Why am I here? What is my purpose in life? Questions of identity plague our culture as people search for meaning. Some turn to friends, significant others, sports, or religion in their pursuit of purpose. Others turn to fandom. From the outside, fandom is often viewed as a hobby that one participates in during leisure time, not necessarily a source of identity. However, for those within any one of the abundant fandoms, their fandom has become their community and even their source of identity, often acting as a form of religion.

Fandoms can be built around almost any form of entertainment that has a following: sports, music, books, television shows, movies, etc. A single fandom can even cross multiple mediums, as books are turned into movies: The Lord of The Rings and Harry Potter, or as videogames are turned into movies: Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. The term fandom itself refers to a subculture that is formed by a shared interest, typically in some form of media, by individual fans who subsequently flock together and form a community of active participation. A fandom is born by the voluntary grouping of people who have found a shared identity within the particular media. Typically, the attraction to a certain fandom comes from a person identifying with one or more of the characters within the narrative.

As fandoms grow, members interact with each other and contribute to their fandom: attending conventions, writing fan-fiction, swapping fan theories, and developing "ships," which are fan chosen romantic or platonic pairings of two or more characters within the narrative, whether or not these relationships actually exist in the narrative. The members of these large, fandom communities often experience a deeper connection and sense of similarity with other members of their fandom than they do their local, geographical communities.

As a number of people within the fandom culture identify more closely with their fandom(s) than they do with other community groups, fandom itself has become a sort of religion. Like religion, fandom provides a source of identity and belonging for its members. Multiple influences may affect the greater sense of connection for members within fandoms. While communities are often divided by religion, race, politics, and economic class, fandoms transcend these barriers and include people from all backgrounds. For example, fans of Doctor Who can be found throughout the world, and often have similarities in their other fandoms, most commonly BBC's Sherlock adaptation and the American show Supernatural. The connection is so prevalent that the nickname, Superwholock, is a common term on Tumblr. Additionally, fandoms are typically more accepting of lifestyles and voices deemed as "abnormal" or that are stigmatized within more traditional communities: feminism, LGBTQ, and others. Groups which are often excluded from the religious community.

The self-identification as a fan is suggested to be highly relevant in members' daily lives, sometimes even ranking higher in importance and experience than other forms of community: religion, local, and family. This is largely due to fandom being based in the same shared interest. Additionally, people who are involved in the conventionally nerdy/geeky fandoms are often viewed as "different" or "less socially adept" by people who are not members of these fandoms. Historically, groups that face discrimination by outsiders of the group tend to cling more tightly to their membership with and identity within their group. People, mostly kids and teens, who are identified as "emo," often flock to bands such as Fall Out Boy, Panic! At The Disco, My Chemical Romance, Greenday, etc.; while kids who are deemed nerdy or geeky watch Doctor Who, Sherlock, Supernatural, and read comic books and manga or watch comic book movies and anime. Theater kids watch bootlegs of their favorite Broadway shows and sing along to the soundtracks at the top of their lungs, while sporty "Jock" kids watch and play sports and closely follow their favorite teams and players, showing as much obsession and identity within their popular fandom as the more ostracized forms of fandom.

However, within a fandom, members do not all draw the same depth of identity. Depths of involvement range from casual fans who choose to watch a show because they like it, to sold out fanatics, similar to the well-known phenomena of painted fans who stop at nothing to show their support when attending sporting events. Certain fandoms even self-police people who they deem to be "true fans" and are thereby considered worthy of being accepted into the fandom, indicating that fans take their privilege of identifying with their fandom seriously. This selectivity heightens the feeling of belonging. While fandoms are open to almost anyone who wants to join, to be a member one must "attain" a certain level of fan to be considered belonging by the other members. This has a level of regulated belonging mirroring religion's practice of only accepting people the collective determines to be "the right level of devout."

The explosion and accessibility of the internet over the past few decades has greatly enhanced the ability of fandoms to build a global community of similarly identifying people. Before the internet, fans were limited to interactions within their local fandom and at annual comic conventions (or comic-cons). Because of the internet, fandom has a thriving presence throughout the internet and social media platforms, essentially dominating Tumblr. Internet forums have also been created with the sole purpose of discussing fan theories; fans have created fan accounts on social media, and fan art and fan-fiction can be easily created and found from the many fellow fans who are in the online community.

The global community of fandom also parallels that of religion. Like religion, fandom transcends physical location, culture, language, and even time as fandoms like The Lord of The Rings, Star Trek, and Star Wars are transcending generations. As identity is a significant aspect of fandoms, it is also a significant aspect of religion. Both fandom and religion influence how a person lives their life. While religion may be more explicit in its directions for living, fandoms influence how people spend their time, the decisions they make, and even to some extent their moral views.

Some of the practices of fandom also mirror that of religion: planned meetings, code of rules, proselytizing, and opinion wars. For religion, the planned meetings often take the form of church meetings, Bible studies, and other forms of community centered gatherings. For fandom, these meetings include conventions, viewing parties for new releases, and online forums. Some religious terminology has even been adopted by fandoms. Fans of Fall Out Boy, Panic! At The Disco, and My Chemical Romance often call these three bands "the holy trinity," some even labeling which band is the father, son, and spirit. Superwholock as a fandom is sometimes referred to as the "god" of fandoms.

While for most religions, the code of rules is usually stated in their sacred texts, fandom's rules are more understood than stated, though they can typically be defined by members of fandom. Certain ships are more generally accepted, it is not considered good etiquette to mock someone else's ships, fandom policing is either viewed as important or as harmful, and certain views on the role canon plays in fan-fiction and fan theories are more widely accepted, and many more, which can be fandom specific.

Many of the members of both religions and fandoms actively try to "convert" other people to join their group. Talk to a committed fan about their fandom and they will do almost anything to get you to watch it and love it as much as they do. This is quite similar to how people from different religions either share their religion or are meant to share their religion with others.

There is also an aspect of worship that can be found in fandoms. Fans will send offerings of fan art and trinkets to their idols. Some fans wait for hours outside of a building for a chance to meet a certain celebrity or follow them home and stalk their house. Some fans are even in love with their idol and believe that one day they will marry their favorite celebrity and sometimes even their favorite fictional character.

This enthusiastic adherence to either one's fandom or one's religion often leads to disagreements with others from their own community. In religion this is often a stylistic or theological difference that causes discord or even a split, as seen when Martin Luther nailed his theses to the door of the Catholic church, or when a local church splits over a new pastor. In fandom, the differences are often found in ship wars (when people have ships that either clash or invalidate other's ships), or when something is interpreted in drastically different ways, as is often possible when interacting with art. Because disagreement has existed nearly from the dawn of time, this parallel could be made between many types of groups; however, for both fandom and religion, disagreement is usually born from differing interpretations or stylistic preferences.

While fandom is not a perfect parallel with religion, in the aspect of identity, both provide a deep, identity-based community for its followers. In a world characterized by upheaval, dissention, and secularism, fandom provides a sense of identity and belonging to people of all ages and backgrounds.