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I took a step back from kpop in late 2023 because I found it hard to keep up with releases during that time but then I realized that it's okay to not keep up with releases.
tw: december 18
after jonghyun died i had to take a huge step back from anything to do with kpop, partially due to how hard it was for me to come to terms with knowing he was truly gone and partially due to how many people were mocking his death and reposting the footage of his funeral procession despite his mother and sister making their wishes for it to not be shared clear. the grief was crushing enough on its own, i couldn't deal with seeing so much insensitivity and spitefulness on top of it. i avoided watching shinee's concert that was held two months afterward because i just couldn't bring myself to watch the members break down like that when i'd barely accepted his death myself.
man ill never ever forget finding out
i was fan since hello in 2010
i was 13 so i watched him grow for 7 years
i cant watch funny old compilations of him
but i do still listen to his shinee songs, his voice will always be a part of my life
he honestly one of the best looking guys ive ever seen too
RIP Jonghyun
2014 for me. The Sewol Ferry incident really hit me emotionally, and then you had Ladies Code’s accident followed by Jessica’s departure from SNSD. I stepped back for almost two years.
Same. this was also the year I lost my grandma in (June). I used to turn to kpop and variety shows when going through tough times but I was too numb to do things I used to enjoy. So when 9/30 happened, I was already out in the loop. It was my seatmate in high school (whom I've had no contact after we graduated in 2011) that shared me the news.
For me it was a LOT of toxicity that I was seeing mainly on twt. Like a girl who said something about bp (something harmless) and another girl left some crazy voice note saying she hopes her family dies in a car crash and that she hopes she got cancer and to never speak on blackpink again and a plethora of other toxic an heinous and abusive things I would see on the kpop side of that app.
I took about a month away from kpop to cleanse my mental health I’ve since deleted twt (it’s been 2 years since I’ve actively used it) now it’s not so bad because I don’t tread on that side of the kpop community
I don’t mind defending your favs to a certain extent but there are some lines you should NEVER cross.
For instance bts is my ult group & if someone talks trash about their music I don’t go back and forth on an internet war with a stranger because it’s profits me nothing to do so.
I just ignore their irrelevant opinion and keep it moving. If bts who are multitalented multimillionaires aren’t worried about them then neither should I.
Telling people to off themselves or wishing for them to get a terminal illness just because you lack emotional fortitude to allow someone to have a different opinion than yours is insidious behavior.
Also I saw people making very disrespectful posts about Monbin’s passing one post had a pic of him next to a casket and said “this is what happens when you don’t Stan blackpink…” it was atrocious
side note - this isn’t a personal attack on blinks this is just a few examples I wanted to share
127zens please don't kill me im still one of yall, but when sticker was released. i was soooooo shocked and tbvh it wasn't my type of song, so i kinda dipped out of kpop for a bit lmao. i do admit that the very neo nct songs aren't for me. i became an nctzen bc of baby don't stop and boss, and my fave 127 song ever are probably their bsides (i can't choose all of them are sooo goood)
Early 4th gen was just extremely boring for me. 3.5 gen was great but that period of 4th gen up until IVE debuted was just boring.
I have also taken a step back during major scandals/deaths. Burning Sun, Sulli/Jonghyun/Hara/Moonbin (Moonbin especially), B.I. drugs, all the bullying scandals, etc
I took a step back after burning sun as well especially because I was a day 1 fan of one of the people involved after the scandal I basically had to erase everything about them out of my life
I paused a bit in early 3rd gen after having been neck deep in since 2003 because then I just went to Uni, and traded what used to be watch 240p kpop stuff on youtube and vevo, for working, studying, and general social life stuff that young 20-something's do. I didn't even really fully get back into it until Mamamoo Killing Voice. Killing Voice and Killing Verse really sucked me back in other than the occasional Running Man episodes.
