![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skull_bearervia http://ift.tt/2vZirsL:
rainewynd:
knitmeapony:
auntjj:
nancylou444:
agingphangirl:
olderthannetfic:
redshoesnblueskies:
knitmeapony:
regurgitation-imminent:
knitmeapony:
knitmeapony:
Kids. Teenagers. As someone staring 40 in the face lemme tell you a thing.
You are going to be horrified and embarrassed at some point by the shit you are doing now.
And you are going to wish with all your might you’d done more of it.
You’re gonna wish you had more selfies, more photos, more videos being dumb with your friends. You’re going to wish you’d had your hair even higher or your shoes even sparklier.
Go. Document the shit out of your ridiculous life. Fuck trends but if you wanna be trendy, go all in. Fuck in-groups and subcultures but if one sings to you, do it all. Be exactly as cool or punk rock or goth or fandom or country or hardcore or hip hop or whatever, and don’t let anyone tell you differently.
Just don’t hurt people. That’s the only thing you’ll ever genuinely live to regret.
@palejoke tagged: #I mean no offense but why a 40 y/o on the hellsite
I think I have talked about this before, but because life doesn’t end at twenty or thirty or forty or fifty and thinking that folks are going to fall out of social media or that there won’t always be someone your age and my age and twice both of our ages interested in [insert anything, ever] is a very limiting worldview.
Somewhere there is a sixty-five year old who unironically loves Taylor Swift’s music and a fifty-two year old writing Superwholock fanfic and a ninty year old who absolutely lives for the next episode of Archer and a seventy-one year old that can kick anyone’s ass in k-pop trivia. There will always be these folks, and all the Internet has done is give fans of all ages a chance to interact in a way that they never had before.
Before BBSes and the Internet and Usenet and the World Wide Web and fanrings and forums and social media, those people would just love it in their own way, in the privacy of their own homes. But now anyone can make an Ao3 account or a basic fansite or tumbl about whatever they want, and sometimes you’re gonna learn those people are old but they still get it, and sometimes you’re going to find out those folks are still kids, twelve or fourteen at the oldest, and marvel at their maturity and skill and attention to detail.
And that is rad as hell, that is fucking incredible, that is… whatever the kids are saying these days, hah.
As a sidenote, once, about a decade ago, I decided to email one of my favourite authors before she bit it … she was pushing 90 at the time. ( … she’s still alive now). Anyways, we got to having a long discussion, because I shared my deadname with her late husband, and I actually had quite a long conversation with her. The part of the conversation I’d like to share with you about this now pushing 100-tear-old author isn’t that she developed a liking for her breakfast eggs from her honeymoon in Vienna, or that her Husband would sometimes steal her drafts to read them as soon as he could, or that she superglued a potted plant to her bookshelf to watch her orange cat try to knock it over and fail. Nono, I mention this to bring up what she would do as a writing exercise whenever she didn’t feel like writing her serious work. In short, erotic darkwing duck slashfic. You can find it online.
This is the greatest addition this post has gotten so far.
I LOVE THIS FUCKING POST.
I love all the posts written by older fans, with their insight, and their generous attitude towards young fans, and young fanfic writers, and young fanartists.
Older fans who patiently explain to whomever questioned the validity of older fans participation…
that it’s older fans running the AO3 servers and the entire OTW organization;
Older fans most often writing the actually well written fanfic;
Older fans planning, organizing and executing massive cons;
Older fans who write out fandom history dating back to pre-internet so that history can be known and preserved and enjoyed;
Older fan lawyers enforcing Fair Use laws pro bono to keep fans from being sued for creating fic or art or any other media;
Older fans behaving well with life-lived-and-learned healthy boundaries;
or conversely dealing out smack-downs to those not behaving well be they older trolls or naively inexperienced younguns;
Older fans letting fans of all ages remember that zany enthusiasm is not the province only of the young - it is the province of humanity.
And we’re right there loving being human with you.
I’ll say yet again, Tumblr users are older than we think. There’s nothing unusual about a 40-something on here.
This started out as something great and turned into something better
Age is just a number but fandom is forever.
Young people today always think they control everything and that everything is about them.
I blame it on the we’re all special winners philosophy they are all growing up under.
No. Hell no. Do not come onto my post that is all about telling kids to enjoy their youth and be weird, and pretend that it’s OK to yell about young people and their specialness and participation trophies and related nonsense.
