u/Trick_Director7825

“I genuinely think this whole situation says a lot about modern fandom culture.

A fan account posted a comparison between their follower count and Hiroto’s, a former Boys Planet trainee, then acted shocked when people pointed out how insane the difference is. But honestly… what did they expect? Posts like that obviously attract people who are going to turn the idol into a joke or a pity case for engagement.

What made it even weirder were the replies. People were saying they’d follow him “out of pity”, calling him “flopped”, or treating him like some random meme. This is a real person who spent YEARS training, competing on survival shows in multiple countries, and trying to debut. Yet somehow people are more invested in the fanpage discourse than the actual artist himself.

And honestly, seeing that acc call him his "ult” while contributing to that environment is crazy to me 😭 If your audience is literally treating your supposed favorite idol like a pity follow and a fandom joke under your own post, maybe something already went wrong there.

Obviously this doesn’t apply to every idol or every fan account. Most of the time idols naturally have WAY more followers and recognition than fanpages, which is why this situation stood out to me so much. It’s a pretty rare case, but that’s exactly why the whole thing felt so strange and uncomfortable.

There are plenty of fanpages that genuinely support artists in a positive way. But THIS specific situation felt incredibly weird because the focus completely shifted away from Hiroto as a person and turned into engagement, irony, and fandom entertainment.

That’s what bothers me the most: fandom culture nowadays sometimes feels way more focused on fan influencers, drama accounts, and engagement farming than genuinely supporting idols. A fan account should not have more influence, recognition, or attention than the artist they built their platform around.

The craziest part is that the account itself is contributing to this. If you publicly compare your follower count to an idol’s, knowing your audience thrives on irony and dragging people, you can’t really act surprised when the comments become disrespectful.

At some point I just sat there thinking: girl… WHO the fck are you.

Like genuinely, without Hiroto and the fandom culture around idols, would that account even have the same relevance or reach?

The entire situation just feels incredibly weird and dystopian to me.

I genuinely need some kpop stans to understand the difference between a harmless association and pure saturation.

Nobody is saying “you can NEVER think of Minsung when you see pink and green.” The issue is that some shippers have repeated the exact same association so many times that it became painfully predictable. Every pink and green object, outfit, edit, interaction or random duo somehow turns into “MINSUNG 🩷💚😱”. After YEARS of this, people are obviously gonna get tired of it.

And what makes it even more annoying is how aggressive people get when someone points this out. The second you say “this joke is getting repetitive,” people start insulting you, calling you miserable, bitter, jobless, telling you to “go outside” or acting like you committed a crime for being tired of an overused fandom joke.

Then they start playing dumb:
“so wicked/mitsuri/fairly oddparents comparisons are okay but minsung isn’t???”

The difference is VARIETY. Those are broader pop culture/aesthetic references. People don’t spam them under every single pink and green thing on earth for years straight. Minsung became the most automatic and repetitive response possible to those colors specifically because shippers forced the association into literally every context imaginable.

That’s why people are tired of it. Not because “pink and green belongs to minsung” or whatever dramatic argument shippers keep making up. The problem is saturation, repetition and the fact some fans can’t handle hearing that without taking it as a personal attack.

As a christian myself, I genuinely need to ask: what is happening with the rise of “satanic panic” in kpop spaces lately?

I recently saw a video calling Lisa and Anyma’s Coachella performance a “demonic ritual,” and the comments were honestly more disturbing than the video itself. People were saying things like:

• “us blinks are finally waking up”
• “kpop groups serve the devil”
• “BTS became satanic after signing with american companies”
• “Rosé is the only sane one because she’s christian”
• “Blood Sweat & Tears proves BTS are demonic”
• “I should stop listening to all music”

And I’m sorry, but this is not discernment anymore. This is literally paranoia mixed with media illiteracy.

What bothers me most is that these people NEVER actually analyze the art itself. They see dramatic visuals, symbolism, dark aesthetics, red lighting, cyber/futuristic concepts, or religious imagery and immediately jump to “SATANISM.” There’s no attempt to understand the cultural, artistic, or literary inspirations behind the work.

For example, people constantly use BTS’ “Blood Sweat & Tears” as proof of “demonic symbolism,” even though the entire WINGS era was heavily inspired by Hermann Hesse’s Demian, a novel about youth, temptation, morality, identity, growth, and loss of innocence. The MV references art history, literature, and philosophical themes. Religious imagery in art is not automatically devil worship. Artists, filmmakers, writers, and painters have used biblical symbolism for centuries to explore human emotions and morality.