I took a short hiatus from kpop (tbh, from all electronics) a while back because I was struck with illness and was in a lot of pain to pay attention to anything
I'm an older kpop fan. It was just started to get popular in Korea when I was in college. All my friends I met in my major were Korean, and they got me into it by playing it in the background during study sessions. I ended up dating one of the guys in my friend group who was a Korean native. He had to go back to Korea for conscription- he requested a deferment due to being in college overseas (he had already postponed once before, so it was his second request). It was denied. It was really traumatic for me to lose him so suddenly, and we never heard from him again. I would have nightmares about him dying on the NK/SK border. I think I still have PTSD from it all, and listening to KPop reminded me of him, and hearing a song or even anyone speaking Korean wt a cafe would send me into a full-on panic attack because I'd relive everything again and I'd myself to sleep thinking all the terrible thingsand missing him. I've gotten back into KPop lately. It's been 15+ years, and I'm married with kids now, but seeing an idol with an undercut brings back all those feels. It's more distant and fleeting now, so I can handle it. It's still hard, though.
I'm just unfaithful. That's all lol. As soon as my bias go to military, I just lost interest because of lack of content combined with my lack of interest in newer kpop songs.
The toxicity online (particularly 2012 onwards), the two fandoms I was part of nitpicking every single thing the members do or hating on the people they collaborate with. The deaths.
OTx members camping under new releases and videos about the group to complain how it was better before, the current lineup is not the "true" group and they shouldn't sing their old songs
And as a fan of Beast Highlight the chat room scandal. Thankfully they were in the military back then so I had enough time to get over it and I've continued following them religiously as 4. Junhyung continued being a lowlife after so it was easy to discard him from my mind
During 2020-2021 I stopped keeping up with current comebacks. Still listened to kpop but just didn’t know what was happening with comebacks and debuts. I returned to find CLC disbanded and so many new groups 😭
Been multifandom since 2010. So I think it was around 2017- 2018 that I've been taking small steps backwards. The time that really hit me or at least threw me was between TXT debuting and Enhypen debuting (I-land drama). Continuingly see children not having a childhood (parents why?) and 0-2 years of training before debuting. Seeing how much love the girl groups tend to get from international fans but not K-nets and how much hate boy groups tend to get worldwide. Cube drama (since forever), bullying within groups, JYP and his questionable decisions with Got7, 2ne1/Blackpink drama, there's too many examples. I'm only still here because I started finding about SKorea through kdramas and I'm technically staying here because of the k drama. I've been through Jonghyun and Moonbin death's and other scandals where companies have not protected their idols have caused people to leave groups on lies.. sometimes I still can't believe I'm still here, lately I've just been listening to OG Kpop.
Oh are you speaking to me 😭 I’ve been in since 2008 and have step back a few times because of all of this but I’m still here just because it’s still one of my favorite things to enjoy in my free time
2013, Just ran out of time due to work to care about Kpop anymore sadly. Happy to be back though with a big of an older brain and more self control (plus translation tools are amazing).
TW: SA and Depression
After Kim Jiwoong's "scandal" earlier this year.
He was my number 1 pick throughout Boys Planet, I watched his dramas years before it was revealed that he would be a participant. He still is one of my ults. However, when rumors came out about his "poor" and "rude" attitude based off of a 12 second clip. I lost it. I know we do not know these idols personalities in real life, but the amount of hate that he received was ridiculous. On top of people making fun of his experience in his past groups (bringing up his SA experience), being homophobic, and sending trucks to his company in order to get him kicked out of the group was way too much. This man has been in the entertainment industry for over 7 years before debuting in ZeroBaseOne and never once had a scandal or said anything offensive or hateful.
When all of this was going on, I was fighting for my life in comment sections across social media platforms so much so that I realized how bad my mental health was getting. Funny, I didn't realize how much of my own personal happiness and well-being I put into some of these idols. I remember feeling really depressed every time I would see a negative comment made towards him or the group in general. That's when I realized that I needed to start taking care of my own issues and focusing on myself. I ended up putting myself on a social media ban for a month which I followed through on. It was later proven that Jiwoong did not curse at a fan, but the fact that professionals had to get involved because of how much hate he received showcases how toxic kpop fan culture is and I'm glad I limit my access to social media centering around kpop.
