What is this... "Fanboyism"?

     Over the past few weeks, the internet has been abuzz (read: "out of its mind") about the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary special. Every time I get on Facebook, my news feed has at least one Doctor Who post, sometimes as many as five or six. These range from "Check out this video" to "ZOMGOOGLES A NEW DOCTOR WHO VIDEO! I'M SO EXCITED! AASDFASDGASDFJASKBFASKLCJN!" Today, we're going to talk about the latter...

So... uncool...

     "Fanboyism" is not a phenomenon exclusive to Doctor Who, although Whovians are some of the worst perpetrators. Pretty much anything you can be a fan of, you can be a "fanboy" of (or a "fangirl", but for this post we'll stick to "fanboy"). The key is not how much you love something, it's how you react to those who don't agree with your opinion.

     We'll continue to use Doctor Who as our example. Out of all my friends, I believe I was one of the first to watch the show. I introduced it to my roommate, and the 'fire' spread from there. Now, pretty much everyone I know watches it, each with varying levels of enthusiasm. Some watch it as I do, enjoying it as an awful sci-fi with wonderful comedy that has a lot of bad episodes and a few good ones, while a few are utterly blinded by their fanaticism, loving the show unconditionally and believing it can do no wrong. This is what we call "fanboysim".

ZOMGIGGITYGOOGLES! I LOVE DOCTOR WHO! #crazyobsessedwhovian

     The latter of the two above have completely turned me off to the whole thing. Doctor Who was a show that I enjoyed watching, but it's been ruined by the show's own fans. When I say that I don't like the show anymore, these "fanboys" give me grief for it. I can't say anything against Doctor Who without suffering backlash. "Fanboysim"... at its "finest".

     As I said above, while Whovians are some of the worst fanboys, they are not the only ones. Most of the time, fanboys form a rivalry with fans of a competing subject. You have the terrible Apple fanboys and PC users going at it. The Console Gaming Peasants vs. the PC Gaming Master Race. Xbox vs. Playstation vs. Nintendo. Star Wars vs. Star Trek. Pokemon vs. Digimon. Intelligent people vs. Twilight fans. The worlds of sci-fi, anime, movies, and video games are rife with fanboyism.

I know I've bought the same game for the last five years, but I just gotta' have it!

     Totalbiscuit, one of my personal favorite Youtube personalities, has this to say about it:

"Fanboyism has gotten to the point of being actively detrimental to video games."

- Totalbiscuit

     While his quote is specific to video games, the idea can be said of all things. In this world full of fanaticism, it's hard to get into something and enjoy it normally. If you don't love whatever they love to the level that they do, they chastise you until you cave in to peer pressure or until you abandon any desire to be a part of it. In this way, they destroy their own fanbase until only the extremists remain.

If you don't buy one of each color, you're not a true Apple fan...

     The point I'm trying to make is this: Fanboyism is never a good thing. The moment you start pressing your opinions onto someone else and criticizing them for not feeling for your fandom as strongly as you do is when you go from "fan" to "fanboy". It is a fine line, and one that is crossed easily and often. It's important to show restraint and not cross that line. However, it is also important to never be ashamed of the things you love and to share them, in a calm and civilized way, with your friends. That's part of what being a "fan" is all about.