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This is really well written! So you reckon part of the reason for the fandom’s growth is the loneliness epidemic, which encourages more people to join such communities online? I think the furry fandom is a great remedy for loneliness to be honest - getting weird, queer people together to have fun without judgement.
Side note: I think you missed one of the largest factors contributing to a loneliness epidemic: lockdown. I feel like this normalised the want to stay indoors, away from other people. And encouraged us online (more so than before) which kickstarted that cycle of people digging themselves ever deeper into these incel and conspiratorial echo chambers, where they begin to despise everyone outside of their circle.
Absolutely the pandemic caused a growth, especially of young (14-18) furries. In times like a global pandemic people are looking for any comfort they can find, and the fandom sure offers an awful lot of comfort, and that’s one of the things I love about it. However, I’ve also noticed an uptick in generally… Odd opinions about the way the fandom “should” be especially from newly-turned adults, so as a result I’ve actually ended up isolating from bigger fandom “circles” and entrenched myself in smaller friend groups and communities. I think this is a positive change for me, but I’ve also slowly grown more pissed off with the attempted washing of our fandom. Maybe one of these days I’ll make a coherent essay about it.
What sort of opinions have you seen about how the fandom ‘should’ be run?
Not “run” but “exclude” and the answer is people who like kinks they personally find weird. If you haven’t seen this, good on you for staying away from furry tiktok and furry twitter.
Heh, the irony of furries (an already pretty weird group) trying to exclude others for being weird x3
I avoid Twitter as much as I can (Bluesky seems alright, less toxic) and I’m yet to touch tiktok. Probably for the best.
I’ve touched on a few similar themes myself (see my doppelganger) https://yiffit.net/post/3113251 and https://yiffit.net/post/11919426 Since those posts I’ve joined in a few other places online and I’m not sure I really feel a part of those groups, but I do feel free to just be me there (here too usually). In person stuff hasn’t really changed though. I’ll disagree with omegamouse on one thing, I don’t think the lockdown has as much impact as they think. The bubble building and online validation had been building for a long time, I think it was more of a correlation as opposed to a causation.
