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[–]JohannesSchnee 430 points431 points  (86 children)

A lot of drama on the Shifting Community (pretty big on TikTok, but some other places as well.) I say all this as someone who observed this from afar. For those fortunate enough not to have heard of shifting or reality shifting, here’s the theory: We live in a multiverse of infinite realities and in each reality there is some version of you. Because the multiverse is literally infinite, there are infinite realities in which the world of your favorite show/book/movie/etc. actually exists and there’s a version of you in many of those realities.

Shifting is the idea that while you sleep you can consciously access these realities via these infinite versions of yourself and live in them. There’s at least one reality in which you are a Jedi. There’s at least one reality in which you’re an elf in Middle Earth, and so on. You can actually control what happens, which is called scripting. Before you try to shift while you sleep, you write out your age, what you look like, what your background is in your Target Reality (the one you’re trying to shift to.) Therefore, you can script yourself to be a teenage student at Hogwarts and you determine how those characters act towards you. Because realities are infinite, there’s a “real” universe where Harry Potter is the bad guy and you can shift to that world if you want. If you don’t see where this is going, a lot of young folks “use” this method to go to different realities and bonk with their favorite characters and will often report their “findings” and experiences on TikTok.

If you’re thinking “Isn’t this just lucid dreaming?”, “This just sounds like using your imagination.”, or “Isn’t this a lot like that astral projection trend that made the rounds on Tumblr a while back and became a meme?” Let me tell you why shifters believe it’s different. This isn’t playing pretend because you’re actually going to an actually reality that actually exists. Anything you do in these realities has actual consequences because the characters you interact with are real people. If you kill a character while shifting, you are actually guilty of real murder.

So you can see how this goes downhill real fast. Shifting is very popular in the Harry Potter community on TikTok (you don’t want to know about DracoTok...) One person posted a shifting experience in which they took the Dark Mark in Draco’s place and was accused of actually joining a hate movement voluntarily (there was a lot of “you literally joined the Nazis” stuff thrown around...) and a lot of fighting on the morals of actually becoming a Death Eater.

It got messy too when the morals of shifting to bone fictional characters came about, particularly in regards to Harry Potter characters who are under 18 for the vast majority of the series. If you are a shifter over the age of 18 scripting yourself as a teenage student of Hogwarts to be romantically involved with a fictional character, you’re a literal predator. Even if you age up the characters in your shifting script, it’s still problematic because all the material in our reality is based on teenage characters, basically. It’s all very, very weird and yes it’s stupid.

There was a jokey TikTok posted where on person was trolling and claimed they scripted Draco to be a soft and sensitive person (remember, there is a reality where this version of Draco exists according to shifters) and hit him. Then she kept hitting while he cried and ended up accidentally killing Draco Malfoy. Many people missed that this was obviously a joke making fun of shifting and told her that she should go to jail in this reality for actual murder. I’ll be honest, the thought of someone actually standing trial for murdering a fictional character in a lucid dream/imagination exercise is really funny. There’s a link to this somewhere but I don’t have time to dig it up right now.

EDIT: u/irrelevant_probably (sorry if I didn’t tag the user name right) provided the link in the comments below to the tumblr discussion around this last part and here it is: https://esoanem.tumblr.com/post/647623850838851584/im-glad-ppl-on-tiktok-are-doing-ok-good-lord-yeah

[–]Sachayoj[Gaia/NSFW Stuff/Video games] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

I'm actually a sorta-member of this community. And yeah there's a lotta weird shit. Like one person who shifts to Danganronpa for one reason (TW for sexual assault): to rape Kokichi Ouma. I can't find anything solid as to his age, most believe he's a high schooler due to Danganronpa's premise being comprised of students, but some people said he's 20.

This person would make TikToks that go into very great detail about raping him, as well as raping his beta version. (The beta version of the Danganronpa cast is basically just what they looked like while being developed.)

Obviously this is EXTREMELY disturbing, and raises all sorts of red flags, as well as a debate as to whether or not this is ethical, but that's another can of worms. I don't know if this person got banned, but I haven't seen anything else about them.

[–]gliesedragon 35 points36 points  (4 children)

Okay, for some reason (probably because it's a very similar sort of bonkers) this's reminding me of a weird kerfuffle involving My Little Pony self-help hypnosis tapes. This's going to be kind of low on details, as I only heard about this in passing and it was a while ago, so if anyone has better info, please tell me.

