Is John Green my best friend yet? - A tale of nerdfighteria
So I was just thinking about how important Vlogbrothers is to me. It’s pulled me out of some really nasty stuff/feelings, it’s made me feel happy and made me think, but most of all its made me feel accepted. I feel like I’m more accepted in nerdfighteria than I am even in my own home. I mean I come from a family where I am the only nerd. I thought I was crazy, and school never helps with that sort of stuff. But nerdfighteria made me realize it’s okay to be a nerd. It’s okay to obsess and love things. It’s made me want to decrease suck and make awesome. So to anyone who thinks YouTube videos, two people, or a fandom can’t shift a person’s life they are wrong. Sorry for the long post but yeah it’s just great. DFTBA!!:-D
– Tumblr user, 2018
John Green is my greatest crush. He is a friend, and a therapist, he is a sweetheart and a comic. John Green feels like a friend to me and to thousands of others around the world. He is not my friend, we have never met, but it sure feels like it.
The intensity of our unilateral relationship is what motivates me to try to understand why I feel this way about him and why I am not alone in doing so. Just like not all real-life relationships lead to an interpersonal relationship, not all audiovisual/media experiences lead to parasocial relationships. As I deep dive into John Green’s and his brother, Hank Green’s, work I also discover that not all parasocial relationships are strong enough to form a community. Theirs was/is.
So here are my questions: Why I love John Green? Why have we formed a unilateral relationship? How have the Vlogbrothers formed a community around relationships with people they have never met? And what is the future of the nerdfighter community?
I realize you, reader oblivious to certain very-specific depths of the internet, might have never heard some of the terms mentioned above, including John Green. Let’s tackle those questions first, shall we?
Who is John Green, what are parasocial relationships and how can the community created by the Vlogbrothers be described?
John Michael Green was born in August 24th, 1977. He is a Youtube icon who started publishing videos with his brother, William Henry (Hank) Green II, when the video-sharing platform wasn’t yet a social media but a public forum gathering some of the most enthusiastic internet fans. The year was 2007 and for three-hundred-and-sixty-five days the two 20-something-year-old brothers, who lived in different parts of the country, started to communicate with each other mostly through videos. People started watching them in their channel Vlogbrothers and slowly, it grew into a substantial following of thousands of people.
In one of his videos[1], John Green talked about a videogame whose title seemed, on a first look, nerdfighters. He eventually realized the name of the game he saw was not actually “nerdfighters”, but it led to him fantasizing publicly about a game where nerds “fight” popular kids.
With an American origin, the term nerd has been historically used as a pejorative way to describe individuals marginalized in most social situations – also known as “socially awkward”, - consumers of niche products – like comic books and science fiction – and who usually perform well in at least one area of knowledge (GUEDES DE MIRANDA, 2015). After recent transformations (and amplifications) in the entertainment market, along with the massification of digital technologies, being a nerd became, in the 1990’s and progressively more until today, instead of a disqualifying characteristic, a way to integrate a person into social patterns. Mainly, through and for consuming pop mainstream culture and internet-created content (AZARIAS, 2019). The contrast between both versions of what a nerd means can be seen in a 2007 Vlogbrothers video where John Green says: “Saying 'I notice you're a nerd' is like saying, 'Hey, I notice that you'd rather be intelligent than be stupid, that you'd rather be thoughtful than be vapid, that you believe that there are things that matter more than the arrest record of Lindsay Lohan.[2]”
Eventually, the brothers started calling themselves and the people who followed them nerdfighters. What was born out of the idea of a binary opposition (nerd x “popular” kids) became a precise term filled with subjectivism. At the same time the term “nerd” stopped being the opposite of a young person who is popular and desirable amongst their peers, within the vlogbrothers community, nerfighter was defined[3] as “a person who, instead of being made out of bones, and skin and tissue, is made entirely of awesome.”