Young people are AWESOME. They are enthusiastic and thoughtful and self-aware and creative. They give life and joy and effort and thought and work to fandom. I will take one well-meaning and enthusiastic teenage girl over a dozen half or ironically committed adults any day.
Lots of them are unaware of fandom history because we have been very shitty at keeping fandom history – and that’s on us.
Lots of them don’t care about ‘elders’ because they don’t know they exist, or because they’ve been socialized to believe they shouldn’t exist, that people have to ‘grow up’ sometime – and that’s on us.
Lots of them want elders, they are delighted to discover that they can grow up and keep being as weird and awesome and wonderful as they are right now, that they don’t have to ‘become an adult’ by giving up everything that brings them joy. The notes on this post prove it.
And then lots of them are down on elders because we treat young people like shit a lot of the time, and they are not willing to put up with being treated like shit. I give kids today a lot of credit for refusing to put up with nonsense. That takes strength and courage and self-esteem and love for their friends and for humanity, all things we should encourage.
People have been bitching about the ‘special winners philosophy’ thing since at least Gen X (that’s as far back as my memory goes), and we’re about two and a half generations out from that now. This new crop of kids is hyper aware of when they’re being condescended to, and have no need to respect something without that respect being earned. They don’t think too much of themselves, they just want the same basic shit that everyone’s always wanted only now it’s harder to get – and considering that their parents generation had those things, it feels like an actual loss rather than a hopeful dream for the future.
And let’s remember: they never asked for the participation trophies. Adults did. And participation trophies don’t actually make you feel good, they make you mistrust praise and devalue outside encouragement.
Basically, fuck this attitude in general.
Hi, I’m an old fangirl and I wouldn’t have been in fandom for as long as I have (almost two decades) if it weren’t for fans older than me, inspiring me and showing me the way. Y’all know who you are and I thank you.
If you’re new or old or somewhere inbetween to fandom, age ain’t nothing but a number. Let’s all celebrate the shiny, the oh-my-God-I-can’t-believe-that’s-canon, the prettah, the highs and lows of loving something you didn’t create, the highs and lows of creating stuff inspired by That Show Whose Name We Abbreviate (If Possible), and all the glory that is fandom.
This lady…
rainewynd:
knitmeapony:
auntjj:
nancylou444:
agingphangirl:
olderthannetfic:
redshoesnblueskies:
knitmeapony:
regurgitation-imminent:
knitmeapony:
knitmeapony:
Kids. Teenagers. As someone staring 40 in the face lemme tell you a thing.
You are going to be horrified and embarrassed at some point by the shit you are doing now.
And you are going to wish with all your might you’d done more of it.
You’re gonna wish you had more selfies, more photos, more videos being dumb with your friends. You’re going to wish you’d had your hair even higher or your shoes even sparklier.
Go. Document the shit out of your ridiculous life. Fuck trends but if you wanna be trendy, go all in. Fuck in-groups and subcultures but if one sings to you, do it all. Be exactly as cool or punk rock or goth or fandom or country or hardcore or hip hop or whatever, and don’t let anyone tell you differently.
Just don’t hurt people. That’s the only thing you’ll ever genuinely live to regret.
@palejoke tagged: #I mean no offense but why a 40 y/o on the hellsite
I think I have talked about this before, but because life doesn’t end at twenty or thirty or forty or fifty and thinking that folks are going to fall out of social media or that there won’t always be someone your age and my age and twice both of our ages interested in [insert anything, ever] is a very limiting worldview.
Somewhere there is a sixty-five year old who unironically loves Taylor Swift’s music and a fifty-two year old writing Superwholock fanfic and a ninty year old who absolutely lives for the next episode of Archer and a seventy-one year old that can kick anyone’s ass in k-pop trivia. There will always be these folks, and all the Internet has done is give fans of all ages a chance to interact in a way that they never had before.
Before BBSes and the Internet and Usenet and the World Wide Web and fanrings and forums and social media, those people would just love it in their own way, in the privacy of their own homes. But now anyone can make an Ao3 account or a basic fansite or tumbl about whatever they want, and sometimes you’re gonna learn those people are old but they still get it, and sometimes you’re going to find out those folks are still kids, twelve or fourteen at the oldest, and marvel at their maturity and skill and attention to detail.
And that is rad as hell, that is fucking incredible, that is… whatever the kids are saying these days, hah.