Same thing with Jennie’s “ZEN”. People saw intense visuals and immediately called it demonic when the song is literally centered around self-awareness, inner peace, confidence, and staying grounded under pressure. The title itself references the actual concept of zen.

And with Lisa, people are calling her “evil” while ignoring that she is literally buddhist and that Coachella performances are designed to be theatrical and visually dramatic. Anyma’s entire artistic identity has always revolved around futuristic/cyber visuals and existential themes. Somehow every stage light and camera angle is now “proof” of occult activity.

What’s even more concerning is how normalized this mindset is becoming online. Some comments genuinely sound unhealthy:

• people saying they regret listening to music,
• people refusing to attend concerts because the “vibes felt demonic,”
• people believing random celebrities are secretly serving Satan because of symbolism they don’t understand.

Faith and personal conviction are completely valid. But seeing hidden evil in every artistic concept is not critical thinking, and it’s honestly damaging to how christianity is perceived online. It reduces complex art into conspiracy theories and turns religion into fearmongering.

Kpop has ALWAYS had a wide variety of concepts: cute, dark, elegant, horror-inspired, futuristic, experimental, emotional, theatrical. That’s part of the industry itself. A darker or symbolic concept does not automatically mean something is spiritually evil.

At this point, it feels like some people consume so much conspiracy content that they’ve lost the ability to engage with art normally. Everything becomes an “Illuminati clue” instead of just… symbolism, storytelling, aesthetics, or performance art.

Media literacy is genuinely disappearing.

So there’s this guy I’ve liked for a while, and for MONTHS I’d heard from friends that he liked me back too. Basically my friend heard from HIS friend that he liked me 😭

But even knowing that, I still wasn’t fully sure because you know how these things are. Sometimes people misunderstand stuff or exaggerate, so I never wanted to assume anything.

Then last day he put a Discord status saying:

“seems like i was wrong”

And after thinking about it for a bit, I realized he probably meant that he thought I didn’t like him back 😭😭😭

When I saw that status I panicked because I ACTUALLY DO like him, so I changed my own status to:

“the way he has no idea i like him back im crine”

I honestly didn’t even expect him to notice it that fast.

BUT THEN HE SAW IT AND CHANGED HIS STATUS TO:

“maybe i WASN’T wrong”

LIKE???? HELLO???????

So now we both basically know the feelings are mutual and somehow Discord statuses did the confession for us because neither of us had the courage to directly say it 😭

And the funniest part is that we were supposed to see each other at school today after this entire indirect-status-mutual-pining arc happened…

BUT I ENDED UP MISSING SCHOOL 😭😭

So now I have the entire weekend to overthink what Monday is going to be like when we actually see each other again.

I know this is gonna be unpopular but I need to say it: the amount of thirst edits being made of some of the CORTIS members (especially the younger ones) is weird.

And before anyone says “but Martin and Juhoon are 18", that doesn’t really fix the issue. Being technically an adult doesn’t suddenly make it normal to sexualize someone who was a minor very recently, especially in a group that still has underage members. It just creates a fandom environment where those same boundaries get ignored across the board.

And just to be clear, I’m not talking about James here since he’s an actual adult. This is specifically about the younger members.

There’s a difference between appreciating visuals/talent and making edits clearly meant to sexualize them. The second one gets uncomfortable fast when you consider their ages and the overall fandom culture.

It just feels like some of y’all care more about technicalities than actual boundaries.

When male idols do aegyo and it comes off a bit awkward or “cringe”, people usually just laugh it off or even find it endearing. But when it’s certain female idols, like Wonyoung, even the mildest comment like “this wasn’t for me” can get a lot of backlash.

I’m not trying to hate on anyone at all, I actually like her a lot. This is more about the difference in reactions from fans rather than the idol herself.

What stands out to me is how the same type of comment can be received so differently depending on who it’s about. With male idols, people seem more comfortable treating awkward aegyo as harmless or even part of their charm. But with some female idols, similar reactions are more likely to be taken as criticism or disrespect.

It feels like there’s less room to express harmless personal preferences when it comes to certain female idols, even when the wording is neutral. Meanwhile, similar comments about male idols don’t seem to carry the same weight or trigger the same level of defensiveness.

I’m not saying this applies to everyone or every fandom, but the pattern feels noticeable enough to point out. It makes me wonder if there’s an unspoken difference in how people perceive and protect certain idols.

Maybe I am wrong or maybe it depends on the fandom space, but it’s something I’ve been noticing and wanted to discuss.