Image 1 - One of the many images made out of vlogbrothers videos that circulate the internet
There was still an opposition (made of awesome versus not made of awesome) but for Hank and John Green said opposition was used in much broader terms, to describe anyone who feels like they do not fit-in but are curious about the world around them and want to change it for the best. A community for people without a group. Through their Youtube channel, followers were able to include, expand and collectively built on the notion of what a nerdfighter is and what they do.
In 2005, John Green published his first novel Looking for Alaska and with the success of Vlogbrothers his following in literary circles grew in the following years just as Hank Green started amplifying their youtube empire. With internet-based initiatives around teaching science and history (Crashcourse), the growth of nerdfighter-specific channels and forums, and a motto based on the importance of community and belonging, the places where the content the brothers made was multiplied, discussed and collectively-built on became a collective of safe-spaces also known as nerdfighteria.
Always finishing their videos with the code word D.F.T.B.A (Don’t forget to be awesome) John and Hank Green shared their lives (from hanging out at airports[1] to cutting hair[2]) and careers (you can buy my book[3], you can meet me there etc..), their failures (like that time not enough people came to Hank’s conference[4]), fears (future[5]) and friendships (Chris[6]) with thousands of people. Slowly, I and so many others started to know a little bit of John Green’s likes, dislikes, history, family, nicknames, embarrassments, mental health issues and what he considers to be a fulfilling life as well as bonding with him and other members of the community over shared curiosities around the mating rituals of giraffes[7] and the history of the pineapple[8].
Within the nerdfighter community, the idea of “being made of awesome”, started to gain the meaning of people who care about the world and the well-being of all other people. They can be of any gender or sexual orientation, profession or interests and are people “focused on decreasing world suck.” As the video-content increased, the definitions of things like world suck and awesomeness became more complete for viewers as implicit (and not necessarily intentional) definitions were dropped in the videos. Here is an example:
In our lifetimes we are all accidentally gonna do things that increase suck levels. But the true nerdfighter is awesome to say “you know what, I’ve made a mistake, I increased suck levels world-wide, but I didn’t mean to. I think we should change course as to decrease suck levels in the future. Hank, that is why I am so grateful that people in the American government are true and awesome nerdfighters. Oh wait… crap. (Green, John. 2007)
From the citation above, taken from a video published in March 15, 2007, one can conclude that awesomeness can mean to be able to recognize mistakes, and suck can mean invading a sovereign nation and not admitting that claiming they had weapons of mass destruction was a mistake. The latter is an information inferred from the fact that John Green published this video mentioning the American government at the same time George Bush increased war efforts in Iraq by 20 000[9] troops, even though the international community had already condemned the conflict and casualties only increased.
Image 2 In German: “Boots on the ground in Iraq war” – Image by Brookings institute
John and Hank never explicitly discuss a formal definition of “awesome” and “not awesome”. Those are only inferred and pointed to, little by little, in videos published in the course of more than twelve years. Those who continue to follow the videos, follow the new signifiers – the flow of a community that dances to the everchanging lives of the humans that make it a reality.
As users question the brothers on what is and isn’t world suck and awesome, at the same time, events give a different direction to the protagonist’s lives, the actions of nerdfighters went from not enjoying content made by influencers like Snooki[1] – defined as superfluous, materialistic and meaningless – to making efforts to positively change communities. Nerdfighters went from being the absence of a thing (not-superfluous, not-popular, not-mainstream, not-egotistic) to being their own definition of something (curious, valuing community and friendship, enjoy learning). And that was not only because of the creators of the content, but the symbiotic relationship between who creates the messages and who receives the messages shared on videos, comments and forums.
