia building impressive bodies of work (articles) on here about their favorite artist. That, in my opinion, is when stanning goes right. You are letting yourself develop a skill while also contributing good content for people to read. The stans on Twitter, though, are they a gone case? Well, they have some skills. They are going to make good ass-kissers so they may have a good time in the corporates, they will know how to edit fancams so maybe they can design advertisements, and they could surely become managers for celebrities. But could doctors, scientists and engineers go extinct? Yes. Stanning develops no skills related to these professions so someone engrossed in it 24/7 is not going to be inclined to pursue any of these. So the day planet Earth becomes completely ravaged by stans, we will be losing all personnel with technical and medical skills. That's dark!