teenagers weren't in online fandom because they didn't have internet access!
Pretty much, and it's also why the demographics of internet users until the last decade skewed to the small number of people with at least some college education, because universities and labs were where the Internet grew up. When I did my survey of the Buffy fandom back in 2005 it was both highly educated and also underemployed. The reason was all the people in their early 20s still in school working part-time lower-entry jobs.
So yeah, the early decades of organized fandom left out a lot of kids because they were also unlikely to be able to go to cons (pre-Internet) and other spaces where fans might find one another. Also adults were more likely to be organizing everything, which is less offputting online than in person. I remember I found out somehow that in my hometown there was a Star Trek club headquartered in a home within 5 miles of my house. But I chose never to get in touch because I was 11 and figured they would all be grown ups and it would be uncomfortable.
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Pretty much, and it's also why the demographics of internet users until the last decade skewed to the small number of people with at least some college education, because universities and labs were where the Internet grew up. When I did my survey of the Buffy fandom back in 2005 it was both highly educated and also underemployed. The reason was all the people in their early 20s still in school working part-time lower-entry jobs.
So yeah, the early decades of organized fandom left out a lot of kids because they were also unlikely to be able to go to cons (pre-Internet) and other spaces where fans might find one another. Also adults were more likely to be organizing everything, which is less offputting online than in person. I remember I found out somehow that in my hometown there was a Star Trek club headquartered in a home within 5 miles of my house. But I chose never to get in touch because I was 11 and figured they would all be grown ups and it would be uncomfortable.