Youtube is a collaborative community, designed for interaction between creator and audience. Despite being adapted in 2011 to look like a traditional social media platform, Youtube was and still has been the cradle for independent communities based on entertainment that was free from the restraints of traditional media:
Traditional entertainment is designed for broad comprehensibility. Even when targeted to specific audience demographics, mainstream content uses devices that ensure basic levels of accessibility to the non-initiated. Plots are recapped, a standardized set of formats are employed, the same familiar genres of storytelling are used over and over. But Youtube creators don’t have to focus on content that known quantities of audience will flock to; specialized content in this environment finds its audience. Niche content on Youtube is optimized for those niche audiences and their familiarity with the topics covered. The resulting programming can often be impenetrable and off-putting to those of us outside that community. (ALOCCA, 2018, p.188)
With the help of a platform focused on niche content, the relationships, vocabulary and internet-presence of nerdfighters became more specific as the profile of nerdfighters became broader. Hank started to appear in multiple internet initiatives, including interviewing president Barack Obama in 2015[2], as John Green’s novels started to become best sellers. The adaptation of his novel The Fault in Our Stars to the big screen in 2014 made over 307 million dollars and the values of nerdfighteria became known to more people even though Youtube had become more populated and more segmented. By the time the VlogBrothers channel had hit over 3 million subscribers, not all of those followers were in love with John Green. If the literature is right, that would be a situation happening only to fans that have watched almost all videos, watching Green change, age and grow up, exactly as if they had actually seen everything and not selected windows John chose to show.
Horton and Wohl (1956) were the first to coin the term parasocial interaction (PSI) to describe the way some viewers reacted to television programs. When researchers first started studying mass responses to audiovisual media, the theory was that people reacted as if they were speaking to a real person.
As studies accumulated, illusion of interaction, identification and long-term identification (Rubin et all, 1985, p.175) became the three most important characteristics to define a parasocial relationship. One can identify with the Vlogbrothers because they are also curious and don’t like Snooki, one can feel like John Green is talking directly to them when he says “you guys” and one can feel like they are growing along with the Vlogbrothers as they see them change their minds, feel pain, get older and start a family of their own. It would be easy to say that Vlogbrothers are a community built under consumer-based unilateral relationships wasn’t it for the evidence pointing it as an agency-based community, bigger than the two Youtube stars who started it and, dare I say, an independent political movement that needs to be looked at closely.
Nerdfighters: the membrane of a political movement
In the field of biology, a membrane is the limiting covering of a cell. It tights its content together, keeping it from the outside world (as communities do), but also, defining it as a cell without being its whole. Membranes are not the entire cell, but they can look like it.
I fell in love (here seen as undeniable wish to be close, racing of the heartbeat when in mediated contact with person, immediately smiling when thinking about person among other factors) with John Green because I saw him showing affection for his brother, describing closely the fight he went through against and with his OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) and I memorized words he once wrote like “my thoughts are stars I cannot fathom into constellations.” It is a relationship undeniably parasocial. At the same time, possibly free of the negative connotations the term has carried since its been inserted into the field of psychology.
John Green does not know me, but I have gotten to know fragments of John Green that have transpired and inspired humanity instead of unidimensional adoration. The filling of parts of the void between perfect and flawed, intelligent and ignorant, sublime and pathetic were given not only by the slightly unfiltered daily (and then weekly) appearances of Green in front of my computer screen, but also by the vigilant community that went collectively through the experience of viewing him and his brother Hank. Asking questions, making fun of, providing ideas and constructing future plans in a platform that exposes the structure of those interactions (along with a creator that does not shy away from illuminating how much of his internet performance is a persona and not a person) make me a fan with a very different experience than the 1970’s beatlemaniacs, for example.