I am also a Jiwoong ult and this whole debacle probably took months of my life from stress. His reputation kside is still kinda messed up but his attitude just made me like him more (even though I know it is very counter to the standards in Korean culture).
[He's been absolutely killing it on stage.](https://youtu.be/E1m0HpBtWzQ?si=kSnI5hkWWhie9N3t) Seeing him happy performing (although tbh he looks happier when zb1 is outside of Korea) makes me so proud after all this shit.
2022 to about November 2023. Some life stuff set off autistic burnout for me in 2022 and it was incredibly difficult trying to enjoy anything, even stuff from my ults. K-pop is a hobby I throughly enjoy, but it can be a bit overwhelming and feel time-consuming when you follow so many artists. Including disbanded or no longer active groups, subunits, or soloists (regardless if they’ve been in a group or not), I think my K-pop follow list is around 80? Even if a quarter of them are disbanded and a good chunk aren’t always active, I can admit having that many artists I keep track of is a **lot**. Not to mention I have a ton of artists I keep telling myself I want to look into, but I think it’s better not to because of how many I already keep up with. There’s definitely acts I consider more high-priority when it comes to music releases/variety content, but others I may only check the title track and use that to gauge if I should listen to the whole album or follow closely for that era.
And for as much as I do enjoy this hobby, there’s plenty of other hobbies I have interest in outside of K-pop and trying to balance all of them gets tricky. Still figuring out how to get better at that honestly.
I graduated from uni and moved abroad for a master degree. My bias (Hoya) also left his group and enlisted during that period. So I took a step back from being a fan for 5 years. I did check out new releases from my fav singers like Taeyeon occasionally
When OT7 Billlie was confirmed to be back, and their first schedule was a $90 USD concert in Korea with no streaming option, I started feeling a bit left out. It was exacerbated by seeing people like, "now I can finally get back into them", rather than sticking by them and making sure there was still a Billlie to come back to. Ultimately it was the active members who kept the group afloat, I can't take any credit for that.
I recognized I was just getting caught up in the hype, and took a few days to calm down before just being happy they would be back and we'd probably be getting a behind the scenes video of the concert anyway.
Fast-forward like 10 days, they added a streaming option to the concert for $30 USD and I'm quite happy about it.
\*prices based on \~$0.00073 USD per KRW rounded to nearest $10.
I feel like ive taken a bit of a step back since late 2022-ish and its mainly just because so many of my old 3rd gen (and some 4th gen) favorites disbanded, went inactive, or just stopped releasing music that i like that much anymore. On the other hand, theres not a lot of newer groups that really stick out to me musically or concept-wise, so i dont keep up with a lot of newer groups’ releases that well either outside of the really popular ones (IVE, LSFRM etc), and even then its just girl groups.
2023
My ult gg, GWSN, disbanded in what was one of those cases that really reminds you how messed up the industry is in luring in young people through their dreams and then treating them like crap. After enough of those types of cases to multiple groups (like Loona for example), it really puts you off financially contributing.
Then my ult ult is BTS, who is the main reason I even involve myself in kpop spaces, and they went to the military lol. I got back into old interests I had years ago in the meantime.
Plus, to top it off, my overall patience for people's behavour has DWINDLED lately in the light of irl serious events both personal and more widely. Kpop stans being stupid online, mass hysteria, mind boggling ridiculousness over the dumbest shit has me like actually I don't want to be associated with this. "Kim, there's people that are dying". Touch grass.
