— natek // speak now era (@taytaeshoe) December 24, 2020 It was the early days of Twitter in the 2010s that really showed casual users and stans alike the true power of the platform. “You could feel so connected to those around you in such a personalised way, but it was also so immediate — there was no delay. It’s a huge part of what made Twitter so successful.” What was Stan Twitter like during its peak? I definitely had my own experiences with Stan Twitter, yet some might call me an unreliable narrator. I’d call them haters, but that’s a story for another time. Nonetheless, I reached out to Stan Twitter users in fandoms other than mine (yes, I was a Panic! at the Dicso stan, no, I don’t want to talk about it) to learn about their time on the platform. Margaret* was a Stan Twitter user who joined the platform in 2012. When her little teenage heart decided that O2L (a YouTube supergroup in its absolute prime) was going to be her next passion, her entry into Stan Twitter was all but guaranteed. “When I joined this online community, that was the very first time that I realised there were people out there just as into these guys as I was, with the same sense of humour, and all the same interests as me, too,” said Margaret. Now at age 25, Margaret had a heap of reflections to share from her time knee-deep in fandoms galore. “A lot of it was this sense of escapism. Starting high school, struggling to make friends — I couldn’t handle a lot of these changes in my own life. Twitter was my safe space.” There’s no denying the benefits of Stan Twitter, and finding a community that just gets you, especially at such a tumultuous time in most young people’s lives. But with such intense closeness, there has to be a downside. Emma Hudson, Communications Specialist and Independent Fan Studies Scholar, has led a fair few investigations into the nature of parasocial relationships, and how they function in an online sense. “Parasocial relationships come from parasocial interaction theory. Essentially, it’s this idea that a media user has formed this one-sided relationship with a media figure,” said Emma. A lot of people hear the term ‘parasocial relationships’ and immediately wig out, but honestly? It’s not inherently a bad thing. “There are pros and cons,” says Emma. “It helps motivate fans, and it can definitely help quell bubbling feelings of loneliness.” “On the flip side, it can make for some pretty damning and even borderline dangerous situations. A lot can go wrong when you feel super close to people that frankly, you don’t actually know well.” Why does it feel like Stan Twitter has crumbled? Margaret knows all too well the feeling of parasocial relationships that can crop up through a platform like Stan Twitter. “I left the platform at 16 years old. Most of my friends at that time had left too. In hindsight, it’s so weird to me that I worshipped these guys. Like, they were just dudes. The kind that I’d see at a party. I felt like I was ageing out of it.” Being on Stan Twitter at this point in my life is wild cause my moots are excited about securing tickets to shows and I’m excited that my 2.5 month old just held her bottle by herself 😂 I love living vicariously through them hehehe