Elise Matthesen

Oh, that's interesting, Rose, because the younger fandoms-plural fans I've talked to about this sort of thing definitely have NOT had the "you mean it's not just me?" reaction to finding a particularly welcoming group--because they've generally known that there are Harry Potter fans online. They've had the "you-all are so great! I'm so glad to have found THIS community, THIS community is more than I ever dreamed of!" response, but not at all the "I had no idea people did Harry Potter fandom!" response.

My godkids, for example, at 12 and 17, take it for granted that they will be able to find people who share [old term] fannish interests with them and [new term] fandoms with them. I will be extremely surprised if they have a moment of "there's other people kind of like me" for any fandom they develop, because their world is so interconnected--and this is true of most of the 20-something fans I've talked to as well.

I wonder if this skews differently for people whose parents restrict their internet access beyond what their peers have--not so much the "don't go wandering the net freely at age 6" but "you're 16 and you can't search for anything that isn't a school project and I will hover over you to enforce that" style of parenting or what the difference in demographics we're seeing would be.