Basically, the thing I heard of was people using weird hypnosis recordings to "become" characters from My Little Pony. And I think the effect was supposed to be pretending* to be (insert character here) as a way to relax or something, but apparently it was a little strong and people were "becoming" pony characters at inopportune times.

I don't know if there's anything more to the story. And, considering how similarly detached from reality this and the shifting business are, I've got to wonder what other weird internet fads with people taking the power of imagination way too seriously there've been.

​

*As with the shifting stuff, I'm pretty sure a lot of these people were thinking of it as real, though.

[–][deleted] 13 points14 points  (1 child)

And I think the effect was supposed to be pretending* to be (insert character here) as a way to relax or something, but apparently it was a little strong and people were "becoming" pony characters at inopportune times.

This sounds familiar. Weren't there people complaining that they'd feel their hands turning into hooves while driving, and such?

[–]gliesedragon 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Maybe? That sounds like it'd be the case, anyways. All I know is that there's tumblr post about it (and I found a different pony hypnosis thread that didn't seem to have that particular drama) but I'm currently trying to dig up what the original thread that tumblr post was referencing was, if it still exists. Anyone got any ideas for showing all reblogs of a tumblr post? With the amount of notes that one has, you'd think someone would've found the link and added it in a reply, but the notes are unnavigable and cut off.

[–]JohannesSchnee 22 points23 points  (1 child)

Was that the tulpa thing?? I’ve heard about it, though only things in passing.

There’s been some interesting scholarly work done on fandom in the last decade (I read a paper on the Snape Wives; Harry Potter is a good study of fandom since it’s been around so long and has such a wide audience.) One thing about these extreme forms of escapism in fandom (tulpas, Snape Wives, shifting) is that it is about escaping by way of willing the object into literal borderline material existence (so it’s believed by them.) Imagining, even to the level of lucid dreaming, is still escapism without crossing into literal existence territory.

Often character focused (not bringing the world of the object into existence, but an object within that world; a character) and this is based mainly on my own observations, these characters are removed from their original texts. For some reason these extremes depend upon the idea that characters are not inherently fictional, though the methods differ.

There’s something to explore in this behavior and the relationship to fiction as text. It’s interesting how many commenters have pointed out the similarities with shifting and other extreme engagement in fandom!

[–]gliesedragon 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I checked to make sure I wasn't scrambling things: this must have been where I first saw the concept, and I was able to scrounge up this thread of people who actually were into it. It wasn't the tulpa type "pony as fancy imaginary friend" thing, it was a "mentally become the pony" thing.

So, I'm pretty sure that those were two separate events.

[–]snaddy99 38 points39 points  (1 child)

I have nothing constructive to say here except that it makes me happy that other people are making the Snapewives connection because I’ve been saying for months that this is just the Gen Z iteration of that. This is such a great write up btw!

[–]JohannesSchnee 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Thanks! It absolutely has Snape Wives energy and as another commenter pointed out, it’s comforting to know that people are still being unhinged in fandom for funzies.

And I’d do a bigger write up, but receipts on TikTok are hard to collect, though I’m sure I can scrounge stuff up. There’s a lot of wild shit I saw happen on HP TikTok and I’m glad others are enjoying it!

[–]iansweridiots 71 points72 points  (1 child)

So everything about this is... Something, but what is giving me pause is

Shifting is very popular in the Harry Potter community on TikTok

In the year of our Lord 2021?!?!?!

[–]JohannesSchnee 37 points38 points  (0 children)

Yup. Harry Potter got really popular on TikTok in summer-winter 2020 and that’s when shifting was at its height. I think the pandemic made a lot of people revisit their nostalgic interests and it got out of hand from there.

[–][deleted] 60 points61 points  (0 children)

This sort of stuff is fascinating!

One person posted a shifting experience in which they took the Dark Mark in Draco’s place and was accused of actually joining a hate movement voluntarily (there was a lot of “you literally joined the Nazis” stuff thrown around...) and a lot of fighting on the morals of actually becoming a Death Eater.

But if all possible realities exist, surely there are already some where this person is a member of every hate group you could name, and more? And just as many worlds where they're a saint or a superhero? Doesn't that make single ethical decisions rather meaningless?

[–]irrelevant_probably 44 points45 points  (2 children)

Oh, I know this one! I don't know where the original TikTok is, but this Tumblr post has various screenshots of the drama: https://esoanem.tumblr.com/post/647623850838851584/im-glad-ppl-on-tiktok-are-doing-ok-good-lord-yeah

[–]JohannesSchnee 12 points13 points  (1 child)

YES! That’s the one! Thanks for providing that!

