Romantic Pop Idol

I have a friend who works in education and he told me about how he was working with a small group of HS students to develop a new school sports chant. This was a very daunting task for the group, in large part because many had learning disabilities related to reading and writing, so coming up with a catchy, hard-hitting, probably rhyming, poetry-esque piece of collaborative writing felt like something outside of their skill range. But it wasn't! I knew that, he knew that, and he worked damn hard to convince the kids of that too. Even if the end result was terrible (by someone else's standards), we knew they had it in them to complete the piece and feel super proud of their creation.

Fast-forward a few days and he reports back that yes they have a chant now... but it's 99% AI. It was made by Chat-GPT. Once the kids realized they could just ask the bot to do the hard thing for them - and do it "better" than they (supposedly) ever could - that's the only route they were willing to take. It was either use Chat-GPT or don't do it at all. And I was just so devastated to hear this because Jesus Christ, struggling is important. Of course most 14-18 year olds aren't going to see the merit of that, let alone understand why that process (attempting something new and challenging) is more valuable than the end result (a "good" chant), but as adults we all have a responsibility to coach them through that messy process. Except that's become damn near impossible with an Instantly Do The Thing app in everyone's pocket. Yes, AI is fucking awful because of plagiarism and misinformation and the environmental impact, but it's also keeping people - particularly young people - from developing perseverance. It's not just important that you learn to write your own stuff because of intellectual agency, but because writing is hard and it's crucial that you learn how to persevere through doing hard things.

Write a shitty poem. Write an essay where half the textual 'evidence' doesn't track. Write an awkward as fuck email with an equally embarrassing typo. Every time you do you're not just developing that particular skill, you're also learning that you did something badly and the world didn't end. You can get through things! You can get through challenging things! Not everything in life has to be perfect but you know what? You'll only improve at the challenging stuff if you do a whole lot of it badly first. The ability to say, "I didn't think I could do that but I did it anyway. It's not great, but I did it," is SO IMPORTANT for developing confidence across the board, not just in these specific tasks.

I honestly rather stick with the part of the fandom that’s just choosing to pretend Byler did happen cause they’re living their best life currently over there creating beautiful art and fanfics like a typical queer shipping fandom does and is supposed to do cause the ones who are currently still in a state of misery over the disappointment of the finale(we all were pretty disappointed but jeez) are really hard to be around right now cause it’s just non stop complaining and it’s getting to the point they’re starting to spew harmful rhetoric that simply isn’t true because their eyes are only seeing red like some of your anger is justifiable but chill out it’s not the end of the world just because one freaking tv show disappointed you.

Exhibit A: Will Byers gay bar discourse.

Agreeeeeee. I fall in the part of the fandom where I acknowledge the show as it aired and what happened and what didn't - and I use that as inspiration for how I engage with fanworks now. I acknowledge what the creators/writers/actors gave us and I interpret it several ways, depending on what I'm interested in!!! I think that's totally fine and where I want to be viewed as a fan right now. Based in reality while deep in fanon.

In my opinion, the ending was ambiguous because the stopping point let the door open to play. So that's what I'm doing. I can enjoy exploring a series of "what ifs" regarding Mike's queer journey, at different points: in Hawkins, after, whatever. I can enjoy exploring Byler getting together in high school, or post grad, or in college, or years down the road. I can also enjoy Will's separate journey, with or without Mike. Because I have space in my brain to hold multiple interests and opinions!!! It's all fake and fictional and one idea doesn't take away from other ideas! I don't need canon and technically don't pretend Byler is canon - to me it's enough to engage with fandom/fanon and go wild with it. Like many fandoms before it. Disappointment aside, I don't thrive there. I defy disappointment and do what I want anyway.

This suggests the writers discussed who they would grow up to be. But why even bring that up if it never makes it to the screen? We never see them as adults with jobs. There weren't even "where are they now?" style title cards during the epilogue sequences saying what each character did in the future.

To me it’s obvious that Mike becomes a writer and Will becomes an artist, but what do Lucas, Dustin and Max become? According to their outfits, does Dustin become a wedding singer?

1. Even Jonathan and Nancy gave looks to each other during the older kids’ reunion.

2. Even Mike and Will looked like they’re in love and there’s a door open for them to get together at some point.

3. Even EL, who died, was given the slightest amount of cope that she might be alive and having a happy life somewhere.

A look into 2024 Internet in the Stranger Things universe or,