One minute you’re casually scrolling, displaying a blank expression, potentially bored out of your mind and the next, you are suddenly doomscrolling over a Winnipeg team you did not even know existed last week. What’s up with that? What’s up with seeing strangers in jerseys and deciding we need to know more? What provokes it? Maybe it’s the chaos. Maybe it’s the comfort of caring about something that doesn’t ask anything back.
It’s not new that fandom gives people a sense of belonging, everyone knows that. We as a society have worded that in many ways to fit many generations of people, but it’s more than that. We don’t just want to belong; we want proof that we belong. A jersey, a chant, a team that feels like ours even if we found it through a TikTok edit, which might explain why I’m so into the Montreal Canadiens right now.
From a professional
Sports psychologist Daniel Wann said, “We’re wired to find belonging through teams.” Humans ache for affiliation. We want to feel connected to something bigger than ourselves. What’s comforting is that connection doesn’t have to be in person. For example, I’ve met more Blue Jackets fans on TikTok than I have in Ohio (outside of Columbus of course) and somehow that still feels real.
Our ability to connect with each other has come so far via the use of social media. If you live outside a suburb or a big city, it can be so easy to see people online expressing your same adoration. My point being, humans are inherently social creatures, and it is in our genetics to yearn for connection. It’s just a lot easier to hear and see what is going on in the sports hemisphere of the internet.
Fandom provides a social connection, reduces feelings of loneliness and allows individuals to identify with a group while also standing out. Following a particular team or player serves not only as a source of enjoyment or escape but also plays a significant role in meeting these deeper psychological requirements.Â
Fanatic for community
The pursuit of emotional outcomes through sports reveals a pattern where wins and losses provide structure to uncontrollable feelings in life. Wins affirm hope, while losses allow disappointment without consequences (for those who it applies too). We gravitate towards clear favorites or underdogs, seeking predictable emotional outcomes. Cheering for a superstar feels expected, while supporting an underdog offers hope despite potential loss.
Now, granted, an algorithm is built to show you what you like, but on occasion, it slips up and presents something that is not your usual. Social media has made it insanely easy to care for strangers online, to know their team’s story, to hear how they wish to be in the playoffs and to win. It tugs at your heartstrings a little and the storyline gets to you until we genuinely care about strangers in jerseys.
Regardless, social media forms connections with unfamiliar fans, deepening emotional investment in their stories and aspirations and more so deepening our emotional investment in people we may never meet. In short, we all want a story, random sports team just gives that to us.
Fanaticism is not just about cheering for the team, but finding a place where you can express your feelings, good or bad. Fans hold on to their teams since they provide an outlet for expression in a controlled manner, whereby the ups and downs of the season define the emotions that one cannot handle in everyday life.
When the world around us seems unstable, a victory or loss becomes a tangible thing to hold.
To be a fan is emotional, to experience the joy of a victory, the sadness of a defeat and all possible emotions in between.
So, maybe next time you are scrolling and you see a short clip of a team being silly or a clip where it is something unlike anything you have ever seen on a day-to-day scroll, click it. Maybe it is not about the team at all. Maybe it is about finding something, anything, that makes us feel part of something bigger than ourselves. And maybe we latch onto teams because everything else feels temporary. Jobs, relationships, even trends, but a team? That is a story we can keep coming back to.