[–]irrelevant_probably 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Of course! Thanks for the tag in your original comment!

[–]erinyesita 34 points35 points  (0 children)

Maybe the people ready to send shifters to jail over alleged crimes should figure out how to extradite the offenders first, lmao

[–]MisanthropeX 13 points14 points  (3 children)

How is this any different than what ChrisChan believes exactly?

[–]miner1512[Odd Rabbit Hole Enthusiastist] 3 points4 points  (2 children)

What’s that?

[–]MisanthropeX 9 points10 points  (1 child)

https://sonichu.com/cwcki/Dimensional_Merge

[–]PUBLIQclopAccountant#1 pony stan & Pokémon Go addict 33 points34 points  (0 children)

The people who are that dedicated to documenting the life of Chris-Chan have an even sadder life story than Chris. Nonetheless, I'm impressed.

[–]mewboo3 11 points12 points  (1 child)

Some people in the community think it’s just lucid dreaming, but it’s definitely not everyone

[–]JohannesSchnee 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Yeah I made the distinction since there is a chunk of the community that vehemently believes it’s shifting realities (hence why a lot of the drama happens.)

[–]my-sims-are-slobsSims/KPop/Knitting 27 points28 points  (1 child)

I misread shifting as shitting.

[–]JohannesSchnee 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Not an uncommon mistake.

[–]drunkbeforecoup 39 points40 points  (4 children)

It's kinda nice and comforting that this is just shit we did as kids, only now changed by the way they interact.

[–]JGameCartoonFan 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Hey hey, I was aware it was play-pretend even back then. This feels more extreme

[–]iansweridiots 25 points26 points  (1 child)

Hell, isn't this the same shit some people were doing a couple of years ago when they were saying they were the brides of Loki and various gods? And the Snipewives, also.

The internet is bound to repeat the Snipewives

[–]breadcreature 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Another iteration of the same old thing, which gets progressively more elaborate thanks to the concentrating force of the internet. They've discovered metaphysics now!

[–]unbakedcassava 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Right? This is, at its very core, self-insert fic.

[–]Marimomonstera 107 points108 points  (1 child)

So...this is essentially sleep- LARPing your preferred fanfic? God, I'm old.

[–]JohannesSchnee 28 points29 points  (0 children)

Baaaasically yes.

[–]palabradot 52 points53 points  (1 child)

*reads*

*reads again*

Holy shiitake mushrooms WOW.

(this would mean there's a universe where the Snapewives exist...)

[–]EdgeCityRed 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Poor Snape!

[–]fhota1 29 points30 points  (0 children)

Im early to mid 20s, I shouldnt feel as old as I did reading this

[–]HellaHotLancelot 18 points19 points  (4 children)

What's DracoTok?

[–]JohannesSchnee 64 points65 points  (3 children)

DracoTok is a subset of Harry Potter TikTok (of which there are many different overlapping factions.) DracoTok specifically focuses on the character of Draco Malfoy, usually in a thirsty way. People make edits of the character from the films, sometimes edit themselves into the films to “interact” with Draco, or even full on self insert fanfiction that develops into whole on series’s.

It started out fairly tame, but then people made Tom Felton (the actor who played Draco and is still fairly involved with the fandom via the convention circuit) aware of it. Felton joined TikTok for whatever reason and he reacted to a couple of these videos in a tongue and cheek way on TikTok. It was big enough that TikTok joined with Felton to make an actual DracoTok event on the platform (from what I understand.)

Shit went down on TikTok on Twitter. Apparently, Felton liked one of JK Rowling’s feminist tweets, that was part of a longer transphobic/TERF rant (this was prior to her “TERF Wars” nonsense.) He apparently quickly unliked the offending tweet. This however was used as evidence that Felton was transphobic and staning Felton was problematic along with him not making any kind of official statement condemning JKR’s transphobia after her own Twitter nonsense. Felton’s social media content in general is pretty politically tame and he’s posted pro-trans content in the past, but that didn’t seem to matter in the drama.

The anti-DracoTok/Tom Felton people saw it as very cringe that Felton was involved with DracoTok at all and mocked his appearance, accused him of transphobia, bullied people who supported him, etc. on both TikTok and Twitter. It got real dark when someone doctored fake Instagram DM’s of Felton pursuing an underage girl. This was spread around until the person who made the screenshots admitted they were fake.

