Abstract:
The purpose of this work is to outline the elements of the online platform, Wattpad, and how it creates an online community with the revival of authorship and the consumption of creative works. With this work, comes the analysis of what makes an online community thrive and links users through their interest of writing and reading creative works. This can be resourceful to academics and researchers whose research question contains elements of Wattpad’s use of features to create strong ties between users, how users utilise other platforms to promote their creative works, and to support the idea of digital reading and writing having a positive effect on literacy levels. Using academic sources and the statistics regarding the platform, this work argues that the platform, Wattpad, is a third place for an online community of users who use YouTube links, comments and likes to contribute to the revival of reading and writing in the younger generation. This topic aligns with the stream of communities and social media as it highlights how users gather online over a common interest and communicate to create strong ties between users.

Wattpad is an online website that allows for the publishing and consumption of creative works from new and already established authors. Containing works of ‘novels, fanfiction, humour, classics and poetry’ (Pianzola et al., 2020, para. 1), the platform has become a digitalised way of creative freedom and for the expression of common interests. With 94 million users and over 400 million stories that have been uploaded in 50 different languages as of 2022 (DMR Business Statistics, 2023), Wattpad has taken advantage of the Web 2.0 with its linkage of networks and is the hub for an online community of authors and readers. An online community forms when there is a common interest, and with the Web 2.0’s main element of communication through the internet, social media platforms are used to house these communities. These platforms present Ray Oldenburg’s theory of the third place, and Wattpad uses fanfiction to connect readers and writers of a young demographic. Users created an online community on the Wattpad platform through the use of anonymity among users, communication via linkage to YouTube, and a space for new digitalised reading and writing.

Wattpad and Anonymity
With Wattpad’s popularity, the online platform has gained an online community that has installed the phenomenon of the third place and the option for anonymity. The concept of the third place was established by Ray Oldenburg, who defines it as ‘a place of refuge other than the home or workplace where people can regularly visit and commune with friends, neighbours, co-workers, and even strangers’ (Mehta & Bosson, 2010, p.780). With Wattpad users discovering the common interest of fanfiction and novella, they are using the platform in their time between school, work, and other responsibilities. This is an example of a third place, as users interact with strangers with the connection of their common interest. While there are suburban and local communities that have book clubs and writers’ classes, the younger generation has turned to the internet with their interests in spite of their local opportunities. The younger generation have turned from physical print to the internet’s digital form of reading because of aspects like the convenient accessibility through smartphones, the saving of room that physical books would usually occupy, and the unlimited access to works of fanfiction (which are yet to be printed in physical form) (Loh, 2022). Through digital devices, users venture to Wattpad to engage in creative works written by others, or to release their own works of fanfiction and original novellas. When analysing Wattpad data for user demographics, it is shown that the largest contributors of readers and writers are those aged 18-24 years old, making it a dominantly young adult-based platform (similarweb, 2023). With data showing that social anxiety begins ‘around the age of 15-25’ (Yli-Lantta, 2020, para. 8), platforms like Wattpad that present an online community are where young people take refuge to express their interests. But with this platform comes the establishment of identity, which is shown through a username and picture icon that is visible to the public. This poses the question of how can young people with anxiety issues like social anxiety take part in the community’s elements without feeling the same as they would in a public setting? Their identity is still known to other users through their online presence of a username and icon, so how does Wattpad create a different environment for users with these social issues? What makes this platform so alluring to the younger generation despite the requirement of having a username and icon? In order to be a third place for the demographic that the platform markets itself to, Wattpad requires a feature that allows users to feel socially secure. Wattpad has targeted this common issue that is found in the younger generation of Web 2.0 users and has the option for anonymity.

Young people take refuge in this online community as there is the choice for anonymity while having the accessibility to fanfiction. The desire for anonymity stems from the loss of self in a large society, and where being a part of a large mass of groups leads to the lack of responsibility (Wang, 2018). Individuals attempt to break away from the masses and follow their own understandings and interests but desire an invisible identity when in the public’s view. The younger generation achieve this through the use of anonymity. Those aged 18-24 are taking full advantage of the Web 2.0 and its popularity during their young adult years. Wattpad allows this group to be anonymous with the inclusion of usernames and includes the option to upload any image file as a profile icon, as opposed to a facial recognition feature to prevent identity theft like other platforms have implemented (Persen, 2023). The public’s view of users’ profiles can display only what the user desires, and if they choose to have a name like w0nderwriter, which is an active username on the platform as of 2023, that is all the public is able to know about that user. This user is able to indulge in their choice of fanfiction available on the platform without other users knowing any other aspects of their identity. This is an aspect of the platform’s allure of being a third place, as it promotes comfort for its users. This option for anonymity targets the younger generation’s common fears of social interaction and allows them to interact without needing to expose their personal identity. Wattpad acts as a safe space for this social group and works as an online community that allows for anonymity in the group’s third place.

Wattpad’s Features and Use of Other Platforms
Communication is an important part of an online community and with the platform, Wattpad, users do this through the use of the comment and voting features. To support authors, readers can star their works to communicate their feedback and boost the author’s piece on the searching algorithm. This can be done on each chapter published in the works, and the more stars a piece has, the higher it will be when searching for keywords. Authors rely on their readers’ votes to break their creative works into popularity, which then creates a tight network of users. With votes, some Wattpad authors can break out into mainstream novella publishing and even to Hollywood film. Author Anna Todd (username imaginator1D) published their fanfiction, After, which featured the British singer and ex-band member of One Direction, Harry Styles. With two sequels, one prequel, and two spinoffs, Todd’s After series received over 30 million stars on Wattpad and was published in physical print by Gallery Books (Wattpad, 2023). The works also received four Hollywood-production films, all of which stemmed from the original Wattpad works. Because of Wattpad’s readers voting for Todd’s works by using the star feature, the author was able to earn a publishing deal and grow into the film business with her original story. Although the source contained a celebrity that the author did not have the rights to include in their published works, the After series found success from the online community it flourished in. This is an example of how the voting feature can lead to financial and professional success in writing. This form of communication in an online community allows for feedback to reach the author, and for changes to be made to the works to suit the audience’s requests. With this system of voting from readers, the online community that is Wattpad is supportive of users succeeding in professionalising their interests. Along with this, the platform also has another feature of communication, and that is the comment section. This allows for specific forms of feedback to reach the author and for the direct communication between the readers and the author. These comments can appear next to the exact sentence that readers are referring to, or at the end of each chapter. Users can reply and add to a comment conversation, creating threads of discussions about fanfiction topics and events in the creative works. Wattpad flourishes through ‘the participatory nature of the fan community-’ as it ‘-ensures supportive feedback from other fans’ (Leigh, 2020, para. 5), and the comment section displays this healthy element of an online community. Examples of these affirming comments can be seen in the finale of Adventures in Babysitting » Peter Parker by w0nderwriter, where comments like ‘I love Riley she’s such a complex character’ and ‘This is actually the best fanfic in history, it’s written like a real book with its own plot and I love it’ were published at the end of chapter 62 (Yn-Hargreeves-nr8 & Lokissub, retrieved on 29th of March, 2023). This motivates the reader and creates consistent updates on works, and the drive to produce more creative works. With this voting and comment feature, Wattpad uses communication to create a supportive online community. To further integrate this community and take advantage of the Web 2.0’s multimedia, Wattpad has introduced the access to YouTube.

The online platform of Wattpad utilises other platforms to create contributing forms of media for creative works. When writers create stories, some like to take influence from the film industry by creating trailers. While the film industry uses snippets from upcoming movies and series to advertise to audiences, Wattpad writers like to create a more relative element to their works. Without a production team and paid actors to be face claims, which is ‘to describe a person used for the physical description of a character’ (MCK, 2013, para. 1), trailers are created by authors using stock footage and copyrighted material. With the correct accreditations and referencing, trailers are uploaded to the platform, YouTube, and linked through hyperlinks directly from authors’ published pieces. Here are two examples of trailers for Wattpad works that have been uploaded to YouTube and linked through the use of hyperlinks. For their original work titled The Favour, the author known as Nadiapops created a trailer that coincides with the story’s synopsis. The trailer, which can be viewed here, consists of existing footage of model Simon Nessman and actress Lily Colins, who are the face claims to the author’s characters. Another example is w0nderwriter’s work Adventures in Babysitting » Peter Parker, which can be viewed here. The author produced the trailer that is linked to their works on Wattpad with footage from Marvel’s Spider-Man trilogy, as it incorporates the plot from these films with added characters. With footage of actor Tom Holland and actress Camila Mendes as the characters’ face claims, the trailer promotes the works, and allows readers to envision the story as more than a fan-written piece. This shows that the online community has reached beyond Wattpad and utilises YouTube’s features of video sharing. This promotes the author’s work with a visual aspect and extends to more users, creating a network of creative readers and writers. With YouTube’s incorporation into the fanfiction platform, the online community utilises their demographic’s interest in the Web 2.0’s features of short videos and vlogging. YouTube’s growth in recent years can be awarded because of its novelty and amateur-based vlog style, which has proven to be popular among the younger generation (Harris et al., 2020). Their interest in YouTube works to expand its online community to an area that shares the interest of their 15–25-year-old audience. Therefore, the online community of Wattpad is a central source of fanfiction and visual media, successfully engaging the young audience they target themselves towards. With communication and the integration of other platforms on the internet, Wattpad works as an online community, but it’s main feature and impact is in the revival of creative writing and reading among young people.

Creative Writing Revival
Wattpad’s topic of fanfiction and novella brings to light the return of young people’s interest in reading and writing in a creative sense. In relation to physical print and traditional reading, most journal articles state that the interest in reading and writing in young people has declined rapidly in recent decades (Moyes, 2010). This may be true, but Jessica E. Moyes from the University of Minnesota poses the idea that these articles do not consider that the form of reading and writing has in fact changed, rather than declined in young people. The shift to the internet could explain the decline in physical print reading statistics, but this is not an effective measurement of young people’s interest in reading and writing in general. Moyes also states that there is a prominent divide between digital forms of literacy and physical forms, where young adults who test highly in literacy levels consider their digital forms of reading as ‘fake’ (Moyes, 2010). This could be a result of the older generation’s (those who were in their young adolescent years before the popularity of the Web 2.0) denial of digital reading and writing being an intellectual form of literacy. But with platforms like Wattpad, where literacy takes the form of fanfiction and independent novella, young people are engaging in reading and writing as if it were a printed-book or with the traditional pen and paper. The practice of fanfiction has been acknowledged to be a contribution to existing works, and incorporates the use of ‘textual interpretation, critical analysis, and oppositional response’ (Leigh, 2020, para. 2). In a traditional classroom that teaches young generations to read, write and analyse texts, these are techniques that are insisted upon by most education curriculums. The communication that is used through Wattpad between users is what creates the element of the third place and is yet another crucial aspect of writing and learning. This interaction with others is emphasised by literature educational curriculums, as feedback and collaboration show the ‘generosity of spirit’ (Leigh, 2020) in readers and authors. Having a healthy environment around the production of creative works can lead to the growth of others and leads to the increased production of pieces from the increased motivation. But how does this platform substitute the social interaction that is critical to learning writing and reading skills in the classroom? The feature of comments can act as an option for readers and writers to communicate to each other, but this still is a more isolated space in comparison to a traditional learning environment. Wattpad is an exclusively online platform, meaning that communication in-person and in traditional settings is still the more favourable way of learning social skills, but this is not to say that Wattpad is not a social platform. This creates the concept of the networked individual, where users will need to use the Web 2.0’s features of communication to be social to other users. With the use of the comment section on Wattpad, users can improve their communication skills where and when they desire. Their interaction over the platform can lead to the sharing of perspectives and reveal new meanings in texts. The comment section acts as a classroom for users and contributes to the online community’s allure of comfort for its users. Contribution to Wattpad can be seen as an academic and productive act towards increased literacy levels for young people. If digitalised fanfiction utilises these concepts, Wattpad as a fanfiction platform can be deemed a qualitive resource for young people to build on their literacy skills while also enjoying their interest.

Wattpad presents its own online community of fanfiction and novella as evident through the young generation’s use of digitalised literature. With the platform’s use of anonymity to create a safe, third place, its communication features that integrates the platform of YouTube to promote works, and its digitalised form of reading and writing as opposed to its traditional print counterpart, the younger generation are choosing to take part in Wattpad to connect with others of the same interest. This paper does not analyse the extent of whether fanfiction is an infringement on copyrighted works of film, books, or TV series, and if fanfiction’s literacy is qualitative in comparison to traditional novella and books. This paper also does not argue whether anonymity on the internet could lead to negative reactions like cyberbullying, spreading of misinformation, or false representations of individuals. If these limitations were to be further investigated and researched to produce another conference paper, it could be relative to this paper to authenticate the ideas presented to promote fanfiction to new generations.

 

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