As a sidenote, once, about a decade ago, I decided to email one of my favourite authors before she bit it … she was pushing 90 at the time. ( … she’s still alive now). Anyways, we got to having a long discussion, because I shared my deadname with her late husband, and I actually had quite a long conversation with her. The part of the conversation I’d like to share with you about this now pushing 100-tear-old author isn’t that she developed a liking for her breakfast eggs from her honeymoon in Vienna, or that her Husband would sometimes steal her drafts to read them as soon as he could, or that she superglued a potted plant to her bookshelf to watch her orange cat try to knock it over and fail. Nono, I mention this to bring up what she would do as a writing exercise whenever she didn’t feel like writing her serious work. In short, erotic darkwing duck slashfic. You can find it online.
This is the greatest addition this post has gotten so far.
I LOVE THIS FUCKING POST.
I love all the posts written by older fans, with their insight, and their generous attitude towards young fans, and young fanfic writers, and young fanartists.
Older fans who patiently explain to whomever questioned the validity of older fans participation…
that it’s older fans running the AO3 servers and the entire OTW organization;
Older fans most often writing the actually well written fanfic;
Older fans planning, organizing and executing massive cons;
Older fans who write out fandom history dating back to pre-internet so that history can be known and preserved and enjoyed;
Older fan lawyers enforcing Fair Use laws pro bono to keep fans from being sued for creating fic or art or any other media;
Older fans behaving well with life-lived-and-learned healthy boundaries;
or conversely dealing out smack-downs to those not behaving well be they older trolls or naively inexperienced younguns;
Older fans letting fans of all ages remember that zany enthusiasm is not the province only of the young - it is the province of humanity.
And we’re right there loving being human with you.
I’ll say yet again, Tumblr users are older than we think. There’s nothing unusual about a 40-something on here.
This started out as something great and turned into something better
Age is just a number but fandom is forever.
Young people today always think they control everything and that everything is about them.
I blame it on the we’re all special winners philosophy they are all growing up under.
No. Hell no. Do not come onto my post that is all about telling kids to enjoy their youth and be weird, and pretend that it’s OK to yell about young people and their specialness and participation trophies and related nonsense.
Young people are AWESOME. They are enthusiastic and thoughtful and self-aware and creative. They give life and joy and effort and thought and work to fandom. I will take one well-meaning and enthusiastic teenage girl over a dozen half or ironically committed adults any day.
Lots of them are unaware of fandom history because we have been very shitty at keeping fandom history – and that’s on us.
Lots of them don’t care about ‘elders’ because they don’t know they exist, or because they’ve been socialized to believe they shouldn’t exist, that people have to ‘grow up’ sometime – and that’s on us.
Lots of them want elders, they are delighted to discover that they can grow up and keep being as weird and awesome and wonderful as they are right now, that they don’t have to ‘become an adult’ by giving up everything that brings them joy. The notes on this post prove it.
And then lots of them are down on elders because we treat young people like shit a lot of the time, and they are not willing to put up with being treated like shit. I give kids today a lot of credit for refusing to put up with nonsense. That takes strength and courage and self-esteem and love for their friends and for humanity, all things we should encourage.
People have been bitching about the ‘special winners philosophy’ thing since at least Gen X (that’s as far back as my memory goes), and we’re about two and a half generations out from that now. This new crop of kids is hyper aware of when they’re being condescended to, and have no need to respect something without that respect being earned. They don’t think too much of themselves, they just want the same basic shit that everyone’s always wanted only now it’s harder to get – and considering that their parents generation had those things, it feels like an actual loss rather than a hopeful dream for the future.
And let’s remember: they never asked for the participation trophies. Adults did. And participation trophies don’t actually make you feel good, they make you mistrust praise and devalue outside encouragement.
Basically, fuck this attitude in general.
Hi, I’m an old fangirl and I wouldn’t have been in fandom for as long as I have (almost two decades) if it weren’t for fans older than me, inspiring me and showing me the way. Y’all know who you are and I thank you.
If you’re new or old or somewhere inbetween to fandom, age ain’t nothing but a number. Let’s all celebrate the shiny, the oh-my-God-I-can’t-believe-that’s-canon, the prettah, the highs and lows of loving something you didn’t create, the highs and lows of creating stuff inspired by That Show Whose Name We Abbreviate (If Possible), and all the glory that is fandom.
This lady…