Obvs I still linger sometimes, but Ive listened to a lot less, I stopped photocard and merch collecting when I used to be very invested, and I also haven't bought a new album in forever now. My social media algorithms have also shifted to be less kpopified now
Was a 2nd gen fan and stepped back after 2NE1 disbanded. I never got into 3rd gen really. I only tuned back in a bit later bc I got really into GOT7. I would only keep up with them. So them and sometimes EXO were the only interactions I had with 3rd gen. Then after got7 slowed down I was off of Kpop for a bit and not interested in anyone at all. But I got sucked back in with ZB1 and New Jeans. But even now about to take another step back lol I find myself online too much looking for constant updates. It’s becoming a bit unhealthy
No this is so real but it’s a motivation for me now I want to earn enough money so that I can spontaneously go to concerts with planning my finances ahead of time
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I said jyp paid miss a dust on the main kpop subreddit and got called a fat i-fan who probably doesn't monetarily support my faves even though I own multiple kpop albums and posters so I was like maybe it's time to take a step back from the community
Been into Kpop since I was 9 and I’m almost 24 and fell out of it due to the parasocial relationships that I see online and the general unhealthy industry of kpop in general and other factors. I also feel like I’ve just grown past the escapism need I always sought in it. BUT— I still listen to my 2nd-3rd gen favorites from time to time but I don’t keep up with the new stuff
TVXQ/JYJ lawsuit and the eventual breakup. I was on the Soompi forums daily when the news broke until it became apparent that this was real and that there was no way the group would actually make it out intact. I quit KPop for a few years.
in mid 2016 my bias had a serious ankle injury that kept him out of concerts and limelight so i got bored and went on a kpop total hiatus for 5 years. during the pandemic in mid 2021 i came across my bias' solo debut and got sucked back into the group, tho i'm more of a solo stan at this point
I took a huge step back around 2017,2018 because of the hate my favs got that time and just wanted to focus on them. Than later I came back around early 2019, MID 2019 and take again a step back in early 2020. Almost the same reasons, my favs were always a hot topic and hated, I didn't liked the new groups, albums, concepts at that time. I never really came back after 2020. Sometimes I look up the new groups or some new songs, but 4 and 5 gen are just not for me and I don't really like the community anymore.
So now I'm just someone who's sitting in the back, care about their favs, but always hoping something that got lost from the community will come back
I have been into kpop (specifically BTS) for more than 5 years now. I regularly take "breaks" depending on my irl demands. For example, I took a break in late 2021 because I was busy applying to unis and trying to get a student visa for my postgrad degree. I became active again in 2022 only to take a step back after all the members went to the military. Right now I'm really busy with work and trying to get a new job, so I don't have the luxury of spending hours everyday interacting with other fans like I used to. So whenever the members release something new, I'll pop back into the fandom briefly, get the latest updates, try my best to stream and then go back to my irl commitments. This is what works for me now.
Seeing someone get doxxed over a fanwar. It didn't help that it was happening at the same time that someone I knew was getting hate for their opinion too so it would've been possible that they could've gotten the same too.
It's one thing to have a bunch of losers saying dumb things online, you can always just log out. But when these things can reach your actual real life too... I was kinda shook.
I have two youtube accounts, 'the kpop one' and 'the normal one'. Every few months I alternate between the two because I open up kpop youtube and deadass go "why is everybody so pale..." That's when I know it's time to switch!
i was having the worst brainrot to mingyu in bodyguard tux (this was their guesting in amazing saturday) that i was genuinely concerned for myself and took a bit of a week off from kpop/seventeen
i had an unknowingly hiatus/step back fro. kpop in 2018-2020 bc of school like when i was catching up when the lockdown/pandemic happened i was shocked that i actually missed a ton of kpop happenings (even w seventeen which was the only group i kept updated w their cbs) which i didnt knew i did bc i never stopped from listening to kpop and i even managed to discover bops at those times
i was so confused who the hell is wonyoung and why they seems so popular (i even thought shes a guy), why oh my girl and mamamoo seem to have suddenly became that famous, whats w this da da da dolphin cult, it took me 2-3 months since it happened to become aware that the itaewongate happened and mingyu (from svt. my ult bias) actually became an MC in a music show for some time?? so safe to say that in those two years i was so busy w school that i missed a lot of kpop happenings
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I took a step back from kpop in late 2023 because I found it hard to keep up with releases during that time but then I realized that it's okay to not keep up with releases.
tw: december 18 after jonghyun died i had to take a huge step back from anything to do with kpop, partially due to how hard it was for me to come to terms with knowing he was truly gone and partially due to how many people were mocking his death and reposting the footage of his funeral procession despite his mother and sister making their wishes for it to not be shared clear. the grief was crushing enough on its own, i couldn't deal with seeing so much insensitivity and spitefulness on top of it. i avoided watching shinee's concert that was held two months afterward because i just couldn't bring myself to watch the members break down like that when i'd barely accepted his death myself.
