The NBA and NHL playoffs are approaching the climax of their respective seasons, and as the weather heats up, so does the Major League Baseball season. Late spring offers a full dose of sports, and nowhere are “fans” showing their support more than where it matters the least: Facebook.
A sellout crowd of 22,076 packed into the Palace of Auburn Hill in Detroit to see the Pistons severely outmatched against the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 4 of their basketball playoff series Sunday afternoon. Another 51,661 (and counting) other people, however, gather in another venue, as Facebook fans of their beloved Pistons.
Before, the faux-fans were easy to pick out. It was you, the self-proclaimed Yankees-lover, who wore your Jeter shirt constantly and had his People Magazine cover-photo taped inside your locker, but who couldn’t tell me what position he played. It was you, golf connoisseur, who bragged of your birdies and thought Phil Mickelson was called “Lefty” for his politics.
Now, everyone’s favorite five-minute break is taking superficial fandom to a new level. With the click of a button, anyone on Facebook can become a fan of just about anything. The Yankees-lover’s pin-up has become digitized. Once you’ve become a click-confirmed fan (safe to say it’s not much of a vetting process), it is published in your profile, and you can discuss your favorite athlete or team with all of its other digi-fans. Most importantly, you can do so without going to any games, meeting any people or uttering a sensible thought.
It is not just sports teams and celebrities that are amassing fans. The sidebar of my Facebook page tells me that three of my friends just became fans of Music. Music? Next up: oxygen, sunlight and hygiene.
Facebook is certainly a useful forum for social networking. Its photo and video uploading combined with the capacity for instant public communication make it a must-have for college students and increasingly popular for high-schoolers and older adults. You don’t have to be social—or, for that matter, interesting—to have hundreds of Facebook friends and an active social life of wall-posts and photo comments. Similarly, you don’t have to do much or know anything to project yourself as a fan of a team or player.
The Internet should never become the main location for fans to unite. Mouse clicks don’t equate to stomping feet. Computers don’t chant in unison or slap high-fives.
Almost as baffling as the popularity of Facebook fan groups has been the legitimization of those fans by the players or teams being admired. A forum where people from around the world gather to admire you passively can, after all, be a useful place to market yourself. Each fan page has one wall section where the team or player can be represented, and there is also one for fans only.
The Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers, who boast 198,694 Facebook fans, are frequent posters on their own site and regulate the content. A recent post warned that the Steelers are a “family team and any derogatory language will immediately be deleted.” Opposing fans, in other words, are not given the freedom to express their emotion-filled, beer-influenced, rivalry-building sentiments like they are at live games. But hey—maybe my favorite player will actually read my comments on the site! It’d be like we were actually talking!
The best part about fan sites, I suppose, is that those who actually support their favorite teams have no responsibility to do so via Facebook. Some still do, of course. But courtside seats do not make you a true fan, and neither do multiple wall posts.
A fan is someone who supports her team and will never jump ship. She probably has a favorite player and probably doesn’t wear that player’s jersey every day. A fan understands the strengths and weaknesses of her team and can have a logical conversation about it with a like-minded or opposing fan. She knows exactly when to abandon all reason and make as much noise as possible to help push her team to victory. This last show of support, of course, is not easily done from a computer chair.
Four of my Facebook friends are now fans of bonfires. Excuse me while I raise my foam finger.
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