Social Media, Communities, & Networks Conference 2026: Semester 1 & SP1

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One response to “From Viewers to Community: How The Sidemen Fans Build Connection Through YouTube and TikTok – Isabeau Taylor-Schacht”

1. 

   Fiza Syed

   01/05/2026

   Hi Isabeau, I found this presentation quite interesting regarding the Sidemen fandom and how they utilise these platforms to build communities and networked publics. I did not know that YouTube-based groups also had large fan bases, such as the established K-pop group I presented in my paper.

   Here are my questions;

   In your conference presentation, you examine two online platforms, TikTok and YouTube. As someone who barely uses YouTube as a means to engage with fandoms I am a part of, I am curious to which of the two platforms you think offers social affordances better suited to creating a fan community in general, aside from the Sidemen fandom public, and allowing those part of the fandom to experience and feel a sense of belonging with their networked community? Why do you think so?

   While you provided a largely optimistic view of fan community formation through social media, I like how you reminded us that networked media environments can also become spaces for networked harassment, polarisation, and social harm. The example of a guest on a video receiving a lot of negativity from fans was great. Do you find that there is a platform between the two where fans are more critical of the Sidemen, and, if so, what affordances on that platform enable this? If so, do you think it can be solved or reduced in any way without disrupting the balance between protecting open speech and mitigating risks like harmful content, perhaps by the platform itself (YouTube or TikTok) or by moderation from fan accounts on TikTok, such as deleting comments from their fan-made TikTok’s?

   My last question is about fandom publics: you mention that “Fans develop inside jokes, shared language and a collective identity.” In the case of the Sidemen fandom, do you find that this form of shared engagement has strengthened the networked public overall through social affordances? If you think that it has, how do you find that the fandom has been strengthened positively or negatively, as a fandom is capable of also bonding over mutual distaste for something as well?

   I look forward to your response 🙂

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