Swiftie Discourse Community

The Swifty Discourse Community

Using the observation of Taylor Swift fans to explore the difference between cults and fandoms and how social media plays a role.

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Defining Swifties & DCs

What is a cult?

Are Swifties a cult?

Swifties Online

How are Swifties a DC?

What is a Swifty? A Swifty is a person who considers themselves a fan of Taylor Swift and her music. The community has a shared love and appreciation for her and her music. What is a Discource Community? According to linguistic John Swales, a discourse community has a shared goal, communication within the community and outside the community, and has a shared language in some capacity Swifties are a DC because... They have a shared interest/goal and have forms of communication as well as their own culture.

What is a Cult?

Are Swifties a cult?

Cult

a group of people with usually atypical beliefs living in relative isolation from the world. They tend to centralize around one charismatic person—the cult leader—who orders the beliefs, behaviors, and customs of all the other members

Swifties

Fanbase of Taylor Swift, they engage in online communication with one another and share information. There are varying levels of envolvement.

Are Swifties Exhibiting Cult Behavior?

Have atypical beliefs

To somebody who does not like Taylor Swift, they might consider the fan bases beliefs atypical, but overall, their shared love for her music is not anything unordinary.

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Relative Isolation from the world

Because this fanbase operates mostly online, they cannot have total isolation. However, some fans are so wrapped up that they might be somewhat oblivious to the outside world.

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Centralized around one person

While the fandom is focused on Taylor Swift and her music, some people who just consider themselves fans of her music rather than of the person. The are some extremists in the group but also some less involved fans.

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Swifty Perception Online

Cult Behavior?

In general, there is a lot of false information that gets spread on the internet. Not just with Swifties but within many topics and communites.

There are some people that try to claim that Swifties are in a cult. Some of these videos on TikTok are jokes but are still warping and misusing information

The Community Online

There are many accounts that are based purely on her and her music. There are even fan accounts for her cats! https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2023/11/14/top-taylor-swift-influencers-swifties-livestreams/71565073007/

The Swiftie Community uses social media to engage with each other and spread her music. They have their own language and culture on apps like TikTok, Twitter and Instagram. Many accounts have amounted thousands of followers, and are even run like a business.

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Works Cited

Pictures: https://www.discovermagazine.com/mind/the-psychology-behind-cults https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/can-buy-taylor-swift-tour-tickets-not-ticketmaster-rcna57782 https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/music/2021/04/taylor-swift-fearless-version-2008-original-release-fans https://bnn.network/arts/swifties-celebrate-1989-taylors-version-anticipate-next-re-release/ Citations for research can be found on the Discourse Community Paper itself. Instagram Account: https://www.instagram.com/taylorvideo/?hl=en

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