The Entitlement Of Fandoms

I've been a fan of a lot of different things throughout the years, bands and YouTubers for the most part, and I've noticed something about fandoms (groups of people who are fans of something). They are incredibly entitled. Let me go ahead and get this out of the way, because I'm sure you've already said it in your head that you're not like those fans: even if all fans aren't terribly entitled, the ones that get noticed are the ones that are terribly entitled, so don't act like that just because you're being a good fan means that everybody is being a good fan.

I use to see this entitlement a lot when I was a fan of bands like Fall Out Boy or My Chemical Romance. With bands, they change their sound, it's only natural. However, as soon as this happens, the flood gates open. "What? How dare they change their sound! This sounds nothing like they did in 2002! Why are they trying to change?" I don't know, maybe because they're not 17 anymore and have grown and change and want to have a different style? I just never understood it. Yes, you are a fan, they are making music that you enjoy listening to. This does not mean, however, that every single thing they make has to cater to you. There is no need to berate the band because they are not the same band that they were years ago. You are not the same person you were years ago. Change is natural and you, as a fan, should not be entitled to tell them they can't change. If you don't like their music now, don't listen to it and continue to enjoy the music they released in the past.

The entitlement of the YouTube fandom is different. Specifically, I mean the fandom of people who what other people play video games, but it can probably apply to many other areas of YouTube. I watch a lot of different let's players, and they are growing and changing a lot. As soon as they grow, though, this happens: "Who's that person? Are you adding people? That's stupid, I hate that person, I'm leaving this comment just to tell you that I hate them and that I'm disliking every video they are going to be in. Bring back the original group members!" (Just add more cuss words into that and terrible grammar and you've got the algorithm for a basic YouTube comment.) People act like the new people that are being brought on to these channels are robots who have no feelings and should leave as soon as one person doesn't like them. That's ridiculous. You comment saying that suck is not going to make them do a 180 and leave forever. You could at least give constructive criticism instead of immediately going to, "wow she's in this vid time to dislike and leave."

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Jerks when they think their opinion matters on the internet.

It's just silly to me how people can go from supporting something wholeheartedly to tearing it down as soon as something happens they aren't immediately on board with. If I don't like something, I try to watch it or listen to it, and chances are I'll like. If I continue not to like it, I'll leave; I will not make angry comments, because I know a lot of people may still like whatever they're doing, and I can respect that. There's not reason to verbally abuse something because it has become slightly different.