What Superfans Know That the Rest of Us Should Learn

The Taylor Swift and ‘Star Wars’ obsessives have unlocked a key to happiness

Updated Aug. 19, 2024 at 10:40 am ET

Joe Blake kicked off his first dating-app chat with Missy Gosbee by inquiring about her favorite “Star Wars” movie. “Episode V,” she instantly told him. (Nonfan translation: “The Empire Strikes Back.”)

Soon they were spending her birthdays watching 13-hour “Star Wars” marathons, munching on “Star Wars”-themed food from her collection of “Star Wars”-themed cookbooks. Between the two of them, they have 12 lightsabers. So to pick a date for their wedding this year, only one felt right.

On May the Fourth, they wed near Detroit, exiting the ceremony to music from the original 1977 film, under an arch of glowing lightsabers held aloft by their guests.

“Once I finally truly let myself go to it,” the now Mrs. Blake says of embracing her passion for “Star Wars,” “I met this world of other people.”

The new Mr. and Mrs. Blake included lots of ‘Star Wars’ touches at their May 4 wedding. Photo: Kirsty Miller/Eclypse Media

From the outside, it’s easy to roll our eyes at devotees of everything from Taylor Swift to “Star Trek.” We deem them nerdy or frivolous, judge their costumes, the time they waste on Reddit, the money they spend on concert tickets.

What if they’ve figured out something the rest of us haven’t?

After all, so many of us lack community. Data from Cigna finds 58% of Americans are lonely. Religion is fading. Work doesn’t love us back. Maybe letting ourselves be obsessed with that highly specific and possibly weird thing we love is the answer.

While reporting this column, I heard stories of childlike wonder, deep meaning and bonds forged with people around the globe. May Naidoo, a British Ph.D. student and content creator, traveled to Japan, Paris and Chicago as part of his quest to see real-life versions of famed artworks featured in his favorite Nintendo game, “ Animal Crossing.” Kathryn Chung—crowned the “U.K.’s Biggest Disney Fan” after winning a two-week-long competition—told me about the comfort Disney gives her and the sense of always having a magical escape if she needs it.

May Naidoo with some friends from 'Animal Crossing' at a London Nintendo event.

“If it brings you joy, why not do more of it?” the 33-year-old architect asked, clad in an “Aladdin”-print dress. A photo of her and her husband wearing mouse ears hung on the wall behind her on our Zoom call.

Hobbies overtake religion

More than six in 10 Americans said hobbies or recreational activities were extremely or very important to them, according to a 2023 poll from Gallup. That’s up from 48% in 2001 and 2002. Meanwhile, the share of people who said the same about religion dropped 7 percentage points, to 58%.

The passion that James Isaac has found in the Grateful Dead community reminds him of the church his family attended growing up, a group of people fervent in faith.

“I know what it means to have something crawl up inside of you and almost take you over,” says Isaac, a 45-year-old lawyer in Madison, Wis.

James Isaac loves that his daughters, JoJo, left, and CeCe, right, love music too—even if they prefer Taylor Swift to the Grateful Dead. Photo: James Isaac

In his youth, he amassed about 2,500 hours of live Dead tapes. These days, his 600-some CDs are mostly relegated to the basement. When he presses play on “Touch of Grey” in his 2012 Volvo, his elementary school-age daughters initially groan from the back seat. Then, in the rearview mirror, he’ll see them mouthing along.

He loves that his children might think of him, years from now, when they hear the song, an invisible string connecting them.

‘Collective effervescence’

Picture a crowd swaying in unison to a beloved song. Everyone assembled feels the same emotion simultaneously, says Paul Booth, a professor of media and pop culture at DePaul University. The euphoria catches and builds.

The experience, known as “collective effervescence,” can feel transcendent, he says, almost telepathic.

“I think it has to do with wanting something in our lives that we can lose ourselves in,” he says. At a time of increasing polarization and cynicism—not to mention that coming election—it’s an especially wondrous connection, he adds.

Loneliness, meanwhile, is like thirst, says Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a professor of psychology and neuroscience who directs the Social Connection & Health Lab at Brigham Young University. We’re social beings, biologically wired to crave being part of a group. If that’s gone, our mental and physical health can suffer, she says, leading to depression, Type 2 diabetes, even early death.

The risk of caring

And yet joining in requires vulnerability. Fandom asks us to latch ourselves to something outside of us, to allow a person or object we don’t have control over to become part of our identities. How much easier to stay cool and removed, rather than risk having our enthusiasm batted down or betrayed.

“That’s the heart of a fandom,” says Tara Block, who fell in love with the “Harry Potter” books after graduating college. “You care a lot.”

She has a “Harry Potter” tattoo, attended a fan convention called LeakyCon and took broomstick “flying” lessons at a castle in England. (“My husband was literally mortified,” she says.)

Tara Block tried her hand at broomstick-riding in England. Photo: Lensharp Visual Art

Then author J.K. Rowling made public comments on gender and sex that critics saw as attacks on transgender rights. Block felt disappointed, sad and torn. Could she still enjoy Rowling’s art? The ink on her tattoo began to bleed. Should she get it redone? She’s still not sure.

“Part of it too is just getting older and realizing that anything you love, maybe it’s just not perfect,” says the 39-year-old, who works for a cosmetics company in the San Francisco area.

Meeting the star

Growing up gay in a small New Jersey town, Alex Goldschmidt imagined being friends with the celebrities he idolized. Then he met Taylor Swift.

A random tweet from Goldschmidt led to a backstage meetup and a chance to be in the pop star’s “Shake it Off” video in 2014.

“Like what ayahuasca have I taken? What’s going on?” he thought at the time. A few years later, she sang at his engagement party.

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She’s kind and generous, the 36-year-old says. He’s realized, though, that celebrities lead different, wild lives. He’s happy with his, living in Los Angeles with his husband and baby daughter.

He’ll always be grateful for the escape that pop culture brought to his life, how counting down to a new album from Swift sparked excitement and momentum.

“These are the markers of time passing,” he says, “the thing that kept life feeling like it was moving.”

Appeared in the August 20, 2024, print edition as 'Star-Struck Superfans Find Joy, Community'.