It quickly died down fortunately. DracoTok still lives on but it’s mainly silly edits now and not nearly as buckwild as it used to be.

[–]breadprincess 31 points32 points  (2 children)

Why does it always end with allegations of pedophilia??

[–]miner1512[Odd Rabbit Hole Enthusiastist] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Cause it’s the easiest to paint someone guilty?

Not aiming to defend any pedos still. Tf is wrong with them

[–]iansweridiots 27 points28 points  (0 children)

Because the truth makes them sound bad, and murder attracts people who asks questions. Paedophilia is a nice way to shut the conversation. After all, do you want to be the one who defended the paedophile????

[–]lucidzero 71 points72 points  (3 children)

I've never felt so old as I have when reading this post. And tbh I'm kind of glad.

This is possibly one of the stupidest things I've ever heard and it's hard to believe it's real. It's called imagination. You know, the same thing used to write these stories they're trying to "shift" to.

A lot of it could be harmless fun if they were just inducing lucid dreams, but that they are considering it the same as reality reminds me of my eight year old self playing with my friends. Actually, I think even my eight year old self was aware of the imaginative aspect of those fantasies.

I'm not knocking on anyone considering the philosophical side to reality, but "shifting" as described here seems like lunacy.

I know it's a search away, but I also have no idea what tiktok is. Feels like when my parents used to call it tweeter.

[–]JohannesSchnee 45 points46 points  (2 children)

There’s plenty of shifting content outside of TikTok for your perusal. There’s entire YouTube channels and websites dedicated to teaching people how to shift or making content that’s supposed to be shifting inspiration or stuff that (according to them) gets into your subconscious to trigger your brain to connect to another reality and induce shifting.

But yeah, this is just imagining. I said this in another comment but I think the pandemic really exacerbated this to the point where a lot of young people were stuck at home without work or school to focus on as much and went hard on the childhood nostalgia stuff to cope which is not a bad thing. Plenty of grown adults revisited childhood stuff at the height of the pandemic too. It just got really out of hand.

[–]lucidzero 30 points31 points  (1 child)

It's certainly an excellent exercise for lucid dreaming. Just don't take it so seriously that you think people should go to jail for dreaming or imagining.

[–]JohannesSchnee 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Exactly. Nothing wrong with lucid dreaming or using your imagination to explore your favorite fictional worlds in general. It just got realllllly intense on TikTok.

[–]Cheesecakery 163 points164 points  (1 child)

I can't believe TikTok has literally just become zoomer Tumblr. I will never, ever get tired of hearing about the bizarre stuff that goes on in online fandom spaces; every time I think it can't get any weirder I hear about something like this.

[–]JohannesSchnee 41 points42 points  (0 children)

That’s what I find so fascinating. Just wait until you hear about DracoTok almost got Tom Felton cancelled.

[–]peachrice 122 points123 points  (15 children)

Shifting is "fictionkin no doubles" for this batch of zoomers. It'll be fun to look back on.

[–]mewboo3 41 points42 points  (12 children)

Kinning exists on fandom tiktok. It just now means that you especially like and maybe relate to a character. I still mentally do a double take whenever I see proper talking about kinning casually or posting kin lists (basically very favorite character lists)

Edit: I just saw the wildest example of this. I saw someone said they kinned Yoshikage Kira from jojo’s bizarre adventures, a serial killer who murders women to satisfy his hand fetish, and like 4 people replied saying to the post they did as well. If this was on tumblr...

[–]invader19 26 points27 points  (1 child)

God this reminds me of years and years ago when Dangan Ronpa came out, and all the dozens and dozens of Junko Enoshima kin blogs that existed. Junko, is a psycho bitch who gets off on watching other people fall into despair and commit murder/suicide, and who caused the apocalypse cause nothing causes people more despair then seeing all their loved ones die and society fall apart. She also murders her fellow high school students (including her sister) There was so much drama over all these teens and young adults kinning her and sending messages saying they are the true Junko and all you other posers should fucking kill yourself.

[–]mewboo3 16 points17 points  (0 children)

The danganrompa fandom on tiktok (still has toxic parts btw) was were I first saw tiktok’s version of kinning.

[–]sephirothswife- 10 points11 points  (5 children)

maybe they,, relate to not wanting to stand out? or doing the stretches before bed? trying to give them the benefit of the doubt here bc.. that’s.. a ..choice of a kin lol

[–]invader19 13 points14 points  (2 children)

Or maybe the Mona Lisa gave them a boner as well

[–]sephirothswife- 6 points7 points  (1 child)

true, somehow forgot about that.. somehow haha

[–]invader19 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Your brain was blocking those memories out to protect itself.

