We here at the Tartan exist on varied degrees of involvement with ‘screenager nation.’ It does make sense that some people working with print media might be somewhat removed from the digital trends of the time. Some engage with a plethora of the available social media platforms available to doomscroll and stalk to their heart’s content, but others opt to avoid social media and accumulate the smallest digital footprint possible — beyond the obligatory LinkedIn profile. Typically the ‘screenager’ designation is conceptualized in relation to the tiny screens we carry on our person at all times, but the screen we found to be most unifying was the flat, semi-reflective screen of the television.
When going to college, making time to sit down and watch a television series can be a difficult task. After finishing a mountain of daily tasks and assignments it can be much easier to lie down in a dark room illuminated only by the glow of Pinterest or TikTok as you doomscroll your thoughts into obscurity. Of course breaks from school provide an opportunity to catch up on the must-see shows of the season, but while classes are in session, it takes a really special show to keep you coming back for more. For some, these shows included Star Trek, Glee, Riverdale, and Euphoria.
What can we say? We on the EdBoard watch television. We are sure that you watch television too, or at least have seen a clip of Young Sheldon on TikTok above a subway surfers gameplay screen recording. Because television watching has become such an individual experience it makes sense that viewers have turned to social media to connect with others following the same series. It’s hard to tell for certain if television has changed, or if our priorities as viewers have changed. Students with a heavy workload couldn’t care less about Zendaya and her performance in Euphoria when balancing 70 units on an overloaded schedule.
Out of the ways you can spend your precious free time as a student, television is thought as one of the less social options. Why spend time watching other people hang out with their friends and live their lives while you are cooped up in a dorm room or sitting by yourself on a crappy college student couch? Why watch “Friends” when you could be making friends? One EdBoard participant reminisced on her days as a prominent member of ‘Stan Twitter’ in the midst of Euphoria Sunday season. On ‘Stan Twitter’, episode drops served as an extremely social endeavor where you could live-tweet, repost edits of your favorite characters, and screengrab the best moments of the episode with fellow viewers. Viewers would race to Twitter (now X) and TikTok to see what others’ reactions were. Theories were spun and viewers were drawn to edits like flies to raw meat. It was beautiful.
‘Stan Twitter’ was not remembered fondly by all EdBoard participants. One noted that the Star Trek fandom online presence was largely cliquey and divided in attitudes toward new shows and spin-off series. While fan culture and community is not for everyone, whether united through hate or love, this creates a larger sense of community for television viewers aided through social media like Tumblr and X.
HBO Sundays seemed to have this ‘lighting in a bottle’ chance combination of network programming strategy, ritual following, and large domination over both online and offline television conversations. To any network executives reading The Tartan, (and please, not all at once) know that there is a television audience desperate to find a show that matters as to the vast majority of us as Euphoria once did all those glorious years ago. Between work and classes, we miss caring enough about a show to start fights in comment sections. This is our plea. We crave groupthink, we yearn even for hive mentality. And Elon Musk (we know you are reading), please don’t do anything to ‘Stan Twitter’. What’s the fun in television if not following along as people live-tweet their reactions to the series finale of Succession? Oh… save us Euphoria Sunday… save us…
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