At the same time parasocial relations are a real phenomenon, the characteristics of Youtube and the Vlogbrother’s content made it possible for its principles and influences to extrapolate the membrane of the channel that once created its identity. Initiatives born within the community, such as mobilizations characterizing world suck as high pregnancy-related mortality rates[3], partnerships with different Youtube creators to make a creator’s collective[4], online-born experiences that recognizes the vicious cycles of consumerism and utilizes it as a tool to improve the world[5] - among others - are initiatives that circumscribe a specific way of existing and participating of society inside and outside of the internet. Miranda (2015) wrote that niches (such as nerdfighters) are intrinsically ephemeral, but I would argue that the long-term effects of their mobilizations, the behaviors and impacts that arise from their organized strategies, are not. Although the Vulcan salute that makes up the symbol of nerdfighteria might disappear along with John Green’s online and offline presence (as it is only natural), the conceptions of world he collectively helped create make up a pro-science, pro-curiosity, pro-inclusion movement that has been changing not only the way one can think about nerds, but also the way one can think about who is profiting off exposure on the internet, how and why.
PS. Is John Green My Best Friend Yet is a Tumblr blog (https://isjohngreenmybestfriendyet.tumblr.com/) dedicated only to updates from the author declaring daily if or if not John Green was their best friend yet. One might argue that it was a playful thing to amuse other members of nerdfighteria and make an ironic use of the recognition of a parasocial bond. I argue that it has 2349 entries by the same person with not a single affirmative sentence, not even a “John Green is a friend.”
References
Alocca, Kevin. (2018). Videocracy: How Youtube is changing the world – with double rainbowns, singing foxes and other trends we can’t stop watching. New York, NY : Bloomsbury USA, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2018.
Horton, D.; Wohl, R. (1956). Mass communication and para-social interaction: Observation on intimacy at a distance. Psychiatry. 19 (3): 215–229.
Miranda, Kirk Douglas Guedes de. (2015) O nicho como organização efêmera: uma análise sobre a comunicação e o comportamento dos nerds com relação a consumo, diversidade e ativismo. 50 f., il. Monografia (Bacharelado em Comunicação Social)—Universidade de Brasília, Brasília.
Raymond W. Preiss, Barbara Mae Gayle, Nancy Burrell, Mike Allen Routledge. (2006). Mass Media Affects Research: research through meta-analysis. New York: Routledge.
Rubin, A. M., Perse, E. M., and Powell, R. A. (1985). Loneliness, parasocial interac-tion, and local television news viewing. Human Communication Research, 12,155180
Schramm, Holger. (2008). Parasocial interactions and relationships. Zurich: University of Zurich. Available in: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/278750821_Parasocial_interactions_and_relationships (Last accessed: 05/11/2019)
[1] This is the video originally published in February 1st 2007, where John Green accidentally imagined the name nerdfighters https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPAoaWCMabw
[2] Citation directly transcribed from the 2007 video available in this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy1M5VHF3no
[3] In this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyQi79aYfxU published in December 26th, 2009
[4] Like in this 2012 video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlGAeJ6SIWQ
[5] Like in this 2018 video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btpU8PThCMo
[6] Like in this 2018 video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TaLahrHK6c
[7] Like in this 2019 video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-IH8Xdy5D4
[8] Like in this 2019 video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-51ut7VMs48
[9] Like in this 2014 video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRwcemQxbEY
[10] Like in this 2010 video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6V4WYvDEjYI
[11] Like in this 2019 video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zILfzEykDmY
[12] Graphic originally titled Anzahl der fremden Soldaten im Irak. Data and image provided by Brookings institute. Source: http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Centers/saban/iraq%20index/index20120131.PDF p. 13 (coalition troop strength in Iraq since May 2003)
[13] Snooki is a participant of the reality tv show Jersey Shore. Famous for copious amounts of makeup, public displays of alcoholism and her use of particular colloquial language. She is a theme in Hank’s 2011 video, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqiJtOQqQ7o
[14] His summary of the interview can be seen in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niuTZAKntC0
[15] The association between world suck and pregnancy-mortality rates can be seen in this 2019 video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfpXgkKTwmg
[16] That list of partnerships can be found here https://store.dftba.com/pages/creators
[17] One of the many videos about the Pizzamas initiative can be seen here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbhVsfeUieI