Taking a Break from Nerdy Twitter

I have been taking a break from nerdy twitter. Yet, I haven’t abandoned it completely, but it’s just becoming a weird place. Well, it’s always been weird. Weirder would be the correct wrong.

I follow a few fandoms on twitter, but the one I am most active in is Star Wars twitter. I try to follow people who actually like Star Wars – or at least intelligently critical of the movies. However, there has been a lot of stuff that makes it not fun lately.

The worse is self-righteous gatekeeping. It’s ok not to like a movie but when you attack people for liking (or not liking) it in the same way you do, then you have crossed a line. Some of my best friends hate The Last Jedi, but they have never attacked me personally for liking it.

But there are individuals and groups that do this.

The sad part is that I don’t follow any of these people. But they are constantly trying to get a rise out of people who I do follow.

Worse, is the jealousy of the Big Name Fans. Big Name Fans have lots of followers because they post quality content. Just in the last couple of weeks, a newcomer to the fandom decided to live-tweet her first time watching the movies. The tweets were often funny, insightful, and sometimes poignant. The official twitter for Star Wars welcomed her to the fold. This left enough entitled fans to lose their minds because they haven’t been recognized for their contributions to the fandom.

Now, think of a fan that is not on twitter, but loves the movies. This would sound straight up deranged. You would think that the person has lost some touch with reality.

And then I realized that person is me. Don’t worry I wasn’t attacking people or gatekeeping. I just needed a break from religiously following it. Sometimes I check in with some people whose posts are the reason why I started following a lot the Star Wars fandoms tweets in the first place.

I just like to outside more now. Well, if it would ever be less than the temperature of boiling water outside.