The Edgic Has Spoken

Imagine when you were teenager. There really was only one thing you were a fan of, and most likely all your friends shared that interest, because they too saw it on one of the three TV channels. But with the rise of technology, teens are now exposed to everything from all parts of the world. It is no longer that one radio station or the three TV channels, it’s online music streaming, hundreds of channels, e-readers and Netflix. Today a young person is exposed to an average of 2 hours and 22 minutes on social media. That’s billions of possible interests, and “fandom” is now taking center-stage. Fandom literally means “the state or condition of being a fan of someone or something”. One can be in a fandom for anything. Some of these include: books, movies, music, actors, and TV shows, to name a few. Many parents believe that fandom is a waste of time, and I couldn’t disagree more, in fact, fandom has many benefits.  Fandom helps us heal  According to an article on Psychology

I picked up my headphones that were sitting on my pillow and placed them firmly over my ears. Scrolling through the song list on my phone, I tapped “Wow.” by Post Malone and let its edginess play through my speakers. In the song, good ol’ Posty sings about how nobody liked him when he was a normal person, but the moment he became famous, now everyone wants his attention. I let the song finish and the next one plays, “Without Me” by Halsey. She sings about how her boyfriend betrayed her trust by cheating on her with someone else. The next one, “Let Me Down Slowly” by Alec Benjamin. He begs a girl to let him down gently and not break his heart. This is the average person’s pop playlist. “Bury A Friend” by Billie Eilish, “i’m so tired” by Lauv and Troye Sivan, “Kills You Slowly” by the Chainsmokers. Even from the titles alone we see mainstream songs are getting noticeably darker. Artists don’t shy away from releasing sad ballads about death, heartbreak, anxiety, depression and suicide