I’ve been thinking about this (more like ruminating, ugh), and this has to be one of the hardest pills to swallow when you are a kpop fan, specially young. When you are young its hard to understeand it.
And since I got into K-pop, I’ve seen that for many people (myself included), K-pop arrived during their worst moments. And many more, during their childhood/adolescence.
For me, what “helps” the most (we can say it’s what keeps you a bit sane and in this world) are the words of love toward the fandom. all that reaffirmation of extreme adoration, love, devotion… that might be what is keeping someone in this world.
But that doesn’t mean it’s real. When you grow up, you realize that many of the words idols say to fans are exaggerated, and although the affection is genuine, it doesn’t come close to the devotion they present to us.
That’s why I think kpop itself doesn’t save anyone. It’s… a temporary point of help.
It’s like being in the ocean and having a lifebuoy thrown to you; it will help you stay alive, but you can’t stay in the ocean forever.
I think when someone says that K-pop saved them, they are telling half the truth. Because on one hand, it’s true that it might have helped them stay alive and feel happiness, but at the same time, it was more about them saving themselves. Because we all know that unfortunately, there are many people who take K-pop as the only thing that gives them life and let their lives pass by, parasocialism helps a lot with that.
K-pop doesn’t save you, it’s just the starting gun to improve yourself. Don’t take away the accomplishment that it is to improve your health, whether mental or physical. You save yourself; then, there will be things that helped you in the process.
And all of this comes from someone who met K-pop when she was a teen, spent her teens living through K-pop and now its starting to get better in life.
submitted by /u/_issio
[link] [comments]
