Thirty Helens Agree - Facebook Fanclubs are out-of-control

Facebook must be a fascinating place for Sociologists to watch, because popular-trends grow, evolve, and die at an accelerated rate there.  The first one I experienced was the, “25 Things About Me” notes… seeming it started slowly, but with a frequency that let you know that it was going to eventually explode.  Then came the “Top-5 Craze”, where folks posted the five NFL teams they hated the most, or the 5 movies they know by heart, etc…  to a certain extent, Top-5’s still pop-up, but a lot less these days. Currently, the “Quiz Craze” dominates Facebook, where you take a quiz to see which Friends character ‘you are’, or the ideal city for you, and so on. However, a new trend is quickly emerging, which promises to be much more annoying than any of the previous ones… as the “Quiz Craze” quickly fades, the “Fan Club for Everything Craze” is cranking up to be huge.

At first, Facebook Fan Clubs were, generally, limited to singers and bands, movies and TV shows, sports teams, politicians and other famous people, and that was it.  Recently, new fan clubs have been popping up.  When this started, the clubs were very general… “Wine - 3 friends are members - Become a fan”.  Well, I like wine…  but am I a ‘fan’?  I’m not an expert on the subject, by any means, other than, I-know-what-I-like.  But, I don’t have a wine collection, or wine books, I don’t read wine web sites or magazines, so, I guess I’m a fan, but not enough of a fan to feel like joining a wine fan club.

Now the clubs are venturing beyond traditional fandom, and into looser, more fan-of-this-concept, territory…  I’m pretty sure that almost everyone feels that they ‘need’, or, at least, ‘could use’, a vacation.  I’ve seen fan clubs for “Sleeping In”, “Sunsets”, and other things that, I think we can all assume that the vast majority of people enjoy. It will be very interesting to see how far this trend goes…  personally, I’m hoping for fan clubs like: