Social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram have transformed the way fan communities form and interact, fostering highly engaged and immersive digital communities and fandoms. Amongst these communities, the Taylor Swift fandom, also known as Swifties, demonstrates how social media amplifies parasocial relationships, enhances fan participation, and contributes to the creation of cult-like online communities. While passionate fan bases have existed long before social media, the rise of the digital age has intensified these connections by providing unseen access to celebrities’ lives, encouraging collective engagement, and enabling large-scale interactions between fans that never used to be possible. Despite criticisms of Taylor Swift’s songwriting themes, her engagement with fans through social media has significantly contributed to her sustained success with fans always quick to create media and content in regard to anything she does.

Social media platforms, particularly TikTok and Instagram, have played a crucial role in shaping the Swiftie fandom into a hyper-engaged and participatory online community, often blurring the lines between admiration and God like-worship ‘Her music, the Gospel, her concerts, Church’ (Hoctor, 2018). By looking at TikTok’s role in encouraging fan theories, trends, and concert engagement, as well as Instagram’s function in allowing Swifties to analyse cryptic posts and Easter eggs, this paper will explore how Swift has used digital media to create a unique, interactive, and sometimes cultlike fan base. Taylor Swifts’ fans the Swifties represent the changing nature of online communities, showing how digital fandom, fan participation, and media trends shape the way people connect and engage in the social media era.

Who’s Taylor Swift Anyway?

Who is Taylor Swift? And why is she so popular? To some, Taylor Alison Swift is just an “overhyped” singer who writes songs about her ex-boyfriends. But to those fans who consider themselves Swifties, she is someone they look up to, a near-mythical figure they may never meet but follow with unwavering devotion. Swift has been a dominant force in the music industry since her early days as a country singer in Nashville. In 2009, she won the VMA for Best Female Music Video, surpassing seasoned artists like Beyoncé, P!nk, and Katy Perry. Fast forward to 2025, and she is at the peak of her career, having just finish performing one of the most highly anticipated tours of the 21^st century, with IHeart radio presenting her with the inaugural tour of the century award in early March 2025, ‘a title she will spend the next 75 years defending’ (Atkinson, 2025). The Eras tour received never seen before success with the tour becoming the first ever to gross at least one billion dollars (Millman, 2023)   Before the release of Reputation in 2018, Swifties had a relatively standard relationship with the singer, despite her long history of leaving “Easter eggs” in her music, social media posts, and interviews from as far back as her first album self-titled ‘Taylor Swift’. However, after Swift was villainized by the media and temporarily withdrew from the public eye before coming back a year later with Reputation, her fandom’s dynamic shifted. The defining moment came in 2019 when she lost control of her music masters, a turning point that fueled an even deeper loyalty among her fanbase as she began to re-record all her old music and rerelease it. 

Around the same time, TikTok was rapidly gaining traction as a platform for short-form video content with an algorithm designed for you. Within just a few years, it grew from a small less known platform to one that boats around two billion users globally (Ceci, 2025), creating countless digital communities and reaching people from all over the globe. Among them was Swift Tok—a niche space where fans dissected Swift’s music, theorized about hidden messages, and engaged in viral trends inspired by her work. The platform allowed Swifties to connect, analyse, and celebrate Swift’s music and career in ways that were never possible before.

TikTok’s Role in Cultivating the Swiftie Community

How does TikTok contribute to the formation of cult-like communities? The platform provides a space where fans can openly express their admiration for Taylor Swift and connect with those who share this same admiration. This has allowed for an intensified reaction when the announcement of Swift’s re-recorded albums began, starting with Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and followed by the highly anticipated Red (Taylor’s Version). Known for treating her career like a puzzle, Swift leaves hidden clues in her work also referred to as Easter eggs. Swift leaves these in everything from her lyrics and interviews to her hairstyles and outfits. TikTok has given fans the perfect platform to analyse these clues, collaborate on theories, and engage in discussions in a way that was never possible before. For many, it felt like there was a safe and dedicated space to be a Swiftie.

As the fandom grew, Swift harnessed TikTok’s influence to engage with her audience directly. Leading up to the release of her multi-Grammy-winning album Midnights in October 2022, she introduced a TikTok series called Midnight’s Mayhem with Me (@taylorswift) where she teased track names in a fun, and suspenseful manner. Fans stayed up until midnight, eagerly refreshing their feeds, waiting for her next post. This level of engagement solidified Swifties as a digital force, and after Midnights dropped, Swift shattered 73 records (Young, 2022)—an achievement largely credited to her devoted fanbase. TikTok became so saturated with Taylor Swift-related content that it was nearly impossible to scroll without encountering her music or discussions about her.

