#FanTheories

Earlier this week I spent 20 minutes in a Discord server defending a fan theory about a K-Pop group's choreography as if it were a formal sociological framework. For context I was half-listening to a podcast about Social Exchange Theory while working on what I now realize was a 'K-Pop cross-stitch' project (thanks to a comment I later edited). At one point I compared fan shipping dynamics to 'symbolic interactionism' as if either concept required actual academic credentials. The humiliation came when a grad student in the chat gently pointed out that my reference to 'structural functionalism' more accurately described why my cross-stitch kept unraveling. Lesson learned: fan theories and social theory both use frameworks to make sense of chaos, but one involves slightly more peer review. Bonus question for the subreddit - does memeing a concept count as applying it in real-world social systems?