[–]mewboo3 13 points14 points  (1 child)

Maybe wanting to live a quiet life?

They probably just liked Kira as a character. Kins basically just mean favorite characters there. I also think he’s a great villain. I think at least one comment mentioned not kinning “the bad stuff” as well

[–]sephirothswife- 7 points8 points  (0 children)

ah makes sense then. he’s definitely one of the best villains tbh, tho I’m not sure who the most well-written one is. back to kinning, i feel too old and out of touch with this and im an ‘older’ gen-z lol.

[–]peachrice 13 points14 points  (3 children)

Oh yeah, I'm more than aware! I made the comparison along the lines of "silly fandom thing taken seriously/blown up into threats to other people" because that's what kinning was 5-8 years ago.

Yeah, I do a mental double take, too. I can't help but associate it with a lot of weird kids I met when I was younger.

[–][deleted]  (2 children)

[deleted]

    [–]peachrice 2 points3 points  (1 child)

    Oh sorry I hadn't taken it that way! Sorry if my tone came off wrong.

    [–]mewboo3 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    It’s fine

    [–]JohannesSchnee 58 points59 points  (1 child)

    Bingo. That’s what most OG fandom folks tend to say. There was an astral projection trend that quickly fizzled out a few years ago. This is pretty much FictionKin except you kin with another version of yourself and has the “legitimacy” of being rooted in multiverse/infinite universes theories (so it’s claimed at least.) It has the same level of drama of FictionKin, particularly when the HamiltonKin thing got out of hand.

    [–]neutrinoprism 17 points18 points  (0 children)

    the “legitimacy” of being rooted in multiverse/infinite universes theories (so it’s claimed at least.)

    This is the part that’s the most fascinating to me. It’s absolutely pseudoscience, because it’s using a scientific buzzword (“the multiverse”) to say that something vaguely imaginable is true and necessary. Pseudoscientific health scams are full of “quantum” this or “frequency” that, so it’s interesting to see another scientific framework take hold in another pseudoscientific community narrative.

    Also, as you indicate, just because something is vaguely imaginable in a narrative sense doesn’t mean it’s physically possible. Even if “all possible worlds exist” in some sense, that doesn’t mean that all possible narrative descriptions could be borne out in some possible world.

    Bonkers but fascinating.

    [–]Cryx-Nu-HattaIs that the one with calculus based sexual assault? 56 points57 points  (1 child)

    I remember that someone made a thread about this exact incident a few months ago but then deleted it when people didn’t believe shifting was a real thing.

    [–]JohannesSchnee 15 points16 points  (0 children)

    Ha, I must have missed that one.

    [–]Post-Historiae 14 points15 points  (2 children)

    Just how big is this community?

    [–]saltedkelpie 7 points8 points  (0 children)

    too big lmao. their videos make it to my for you page by virtue of being Marvel-related. i am Unhappy about it.

    [–]JohannesSchnee 33 points34 points  (0 children)

    Great question. It seems to have fallen somewhat in popularity as of right now (I said in another comment how the pandemic impacted this stuff.) I don’t have any hard data, of course and Harry Potter TikTok is pretty diverse with smaller factions within it (DracoTok being one of the bigger and most chaotic factions.) I will say that in summer-winter 2020 it blew up on HPTikTok to the point where if you liked any sort of Harry Potter content on there, the algorithm would give you shifting stuff (at least that was my experience.) There’s whole websites, blogs, TikTok accounts, YouTube channels, ASMR stuff, Spotify playlists, etc. dedicated to “teaching” people how to shift or making content that claims to get into your subconscious so that you can access other realities. It got big enough for OG fandom types on Tumblr (the type who have seen the rise and fall of various unhinged fandom trends) to find and make fun of it. The pro and anti shipper types also got involved and made it even more wild.

    [–]razputinaquat0Might want to brush your teeth there, God. 89 points90 points  (3 children)

    This just sounds like fictionkin with extra steps

    [–]JohannesSchnee 38 points39 points  (2 children)

    Bingo. It’s very much akin (pun intended) to the drama with HamiltonKin on Tumblr a few years back.

    [–]palabradot 17 points18 points  (1 child)

    hamiltonkin..... *brain explodes*

    [–]JohannesSchnee 17 points18 points  (0 children)

    Oh, yeah. I know nothing about Hamilton but I remember when it blew up because people were kinning Thomas Jefferson and others were made that these people believed they were some incarnation of a slave owner (amongst other things.)