The idea of Swifties being a “cult” gained even more traction with the Eras Tour, announced shortly after Midnights’ release. Ticket demand was so overwhelming that, to accommodate every U.S. fan who wanted a seat, Swift would have needed to perform 900 stadium shows just in the United States (Stassen, 2022). This demand meant that when the tour began, fans harnessed TikTok as a way to show the concert, as well as use TikTok live streams so everyone could be a part of the journey. Fans who couldn’t attend in person tuned in to watch the entirety of the Eras show, especially for the surprise song performances, praying their favourites wouldn’t be played before their show. Some creators such as Tess Bohne (@tessdear) used this demand as way to build a platform as she specifically became the go to creator to find TikTok live streams. The platform also amplified trends surrounding the tour—outfits inspired by Swift’s eras, lyric references, and the now-iconic friendship bracelets. The act of crafting and trading these bracelets became a symbol of connection, strengthening the sense of unity within both the fandom and just people in general, with friendship bracelets being handed out to police, airline staff, security and many others with no involvement in the tour itself. These actions whilst positive and a display of love for the singer did help intensify the cult like perception people have of the fans.

What truly sets the Swiftie community apart is Swift’s active participation in it. She has openly admitted to lurking on social media and drawing inspiration from fans. A prime example is TikTok user Paige Owen (@pto_dreesage), who created a viral mashup of Is It Over Now? (From the Vault) and Out of the Woods. The video amassed over seven million views and even caught Swift’s attention—she later performed the mashup live in Buenos Aires. This direct artist-fan interaction is rare, especially for someone of Swift’s status. Her willingness and desire to engage with her fans on such a personal level only deepens the devotion of her followers, reinforcing TikTok’s role as a key player of the Swiftie phenomenon.

Instagram notifications are on for Taylor 

Instagram fosters a cult-like mindset much like TikTok, but in a different way. The parasocial relationship between fans and celebrities is more clearly defined on Instagram, with a stronger divide between the two except, of course, when it does involve the ever-dedicated Taylor Swift fans the Swifties.

For most celebrities, posting a photo on Instagram is just that—a photo. But when Taylor Swift shares an image, it becomes so much more. Fans immediately analyse every detail: Is her grid aligned? How many posts does she have now? Which words in her caption stand out? What time and date did she post? Could anything in the photo be a hidden clue to her next album or re-release? The level of scrutiny a single Swift post receives is far from ordinary, but the real instigator is Swift herself. Taylor Swift has openly encouraged this kind of deep analysis, once saying, “I think it’s normal to have a normal relationship with music. However, if you want to come down the rabbit hole, the water’s great—we’re all mad here.” She has also admitted to planting hints years in advance, stating in a 2021 interview with Jimmy Fallon, “I started thinking—how far is too far in advance to hint at something? Can I hint at something three years in advance?”

Since Swift rarely posts on Instagram, every upload is an important event and because her comments are restricted, fans quickly migrate to TikTok to dissect and debate theories. Within minutes of a new Swift post, hundreds—if not thousands—of videos emerge, each offering its own analysis of what it could mean.

You look like Taylor Swift in this light, we’re loving it

So why is it Taylor Swift, of all artists, who has reached this level of pop stardom? Why is she considered the embodiment of the music industry? If you strip away the social media frenzy, the Easter eggs, and the elaborate theories, it all comes down to one thing—her songwriting. Swift has an unparalleled ability to capture the full range of emotions that one goes through. Her music resonates across all ages—whether it’s a 60-year-old man listening to Folklore, a six-year-old girl dancing to 1989, or an 18-year-old guy belting out Love Story in a club on a Saturday night, there’s a Taylor Swift song for everyone.

Having entered the industry as a young teenager, many of Swift’s original fans are now in their twenties and thirties. In a way, they have grown up alongside her. With each album release, her music evolves to reflect her own experiences—coincidentally mirroring what many of her fans are going through at the same time (Morris, 2024). Whether it’s joy, heartbreak, love, or grief, Swift writes about life’s ups and downs in a way that feels deeply personal and universally relatable.

What keeps her at the peak of popularity, however, is the timelessness of her music. The re-releases of her albums have allowed both longtime fans and newcomers to rediscover her discography, making old songs feel new again (Morris, 2024). While some may argue that Swifties worship her in a godlike way (Hoctor, 2018), leading to the misconception that being a Swiftie is like joining a cult, it ultimately comes down to how social media has strengthened the connection—not just between Swift and her fans, but among fans themselves.

Being a Swiftie means being part of a global community of millions who share the same passion for her music, her hidden clues, and the experience of dressing up for her concerts. The constant engagement on social media continues to grow the fandom, inviting more people to go down the “rabbit hole” and become part of something bigger. Without social media, the level of success Swift experiences today would never have been possible. The power of her fans is unmatched.

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