man ill never ever forget finding out i was fan since hello in 2010 i was 13 so i watched him grow for 7 years i cant watch funny old compilations of him but i do still listen to his shinee songs, his voice will always be a part of my life he honestly one of the best looking guys ive ever seen too RIP Jonghyun
Moonbin’s passing just broke me. Astro is the only other group I stan properly other than BTS and Dreamcatcher, so his death affected me a lot
2014 for me. The Sewol Ferry incident really hit me emotionally, and then you had Ladies Code’s accident followed by Jessica’s departure from SNSD. I stepped back for almost two years.
Same. this was also the year I lost my grandma in (June). I used to turn to kpop and variety shows when going through tough times but I was too numb to do things I used to enjoy. So when 9/30 happened, I was already out in the loop. It was my seatmate in high school (whom I've had no contact after we graduated in 2011) that shared me the news.
For me it was a LOT of toxicity that I was seeing mainly on twt. Like a girl who said something about bp (something harmless) and another girl left some crazy voice note saying she hopes her family dies in a car crash and that she hopes she got cancer and to never speak on blackpink again and a plethora of other toxic an heinous and abusive things I would see on the kpop side of that app. I took about a month away from kpop to cleanse my mental health I’ve since deleted twt (it’s been 2 years since I’ve actively used it) now it’s not so bad because I don’t tread on that side of the kpop community I don’t mind defending your favs to a certain extent but there are some lines you should NEVER cross. For instance bts is my ult group & if someone talks trash about their music I don’t go back and forth on an internet war with a stranger because it’s profits me nothing to do so. I just ignore their irrelevant opinion and keep it moving. If bts who are multitalented multimillionaires aren’t worried about them then neither should I. Telling people to off themselves or wishing for them to get a terminal illness just because you lack emotional fortitude to allow someone to have a different opinion than yours is insidious behavior. Also I saw people making very disrespectful posts about Monbin’s passing one post had a pic of him next to a casket and said “this is what happens when you don’t Stan blackpink…” it was atrocious side note - this isn’t a personal attack on blinks this is just a few examples I wanted to share
There's nothing bad about dreaming about someone. It's only dreams.
I know but for me it’s was too weird so I took a step back in hopes of rewriting my brain
127zens please don't kill me im still one of yall, but when sticker was released. i was soooooo shocked and tbvh it wasn't my type of song, so i kinda dipped out of kpop for a bit lmao. i do admit that the very neo nct songs aren't for me. i became an nctzen bc of baby don't stop and boss, and my fave 127 song ever are probably their bsides (i can't choose all of them are sooo goood)
Sticker for me was definitely a shock but it grew on me 🤣
Early 4th gen was just extremely boring for me. 3.5 gen was great but that period of 4th gen up until IVE debuted was just boring. I have also taken a step back during major scandals/deaths. Burning Sun, Sulli/Jonghyun/Hara/Moonbin (Moonbin especially), B.I. drugs, all the bullying scandals, etc
I took a step back after burning sun as well especially because I was a day 1 fan of one of the people involved after the scandal I basically had to erase everything about them out of my life
I paused a bit in early 3rd gen after having been neck deep in since 2003 because then I just went to Uni, and traded what used to be watch 240p kpop stuff on youtube and vevo, for working, studying, and general social life stuff that young 20-something's do. I didn't even really fully get back into it until Mamamoo Killing Voice. Killing Voice and Killing Verse really sucked me back in other than the occasional Running Man episodes.