    [–]majesdane 160 points161 points  (13 children)

    This is giving me "Snape wives" vibes ..

    [–]Leonard_Church814 31 points32 points  (12 children)

    I have to know what this is.

    [–]bananathrowaway197 16 points17 points  (0 children)

    Theres a write up in this sub i believe! Think spiritual visits from Jesus except its snape and the people hes visiting are HP obsessed women

    [–]majesdane 74 points75 points  (8 children)

    There's a HobbyDrama post about it! :)

    [–]Varvara-Sidorovna 58 points59 points  (5 children)

    My god, I had completely forgotten about Snapes on an Astral Plane.

    The joys of mid-2000s fandom can never be surpassed. Oh, for the heady days of Harry Potter pre-Book Five, or the perpetual low-grade weirdness that was Scans_Daily on Livejournal.

    [–]majesdane 23 points24 points  (4 children)

    Ah, the LJ days. I remember when the 7th HP book leaked and meltdowns were had (count me in the meltdown because surely it couldn't be THAT bad??).

    Scans_Daily was a place I went to whenever I wanted to find out what happened in a new issue of a comic I hadn't yet been able to pick up from the store came out.

    Personally I'm nostalgic for the fandom_secrets heydays. Oh, the drama.

    [–]Varvara-Sidorovna 25 points26 points  (2 children)

    There's a case to be made that fandom culture peaked 2000-2009 on Livejournal, and everything since then has been a slow downward trundle (apart from Archive of our Own, which is far superior to all of its' predecessors)

    [–]majesdane 14 points15 points  (1 child)

    I would agree with you. I was on LJ starting back in 2003 (I still have my account, but it hasn't been active since 2013) and it was really such a specific community. I think a part of it was because yes, you had FF.net and various fandom boards/forums, but LJ was a huge catch-all community for any kind of fan and content. It wasn't like today with tumblr, AO3, YouTube, Twitter, and Discord (you do get some crossovers between fans who populate all of those spaces, but still). Especially since all those sites aren't geared towards more than 1-2 types of fandom interactions.

    LJ had many problems, but fandoms very much thrived on there - for better and for worse (providing some of the greatest drama ever). It was so cloistered that pots always boiled over, but it was also fun to see all fandoms band together for things like strikethrough or bold through.

    I still wait wistfully for the revival of LJ ... maybe one day, when tumblr et al finally implode themselves ...

    Or at least maybe we can revive Dreamwidth (it's not dead, but it's long since passed relevancy). Pillowfort sucks and doesn't provide even 1/10th of the features DW and LJ have.

    [–]AnDemTod 9 points10 points  (0 children)

    I still wait wistfully for the revival of LJ ... maybe one day, when tumblr et al finally implode themselves ...

    Same here. I really miss LJ despite all its problems. I remember the slow death of LJ and how a bunch of people I was friends with started making Dreamwidth, but Dreamwidth never really took off the way LJ did, and tumblr was just popping up around that time.

    [–]BadDadBot 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    Hi nostalgic for the fandom_secrets heydays, I'm dad.

    [–]Leonard_Church814 25 points26 points  (1 child)

    Jesus Christ some people just ain’t right.

    [–]majesdane 9 points10 points  (0 children)

    I was in a LJ fandom community back in 2009-10 that made up a fictional "religion" based on some comments an actress in the show had made. But we were doing it as a joke and everyone had a good laugh.

    But this. THIS. It staggers the mind.

    [–]limeflavoured 56 points57 points  (2 children)

    I mean, the infinite worldline theory makes a lot of sense, but that just seems a bit mad. It also reminds me of the Snape-wives.

    [–]unrelevant_user_name 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    What? No it doesn't.

    [–]JohannesSchnee 36 points37 points  (0 children)

    100%. The multiple/infinite universe thing is all well and good and holds water as a real theory. This is just a really bizarre convoluted way of interacting with fandom and absolutely has Snape-Wives energy.

    I should also probably mention, and this is actually probably the more interesting part in the grander scheme, that the rise of Harry Potter TikTok coincided with summer/fall 2020. Many young people were out of work and/or school due to the pandemic and had a lot of time. Given the psychological toll of the pandemic as a whole many people (of all ages) sought nostalgic content and I think the pandemic confounded things to the point that people wanted an escape enough to buy into the notion of changing entire realities.