THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN KPOP: TWITTER (PART 2)
- Isaac
- Sep 5, 2019
- 3 min read
WE STANNNNN or Whateva. When will ur faves??
Here we go. What we've been waiting for. I love it. You love it. STAN TWITTER!! The online universe where fans come together to support their favourite groups who have done no wrong and bring down others for breathing the same air as them! To finish our two-part special on Twitter, we will look at what K-Pop stan Twitter exactly is (with RECEIPTS).
Stan Twitter? Nani?
According to the definition given by Urban Dictionary, Stan Twitter is a part of of the user base who are dedicated fans of certain people/objects/subjects. These fans take to Twitter to spread nothing but praise, love and support for their favourites, while turning the platform into a war-torn battlefield amongst other fandoms in the same category. Sounds fun right? Well... lets take a look at some FUN events that occurred in the K-Pop stan Twitter universe!
You laughed? You're CANCELLED.
Towards the end of 2018, an awards show was held at which girl group 'MOMOLAND' and popular boy group 'BTS' attended. At said award show, BTS performed, where a slip up with the background audio and a voice-crack from member Jimin occurred. At this time, video captured MOMOLAND talking and laughing to each other, causing Twitter to ERUPT. BTS fans, also known as 'ARMY', took to Twitter to voice their anger against the girl group for their VILE behaviour, trending hashtags (see #MomolandIsOverParty and #MomolandIsGoingToHell), spreading hate, criticisms and death threats. This didn't only occur on Twitter, but spread to Instagram and YouTube, with the official group's Instagram having to turn off comments during the peak of it all. Why? All because of a couple seconds of laughing. The same group also had one of their members SLANDERED all because she didn't smile when other girl group BLACKPINK received at award. So if you have a case of RBF, you can kiss your dreams of becoming an idol goodbye.
mAybE IF you stAnNEd lOOnA thE AMAzoN woulDn'T bE On FirE??
Stan LOONA! You've probably heard of it. Heck, even Elon Musk tweeted about it. A trend created by fans of girl group 'LOONA', the saying has definitely gained them some popularity and has been used by other groups to promote and support, but has also been used in a pretty negative light. With the picture serving as an example, some fans took it to Twitter when comic-book writer Stan Lee passed away, using his name as a 'joke' to promote their faves. Even recently, others used the death of Disney actor Cameron Boyce to share videos and pictures of their idols. Reply sections of Tweets on topics not even remotely related to K-pop still get stans spreading awareness through fancams, or even jumping on a trending hashtag just to plug an artist at the end. And you wonder why stan Twitter gets a bad rep? Yeah this TikTok pretty much sums it up.
It can't all be bad? Right? RIGHT??
Amongst all the 💩 that gets thrown around the K-pop Twitterverse, sometimes (a.k.a very rarely) the community can set aside their difference, join forces and support each other! Like back in August where Jihyo (member of TWICE, dubbed 'nation's girl group') and Kang Daniel (dubbed 'Korea's centre' after winning survivial show Produce 101 S2) were revealed to be dating, stan Twitter showed their support for the couple through memes, words of encouragement and more memes. More of this please, more love, less beef (but I'm not a vegan).
Ultimately, fans take it to Twitter to increase the popularity of groups they enjoy in hopes of bursting through a very oversaturated market, whether their practices be perfectly fine or completely irrational. The saying 'any publicity is good publicity' seems to define stan Twitter to a tee, with pretty much anything they do leading to engagement, discussion and awareness, whether it be in their own community or the general public.
I hope you enjoyed this two part special about the world of K-pop Twitter! What a wild ride. What are your favourite instances of stan Twitter being a complete dumpster fire? Tell us in the comments below! That's all I got today, so see you guys next week where we talk about another K-pop-specific platform, DAUM Fancafés!
Isaac, 05/09/19
Missed the last post? Click here to read!
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