While on my journey of One Direction discovery, two social networks that stood out to me were Tumblr and Twitter. These two networks had a very large community of 1D fans who frequently shared content and news with one another. Here are 3 observations from these Fan Communities:

1. Like any other topic we’ve studied in class, each network had thought leaders and influencers – typically with a lot of followers and highly respected by the community. On Twitter, these were generally “update accounts” who spread 1D news, or high profile fans who had somehow met or spent time with the boys. These accounts were treated like celebrities by other fans – they often gained hundreds of followers per day.

2. Twitter is brilliant for stalking finding people. When 1D were in Vancouver for their concert in the summer of 2013, I patrolled Twitter for sightings using hashtags like #1Dvancouver. After running around downtown and screening thousands of tweets for over 12 hours, I successfully found Harry Styles having dinner with his sister at The Flying Pig in Yaletown at 1am. I watched creepily from the window and once they left, I tweeted the info to an update account. They retweeted my info and I gained close to a hundred followers in 10 minutes. I was also approached by multiple accounts asking me to become an “insider” for them during the concert (essentially a reporter), and in exchange for spreading secrets I would gain followers and glory – it was like an exclusive invite to the cool kids club.

DM I received from an update account

3. The source of your information is key. With so many girls seeking attention, tons of lies were popping up: Lindsay spotted Liam in a club making out with who? Jessica ran into Niall buying what? Rumours spread like wildfire, especially with influencers tweeting information to their hundreds of thousands of followers. It became increasingly important to find the source of the gossip and establish whether or not the source was credible. This is a key learning that should be applied to everything we find online – all too often, we forget how easy it is to make up lies and post it on the internet.

Teen Sydney Dalton was a trending topic on Twitter for being the key figure in a rumour

It’s been 3 years since that fateful day I stumbled upon that first One Direction video, and I’ve since moved on from my fangirling days. As for all those hours I spent tweeting, stalking, reading about, and thinking about the boys? I regret nothing.