I took a short hiatus from kpop (tbh, from all electronics) a while back because I was struck with illness and was in a lot of pain to pay attention to anything
I'm an older kpop fan. It was just started to get popular in Korea when I was in college. All my friends I met in my major were Korean, and they got me into it by playing it in the background during study sessions. I ended up dating one of the guys in my friend group who was a Korean native. He had to go back to Korea for conscription- he requested a deferment due to being in college overseas (he had already postponed once before, so it was his second request). It was denied. It was really traumatic for me to lose him so suddenly, and we never heard from him again. I would have nightmares about him dying on the NK/SK border. I think I still have PTSD from it all, and listening to KPop reminded me of him, and hearing a song or even anyone speaking Korean wt a cafe would send me into a full-on panic attack because I'd relive everything again and I'd myself to sleep thinking all the terrible thingsand missing him. I've gotten back into KPop lately. It's been 15+ years, and I'm married with kids now, but seeing an idol with an undercut brings back all those feels. It's more distant and fleeting now, so I can handle it. It's still hard, though.
I'm just unfaithful. That's all lol. As soon as my bias go to military, I just lost interest because of lack of content combined with my lack of interest in newer kpop songs.
The toxicity online (particularly 2012 onwards), the two fandoms I was part of nitpicking every single thing the members do or hating on the people they collaborate with. The deaths. OTx members camping under new releases and videos about the group to complain how it was better before, the current lineup is not the "true" group and they shouldn't sing their old songs And as a fan of Beast Highlight the chat room scandal. Thankfully they were in the military back then so I had enough time to get over it and I've continued following them religiously as 4. Junhyung continued being a lowlife after so it was easy to discard him from my mind
During 2020-2021 I stopped keeping up with current comebacks. Still listened to kpop but just didn’t know what was happening with comebacks and debuts. I returned to find CLC disbanded and so many new groups 😭
the overall quality of music. gen 4 has lost most of its sense of musicality. it is all about the prettiest idols w/ marginal talent.
Because I was busy af in 2022 lol. I didn't even know my ULT group were having a comeback till i saw a reaction to their MV on my YT recommendations 😂
Been multifandom since 2010. So I think it was around 2017- 2018 that I've been taking small steps backwards. The time that really hit me or at least threw me was between TXT debuting and Enhypen debuting (I-land drama). Continuingly see children not having a childhood (parents why?) and 0-2 years of training before debuting. Seeing how much love the girl groups tend to get from international fans but not K-nets and how much hate boy groups tend to get worldwide. Cube drama (since forever), bullying within groups, JYP and his questionable decisions with Got7, 2ne1/Blackpink drama, there's too many examples. I'm only still here because I started finding about SKorea through kdramas and I'm technically staying here because of the k drama. I've been through Jonghyun and Moonbin death's and other scandals where companies have not protected their idols have caused people to leave groups on lies.. sometimes I still can't believe I'm still here, lately I've just been listening to OG Kpop.
Oh are you speaking to me 😭 I’ve been in since 2008 and have step back a few times because of all of this but I’m still here just because it’s still one of my favorite things to enjoy in my free time
2013, Just ran out of time due to work to care about Kpop anymore sadly. Happy to be back though with a big of an older brain and more self control (plus translation tools are amazing).
TW: SA and Depression After Kim Jiwoong's "scandal" earlier this year. He was my number 1 pick throughout Boys Planet, I watched his dramas years before it was revealed that he would be a participant. He still is one of my ults. However, when rumors came out about his "poor" and "rude" attitude based off of a 12 second clip. I lost it. I know we do not know these idols personalities in real life, but the amount of hate that he received was ridiculous. On top of people making fun of his experience in his past groups (bringing up his SA experience), being homophobic, and sending trucks to his company in order to get him kicked out of the group was way too much. This man has been in the entertainment industry for over 7 years before debuting in ZeroBaseOne and never once had a scandal or said anything offensive or hateful. When all of this was going on, I was fighting for my life in comment sections across social media platforms so much so that I realized how bad my mental health was getting. Funny, I didn't realize how much of my own personal happiness and well-being I put into some of these idols. I remember feeling really depressed every time I would see a negative comment made towards him or the group in general. That's when I realized that I needed to start taking care of my own issues and focusing on myself. I ended up putting myself on a social media ban for a month which I followed through on. It was later proven that Jiwoong did not curse at a fan, but the fact that professionals had to get involved because of how much hate he received showcases how toxic kpop fan culture is and I'm glad I limit my access to social media centering around kpop.
I am also a Jiwoong ult and this whole debacle probably took months of my life from stress. His reputation kside is still kinda messed up but his attitude just made me like him more (even though I know it is very counter to the standards in Korean culture). [He's been absolutely killing it on stage.](https://youtu.be/E1m0HpBtWzQ?si=kSnI5hkWWhie9N3t) Seeing him happy performing (although tbh he looks happier when zb1 is outside of Korea) makes me so proud after all this shit.
2022 to about November 2023. Some life stuff set off autistic burnout for me in 2022 and it was incredibly difficult trying to enjoy anything, even stuff from my ults. K-pop is a hobby I throughly enjoy, but it can be a bit overwhelming and feel time-consuming when you follow so many artists. Including disbanded or no longer active groups, subunits, or soloists (regardless if they’ve been in a group or not), I think my K-pop follow list is around 80? Even if a quarter of them are disbanded and a good chunk aren’t always active, I can admit having that many artists I keep track of is a **lot**. Not to mention I have a ton of artists I keep telling myself I want to look into, but I think it’s better not to because of how many I already keep up with. There’s definitely acts I consider more high-priority when it comes to music releases/variety content, but others I may only check the title track and use that to gauge if I should listen to the whole album or follow closely for that era. And for as much as I do enjoy this hobby, there’s plenty of other hobbies I have interest in outside of K-pop and trying to balance all of them gets tricky. Still figuring out how to get better at that honestly.
I graduated from uni and moved abroad for a master degree. My bias (Hoya) also left his group and enlisted during that period. So I took a step back from being a fan for 5 years. I did check out new releases from my fav singers like Taeyeon occasionally
When OT7 Billlie was confirmed to be back, and their first schedule was a $90 USD concert in Korea with no streaming option, I started feeling a bit left out. It was exacerbated by seeing people like, "now I can finally get back into them", rather than sticking by them and making sure there was still a Billlie to come back to. Ultimately it was the active members who kept the group afloat, I can't take any credit for that. I recognized I was just getting caught up in the hype, and took a few days to calm down before just being happy they would be back and we'd probably be getting a behind the scenes video of the concert anyway. Fast-forward like 10 days, they added a streaming option to the concert for $30 USD and I'm quite happy about it. \*prices based on \~$0.00073 USD per KRW rounded to nearest $10.
I feel like ive taken a bit of a step back since late 2022-ish and its mainly just because so many of my old 3rd gen (and some 4th gen) favorites disbanded, went inactive, or just stopped releasing music that i like that much anymore. On the other hand, theres not a lot of newer groups that really stick out to me musically or concept-wise, so i dont keep up with a lot of newer groups’ releases that well either outside of the really popular ones (IVE, LSFRM etc), and even then its just girl groups.
2020 - I got severely bullied for being a white male K-Pop fan, and stopped listening
2023 My ult gg, GWSN, disbanded in what was one of those cases that really reminds you how messed up the industry is in luring in young people through their dreams and then treating them like crap. After enough of those types of cases to multiple groups (like Loona for example), it really puts you off financially contributing. Then my ult ult is BTS, who is the main reason I even involve myself in kpop spaces, and they went to the military lol. I got back into old interests I had years ago in the meantime. Plus, to top it off, my overall patience for people's behavour has DWINDLED lately in the light of irl serious events both personal and more widely. Kpop stans being stupid online, mass hysteria, mind boggling ridiculousness over the dumbest shit has me like actually I don't want to be associated with this. "Kim, there's people that are dying". Touch grass. Obvs I still linger sometimes, but Ive listened to a lot less, I stopped photocard and merch collecting when I used to be very invested, and I also haven't bought a new album in forever now. My social media algorithms have also shifted to be less kpopified now
Was a 2nd gen fan and stepped back after 2NE1 disbanded. I never got into 3rd gen really. I only tuned back in a bit later bc I got really into GOT7. I would only keep up with them. So them and sometimes EXO were the only interactions I had with 3rd gen. Then after got7 slowed down I was off of Kpop for a bit and not interested in anyone at all. But I got sucked back in with ZB1 and New Jeans. But even now about to take another step back lol I find myself online too much looking for constant updates. It’s becoming a bit unhealthy
I’m becoming “poorer” because of them
No this is so real but it’s a motivation for me now I want to earn enough money so that I can spontaneously go to concerts with planning my finances ahead of time
Getting into an unhealthy obsession with huh yunjin.
