Before Live Tweeting there was chatting - #Shadowhunterschat part 1

Back in the old days, you know, before social media but after we had the Internet (I am NOT a dinosaur), we had this thing called chat rooms. You know, a chat room where you used telnet to connect to a site where there were a bunch of other users from around the country and well, technically the world. Anyway, I used to frequent a chatroom called Clubhouse where I talked with numerous people – many whom I never met. It was nice because at the time I was really introverted and insecure, especially because I was overweight. My chatroom gave me an outlet – a place to be myself without the added pressure of worrying what I looked like. It was all text based, so no one could see me and if I acted a little strange or silly, well there were plenty of friends who wouldn’t judge me.

The old Clubhouse Entryway introduction - thanks Frank!

           I didn’t realize this at the time, but I wasn’t the only one who experienced or has noticed this phenomenon. danah boyd, social media scholar, talks about this concept in her book, it’s complicated: the social lives of networked teens.

 “When I embraced the internet as a teenager in the mid-1990s, I was going online to escape the so-called real world. I felt ostracized and misunderstood at school, but online I could portray myself as the person that I wanted to be. I took on fictitious identities in an effort to figure out who I was. I wasn’t alone. Part of what made chatting fun in those days was that it was impossible to know if others were all that they portrayed themselves to be.”(Boyd, 37)

I’m glad I’m not the only one who saw the online world as a way to re-create or re-image myself. I could focus on things that were my strengths without my weaknesses to overshadow me. Eventually, this gave me the confidence I needed to move out of my shell and embrace who I am.

I feel like you’re wondering about how this connects to Shadowhunters.

Okay, okay. I’ll bring it back.

Today, youth use social media to find people who share similar like or interests as them. It has turned what can be a very insular world to one that spans the globe. Youth are able to connect with others who share interest that are similar to their own in a practice called geeking out. “Geeking out involves learning to navigate esoteric domains of knowledge and practice and participating in communities that traffic in these forms of expertise. It is a mode of learning that is peer-driven, but focused on gaining deep knowledge and expertise in specific areas of interest.” (Ito, 28). This is different from my previous experience because chat rooms tended to get a random selection of people rather than those who had similar interests.

I see so much of the geeking out experience echoed in these live twitter “chats”. Anyone can join in with the chat and experience the episode with other fans and the actors. As a scene or moment passes, fans react with “OMG! What was up with that Jace in that scene!?” or “That Malec scene was epic!” We get to share our feelings, which can be reaffirmed by other viewers in the form of likes or comments on posts. I get excited when someone notices that I made a particularly witty comment because it makes me feel like I have been accepted into the group.

What’s even more engaging is that the actors join in with the live tweeting, giving fans the opportunity to interact with them during the episode. More on that next time.....

 Works Cited

boyd,  danah. (2014). It’s Complicated: The social lives of networked teens. Yale University Press.

Ito, M., Horst, H., Bittanti, M., Boyd, D., Herr-Stephenson, B., Lange, P. G., … Tripp, L. (2008). Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project Building the emerging field of digital media and learning. Retrieved from www.macfound.org