Every Friday night I post another term of soap opera jargon. Find more on my Soap Opera Jargon page.
Offline Soap Fan – Very few people would self-identify as an offline soap fan. They just think of themselves as soap opera fans. However, online soap fans do talk about Offline Soap Fans and make reference to perceived differences between the two parts of soap fandom. There are many kinds of offline fans. Some just watch the shows. Others watch, plus buy magazines. Some even go as far as attending fan events. They communicate with shows, stars and other fans (via magazines) by physically writing and mailing letters, cards, etc. While by default a lot of older fans are offline fans, there are plenty of exceptions where older people are online. I would say you could only start calling me an online fan since 2009. I went online for other things. I was on listservs for other topics by the early 1990s. I had built my first website by the late 1990s. I was blogging on other things by mid-2000s, but somehow it just never occurred to me to go online and look for soap stuff. I read all the soap magazines regularly and they certainly didn’t talk about what’s going online. This has changed, Soaps In Depth does an outstanding job of reporting that there are online soap conversations going on and where they are. I think there must be many other people out there who just haven’t found the party online yet. I hope they do. I’m not a better soap fan for going online, but I have a lot more fun and a lot more people to share my soap passion with since I’ve become an online soap fan. See Online Soap Fan
Tags: soap fan, soap fans, soap magazines, Soap Opera Fan, soap opera fans, Soap Opera Jargon, soaps in depth
