Huh. I can see how someone might theorise that but the benefit of hindsight is great for showing how badly that miscalculates the online environment's effect!
The pressure still exists, but it's far less effective online than it was previously. The sense of anonymity probably contributes (whether that sense of anonymity is true or whether it actually provides any safety is a whole other issue), but also just the fact that the internet is so large. More fans get together, spark brainstorms, and if you get like-minded fen around each other, they're much more likely to follow the rabbithole down farther.
But who saw that coming in the 90's?
(Maybe anyone who saw the proliferation of porn of all kinds on the internet coming would've seen the proliferation of acceptable fandom tropes coming...)
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branchandroot
(no subject)
Date: 2011-03-19 05:19 pm (UTC)The pressure still exists, but it's far less effective online than it was previously. The sense of anonymity probably contributes (whether that sense of anonymity is true or whether it actually provides any safety is a whole other issue), but also just the fact that the internet is so large. More fans get together, spark brainstorms, and if you get like-minded fen around each other, they're much more likely to follow the rabbithole down farther.
But who saw that coming in the 90's?
(Maybe anyone who saw the proliferation of porn of all kinds on the internet coming would've seen the proliferation of acceptable fandom tropes coming...)