Getting an Entire Fandom to Hate You 101
The (Unfortunate) Power of Nicholas Sparks and the Consequences of Going Viral
TW: death mentions; mention of ableist slurs
There were so many ways that my March could’ve started out. Going viral on TikTok was not one I saw coming.
But first, let me give you a little backstory.
At the beginning of February, after losing my job, I went to a very sad and dark place. If you’ve been reading my last few newsletters, this is old news. I don’t know, after graduating college and getting your degree there’s this huge pressure to have everything in your life figured out already. I guess I was just upset that I had no clear path. One morning, I woke up and decided that I needed something else- a hobby of sorts to put my energy into. Something to distract me from my personal life and the general anxiety I felt about my future, my career, and the world around me. Something that was not SO labor-intensive that I would get burnt out, but was just interesting enough that it would give me the motivation to get out of bed in the morning. An easily attainable, yet unique and creative goal.
How I settled on deciding to watch every single Nicholas Sparks movie known to man, I’m still trying to figure out.
The rules were pretty simple. For this project, I would watch every Nicholas Sparks theatrical release in chronological order (11 movies, to be exact), and then rate each of them from 1-10, 10/10 being the best, based on a list of criteria. This involved chemistry, soundtrack/score, writing, and pathos, among other things. At the end of my binge, I would then compile my notes into a powerpoint presentation to lecture to my friends.
Was it ambitious? Sure. But it’s not like I had much else to do on my fresh post-work, anti-capitalist rampage. I had the time to clown around and watch some poorly-made romantic dramas (with the exception of A Walk to Remember, which was obviously my #1 pick and will always be held at the highest regard). Watching and critiquing some over-dramatic, corny, and oftentimes overrated, movies was completely doable and just the project I needed to distract me from the real world crumbling around me.
When all else fails, at least we have media!
The presentation went pretty well. So much so, that little-old-me thought: why not post it on TikTok, just for funzies? It’s not like I have a huge following or anything. Who’s going to see it? It was just a stupid video about my stupid little opinions- who cared?
How naive of me to think that in the age of TikTok, 2012-level internet fandom culture did not still reign supreme.
My TikTok reached over 200k views overnight. It was viral. I was on everyone’s For You Page. The comments were going insane. And not because people liked me.
My silly little video had single handedly triggered an entire fandom.
Not only did I not think anyone would see my TikTok, but I also genuinely had no idea that there were people out there who un-ironically liked Nicholas Sparks movies. Like, he has a whole fandom. I would have expected this large of response to a video featuring controversial takes on Marvel movies, for example. Or Harry Styles. The whole Will Smith/Chris Rock Oscars thing for sure. But Nicholas Sparks? C’mon now. I’m assuming most of his fans were originally just into the books and then had no choice but to follow them up with the movie adaptations because some of these films are absolutely horrendous. And that’s not me being a pretentious cinema critic; I was just genuinely not aware that people thought these were good movies. To my surprise, people are actually VERY passionate about The Choice, The Best of Me, and Safe Haven. I actually offended an entire population of the internet that I had no idea existed. Thank God I have a sense of humor!
Only, I guess I learned that laughing at yourself can only go on for so long.
I never said anyone had to agree with me and my opinions… hell, I never thought anyone gave enough of a shit to comment on the damn video. I thought the notifications would die down. I thought people would stop caring, stop finding the video. Only days went by… then weeks… and it just kept getting bigger and bigger. It was frustrating- having people put so much attention on a video I made just for fun when a majority of my Tiktoks were of content that I actually cared about. Not only that, but the comment section started getting more and more unruly.
A few people were absolutely appalled at my hyper-sensitivity, specifically that I couldn’t handle appreciating a movie where the main love interest uses the R-word. You can probably already guess, but most of the people who commented things like this were white American middle-aged men.
One person commented that since I was unemployed I shouldn’t apply to be a movie reviewer any time soon, because I’d lose that job too. That one got a ton of likes.
Still, I was laughing at how seriously people were taking my 3-minute video about an author I didn’t care at all about. It was just for fun and people needed to calm down.
And then, the death threats began.
I’ll spare you the intimate details of that last one; but I have to say, thank God I am in a pretty good mental health state right now. Also, are we still sending people death threats in 2022? Do you need a 22 year old to tell you that it’s wrong to send someone a death threat? SO not okay.
My video now has over 1 million views.
Over the past week, I’ve been going back and forth about whether or not I should just delete it. I hate that I’ve attached my name (and my brand) to something that I’m no longer proud of making. Something that the internet ruined for me. My most viral video has nothing to do with my art, my life, my business, or anything I actually care about.
At another time in my life, a younger version of me could have definitely let petty internet drama keep me from creating. But at this time in my life, that’s not a good enough reason to give up. I never posted this video for internet clout. When I came up with the idea to do this project, it was because I needed to put my energy into something that would distract me from the anxiety of everyday life. My intention was always for this dumb little project to be for ME, and for me only. To bring me some joy. To help me deal with a part of my life I couldn’t be happy with.
Needless to say, I decided to keep my Nicholas Sparks TikTok up instead of deleting it, only with the comments turned off. I still think it’s a funny and innocent video on the surface. Watching it now, I feel like I’m very much myself in it. You can see me making self-deprecating jokes about my own unemployment. Laughing. Smiling. Calling Miley Cyrus iconic because she is. Taking about movies that surprised me, and ones that didn’t. Simping over Landon from A Walk to Remember. I wouldn’t change a thing about the video itself. It’s the attention I received from it that ruined the experience.
Right before I decided to turn the comments off, I saw one guy say that he found the way I said “Hello” at the beginning of the video funny, which, considering the absolute garbage in my comments section, is by far the absolute nicest comment I’ve received on TikTok in a long time. The thought itself made me laugh- that one person saying they found joy in such a small part of that video stood out so much. It was kind of a nice reminder that simple joys (and humor) can still exist in moments of disappointment.
Ok, this is getting too dramatic and I have no idea how to end this article. So, I’ll leave you with a couple of frequently asked questions:
Q: Do you regret posting your video ?
A: No! Like I said, it was all made in good fun. I will always lean on media to escape the heaviness of reality, and I’ll always have some critical thoughts about it. There’s no changing that. But I’m never talking about Nicholas Sparks ever again lol.
Q: Are you ever going to turn the comments back on?
A: Probably not. I get that folks want to see what other people think and where other people place their rankings. But the death threats crossed the line. Plus, the notifications are so annoying and I’m sick of people talking to me about a subject I no longer care about.
Q: Have you read the Nicholas Sparks books/Are you going to read them?
A: No and Absolutely not.
Q: Are you okay?
A: I’m alright! And I hope you are too.
fantastic read and a great way to send off/close the craziness of this whole thing! ♥️