Stan Twitter

A common activity that those in the Stan Twitter community engage in is sharing memes with each other and onto their Twitter accounts. Polygon wrote about how those in Stan Twitter share memes with the belief that the memes have an insular quality to them.[6] One meme, "Stan Twitter, do you know this song?" was noted by media outlets as particularly popular among Stan Twitter, being able to intersect more specific communities.[5][7] Polygon described that the meme "seems very silly at first glance," as it is "expressed through an overly obnoxious all-caps exclamation, [and] pairs the sentence with theme songs from early '90s TV shows, random YouTube videos, anime tracks, High School Musical remixes and random one hit wonders."[5] Polygon further noted that the meme was "designed around nostalgia-baiting people who love to bring up beloved childhood memories.[5]

The terminology used by the Stan Twitter community has also been the subject of discussion. Much of the community's slang is derived from African-American Vernacular English.[20] The terms tea and wig have been attributed to African-American LGBTQ communities; the term wig particularly has been attributed to the drag community, specifically from the phrase "wig snatched" used by the black LGBTQ ballroom culture of the 1980s.[20][21] The Daily Dot and Billboard cited American singer Katy Perry's usage of the term on American Idol as helping propel its popularity online.[20][22] The popular Internet meme of Kermit the Frog sipping tea has also been frequently paired with the tea term.[14]

The term stan itself is used as both a noun and verb with many variants, including "[I or we] stan", which is a phrase used for one to express a liking of, as well as praise or support of, any person or artistic work.[23] Aside from the term stan itself, common words and phrases used in the community include:

• bop – used in reference to a song that is deemed good. Other terms include banger, grit, or saying that a song slaps.[24]
• cancelled or over – Stan Twitter often partakes in cancel culture: if a celebrity does something controversial, fans may call for a boycott of them ("cancelling" them) and in a majority of cases, attempting to trend a hashtag celebrating such a boycott. (e.g. #CelebrityIsOverParty).[23][25]
• chile – Southern eye dialect spelling of the word "child". The term originates from the black community; on stan Twitter, the term was popularized through a viral video of an episode of Real Housewives of Atlanta in which Nene Leakes says "Whew chile the ghetto."[26]
• fancam – a fan-recorded or brief sample of a video that is very frequently attached to a Twitter user's posts with the intention of promoting an artist and/or their music or accomplishments. Initially originating within the K-pop fanbase, the trend eventually spread to fans of artists from other genres. This trend has been criticized and scrutinized by some users, including "locals" due to a constant spamming of such tweets, unintentionally igniting hate towards the artist involved as well.[27]
• IRL – an acronym for "in real life"; in reference to a user's friends or relatives in real life or offline.[14]
• keysmash – A seemingly random and unintelligible string of characters as produced by a literal smashing of the keyboard. Often used as a substitute for laughing. (e.g. SJKDJSKJDKS).[28]
• local(s) – mostly used by stan twitter to refer to the general public outside this community.[4]
• OOMF – an acronym for "one of my followers"; in reference to a Twitter user's followers.[14]
• periodt – a purposeful misspelling of the word "period". The additional "t" is used to add a more forceful tone to the statement or argument. Other words often have a "t" added for the same reason.[29]
• shade – a comment with an insulting intent towards an individual or group; similar to trash talking.[30]
• sis – a shortening of "sister".[20]
• skinny or skinny legend – a term to show praise and endearment toward a celebrity or individual, that most likely originated from the Lambs (Mariah Carey stans). Memes may include a photo of an artist whose body is severely or poorly modified to look unrealistically squashed for humorous purposes.[31]
• sksksk – a more frequently used keysmash; associated with VSCO girl trend.[32]
• stewen - used to describe when 'tea' is old and tired, or 'stew' as an opposite of tea.[33]
• tea – a synonym for gossip, or relating to drama.[14]
• wig – often used in the context of something being exciting or shocking that someone's "wig" falls off; other variants include wig snatched or wig gone.[14][20]

A key component of the Stan Twitter culture is its contrast with Local Twitter; individuals deemed part of Local Twitter are colloquially referred to as simply locals.[4][6][34] The Verge likened local to past terms such as square and normie.[35] The publication wrote that "much like being basic, but online, 'local Twitter' describes someone who loves decidedly, even painfully mainstream things."[35] The Atlantic described Local Twitter as a group of "mostly white, well-adjusted suburban teens who share stale platitudes of the kind that some Internet users might call 'basic'."[4] Local Twitter is also sometimes referred to as Bare Minimum Twitter.[34] Polygon defined Local Twitter as the "general population of Twitter—people not congregated around specific interests or in defined communities."[6] In the context of Stan Twitter terminology, local is similar to a pejorative term. Stans are noted to view locals as a group that cause memes and jokes to lose their humor."[4][6]

Normani of Fifth Harmony briefly quitting Twitter use was an early instance of a contentious relationship between an artist and their own stans.[2]

The culture of Stan Twitter has been noted by media outlets and celebrities as "toxic". Huffington Post noted that singer Alessia Cara lamented over the "toxicity" of Stan Twitter; she was quoted, "This whole world of stan culture, while it's amazing and great and connective a lot of the time, it can be very hurtful."[36]

There have been several instances of celebrities deactivating or taking a break from using their social media accounts due to harassment directed at them from their own stans. In 2016, Normani of Fifth Harmony briefly quit using Twitter due to Fifth Harmony stans.[2] In 2017, American rapper Cupcakke also opted to stop using Twitter because she received death threats from BTS stans, after she made a sexual comment about member Jungkook.[37][38] Millie Bobby Brown, an actress most notable for her role in Stranger Things, also deactivated her Twitter account due to a meme popular in the Stan Twitter community.[6] The meme falsely attributed violent and homophobic language and behavior to Brown.[6] Critics of the meme expressed that the meme bullied Brown.[39]

Aside from deactivating their accounts, artists have also addressed their fans, requesting them to not go after those perceived to be critical or detrimental to the artist.[13] Stans of Ariana Grande sent bullying messages to her ex-boyfriend, comedian Pete Davidson, after the two broke up.[17] Grande asked her fans to be "gentler with others," and added that "I really don't endorse anything but forgiveness and positivity."[17] In a light-hearted post, country and pop singer Bebe Rexha mentioned her father's critical take on her more "risqué scenes" in her "Last Hurrah" music video. Some of her stans posted "mean" comments about her father in response, which resulted her in stating, "Don't say mean things about my dad, please."[17]

Newsweek and The Inquisitr covered an incident involving The Barbz (a name for stans of Nicki Minaj) sending direct messages to blogger Wanna Thompson after Thompson suggested Minaj release more mature music.[40][41] Thompson described the messages, stating "You have these stans camped out on Twitter and [Instagram] with someone else's face in their avi/header hurling insults because they can."[40]

In June 2019, Nicole Curran, the wife of Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob, was the target of online harassment and death threats by Beyoncé stans.[19] This was the result of a video which showed her leaning past Beyoncé to speak to Jay-Z during a Warriors game.[19] In an Instagram post, Beyoncé's publicist addressed the incidient and stated, "I also want to speak here to the beautiful BeyHiVE. I know your love runs deep but that love has to be given to every human. It will bring no joy to the person you love so much if you spew hate in her name."[19]

In the wake of April 2020 reports of North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un having potentially died, many Twitter users were noted by media outlets as stanning his sister and speculated successor Kim Yo-jong.[42][43][44] Some users were also noted to post fancams of Kim Yo-jung.[42] While some users defended their post as jokes, media outlets and other users criticized the stanning of Kim, even if done in jest.[44][45]