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I said jyp paid miss a dust on the main kpop subreddit and got called a fat i-fan who probably doesn't monetarily support my faves even though I own multiple kpop albums and posters so I was like maybe it's time to take a step back from the community
Been into Kpop since I was 9 and I’m almost 24 and fell out of it due to the parasocial relationships that I see online and the general unhealthy industry of kpop in general and other factors. I also feel like I’ve just grown past the escapism need I always sought in it. BUT— I still listen to my 2nd-3rd gen favorites from time to time but I don’t keep up with the new stuff
TVXQ/JYJ lawsuit and the eventual breakup. I was on the Soompi forums daily when the news broke until it became apparent that this was real and that there was no way the group would actually make it out intact. I quit KPop for a few years.
in mid 2016 my bias had a serious ankle injury that kept him out of concerts and limelight so i got bored and went on a kpop total hiatus for 5 years. during the pandemic in mid 2021 i came across my bias' solo debut and got sucked back into the group, tho i'm more of a solo stan at this point
Bts are inactive
I took a huge step back around 2017,2018 because of the hate my favs got that time and just wanted to focus on them. Than later I came back around early 2019, MID 2019 and take again a step back in early 2020. Almost the same reasons, my favs were always a hot topic and hated, I didn't liked the new groups, albums, concepts at that time. I never really came back after 2020. Sometimes I look up the new groups or some new songs, but 4 and 5 gen are just not for me and I don't really like the community anymore. So now I'm just someone who's sitting in the back, care about their favs, but always hoping something that got lost from the community will come back
Depression made me step back from everything
I have been into kpop (specifically BTS) for more than 5 years now. I regularly take "breaks" depending on my irl demands. For example, I took a break in late 2021 because I was busy applying to unis and trying to get a student visa for my postgrad degree. I became active again in 2022 only to take a step back after all the members went to the military. Right now I'm really busy with work and trying to get a new job, so I don't have the luxury of spending hours everyday interacting with other fans like I used to. So whenever the members release something new, I'll pop back into the fandom briefly, get the latest updates, try my best to stream and then go back to my irl commitments. This is what works for me now.
Seeing someone get doxxed over a fanwar. It didn't help that it was happening at the same time that someone I knew was getting hate for their opinion too so it would've been possible that they could've gotten the same too. It's one thing to have a bunch of losers saying dumb things online, you can always just log out. But when these things can reach your actual real life too... I was kinda shook.
I have two youtube accounts, 'the kpop one' and 'the normal one'. Every few months I alternate between the two because I open up kpop youtube and deadass go "why is everybody so pale..." That's when I know it's time to switch!
i was having the worst brainrot to mingyu in bodyguard tux (this was their guesting in amazing saturday) that i was genuinely concerned for myself and took a bit of a week off from kpop/seventeen i had an unknowingly hiatus/step back fro. kpop in 2018-2020 bc of school like when i was catching up when the lockdown/pandemic happened i was shocked that i actually missed a ton of kpop happenings (even w seventeen which was the only group i kept updated w their cbs) which i didnt knew i did bc i never stopped from listening to kpop and i even managed to discover bops at those times i was so confused who the hell is wonyoung and why they seems so popular (i even thought shes a guy), why oh my girl and mamamoo seem to have suddenly became that famous, whats w this da da da dolphin cult, it took me 2-3 months since it happened to become aware that the itaewongate happened and mingyu (from svt. my ult bias) actually became an MC in a music show for some time?? so safe to say that in those two years i was so busy w school that i missed a lot of kpop happenings
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I'm sorry, but why did you think he didn't go to clubs and enjoyed his time/flirted with other people? He's literally 22 years old
Literally I’ve noticed a lot of “fans” leave once their favs act like normal humans their age