Here's your weekly dose of fandom cul- WAIT, Who ARE You? WHERE AM I?
a little backstory on me detailing how my chronically online childhood turned me into a content creator and marketer
Welcome to MATT SPACE.
You have been living here for as long as you can remember.
So hi, my name is Matt!
I mean clearly it is because the name of this newsletter is literally MATT SPACE, but you know that’s whatever.
And if you’re wondering where the intro quote is from, it’s from OMORI, so yeah, this is going to be a chronically online newsletter.
Anyways, I’ve been meaning to start a newsletter for the longest time, but I never knew what I could possibly write about that would hold an audience’s attention span for more than three seconds. So I took a second to sit down and think about it. I could talk about my love for OMORI? Nah, too niche. I could talk about my life? Too uneventful for the most part.
Then it hit me: I could talk about the intersection between fandom culture, social media, and marketing.
Now, let me tell you a bit more about myself. Currently, I live in Los Angeles, California, but my roots are all the way in rural North Carolina. I had older half-siblings already in college, so I was raised pretty much as an only child. This led to me having total freedom (for the most part). But instead of going outside a bunch, hanging with friends, and living my childhood to the max, I was unfortunately just very sick as a kid. Each year, I was plagued by pneumonia and in severe cases — double pneumonia.
Due to my chronic illness, I stayed home a bunch, played with my dogs (peep the image below), and most importantly, I played a TON of video games.
I was fortunate enough to be spoiled by my parents despite us being pretty low-income. (For context, my dad was the only one working since my mom was also chronically ill.) So, I had a few Nintendo consoles (DS, DSi, Wii) and a PC that my dad built for me. Naturally, I immersed myself in a variety of virtual worlds. I was a HUGE lover of MMOs as a kid and Disney’s Toontown Online was one of my first ever PC games.
It was a silly whimsical game where “toons” aka humanoid animals with white-gloved hands were in a battle against “cogs” aka humanoid robots in business suits. Now that I think about it, this game was a commentary on late stage capitalism… ironic. Toontown Online gave me many precious memories. It helped me learn how to read funnily enough, taught me basic problem-solving and strategy, and helped me make friends. However, it also started my era of being chronically online and immersed in fandom culture.
I would surf the website constantly, discover cool niche things, and began to join my first few fandoms. My FIRST fandom and one that I am still a part of today is the VOCALOID fandom. If you don’t know already, this is where Hatsune Miku comes from.
So VOCALOID is essentially a singing voice synthesis program where users can utilize it for creating song vocals. Since its inception back in 2004, artists have created amazing music using the software. One of my all time favorites is Young Girl A by siinamota where he uses Kagamine Rin for the vocals. Now, you may be wondering, “what does this have to do with fandom culture?” Well, I was admittedly obsessed with VOCALOIDs as a kid and Kagamine Len (the yellow haired one with spiky hair) was my favorite.
So obsessed that I managed to snag an Instagram handle dedicated to him.
Oh, and I also made a Soundcloud playlist that somehow blew up.
But yeah, I roleplayed as Kagamine Len a bunch as a kid. Not to toot my own horn, but I was kind of a big deal in that scene for a minute. It was a fun time! It taught me about how tight-knit and welcoming fandom culture can be. It allowed me to get myself involved in other fandoms for shows/games like Danganronpa, Love Live: School Idol Project, Soul Eater, and more. The best part about this all — I made longlasting friends I still keep in touch with to this day. #TastyBeverages and go check out my friend’s sticker shop, love you Arden!
Cut to August 2024, I was still chronically online, but not necessarily immersed in social media or really that knowledgeable about it. That was the case until I worked my FIRST ever social media job with The Breadwinners Club (shoutout Walid). I worked as a creator manager/creative strategist for many of the UGC campaigns ran by TBC. During my time there, I was able to fall in love with social media for the first time ever. I loved the feeling of working with creators, seeing their hard work pay off, but then I realized something — I can do that too.
So around May 2025, I started taking social media more seriously. I had my first viral video on TikTok and I was starting to pick up steam. Between May and June, I amassed around 2K+ followers on TikTok which was SUPER exciting for me considering I had little experience as a content creator prior to this.
Now everyone has their niche, right? I was still figuring out what my niche was, but then I started posting about OMORI and something (OMORI reference) clicked. The viewers began trickling in, I started gaining more followers, and I began to form a community of beings who were just as fandom-obsessed as I was. It was PERFECT.
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Nowadays, I still post about OMORI (check out my viral edit above), but I’ve expanded to include The Amazing Digital Circus, Undertale, Deltarune, VOCALOID, Reverse: 1999, and just general niche pop culture.
What I really love is just talking about the things that make me happy and sharing those interests with others. I’ve noticed over the years that fandom culture has become stronger than ever before. Show creators, game developers, and just companies in general have noticed this and used it to their advantage.
Recently, I worked with Fai Nur (ceo/co-founder at Status) to help advertise her team’s new app OC Social Network. This app combined two of my favorite things: fandom culture and social media. With an app focused on creating a third-space for all fandoms to get together, I was able to easily produce multiple viral hits showcasing OCSN to the fandom masses. This just goes to show that companies can develop products drenched in fandom culture and see huge success.
Now, while I may not be the most experienced in social media marketing or content creation, there is one prediction I can make that is guaranteed to pan out — staying in-touch with fandom culture WILL be a key factor in understanding and marketing to GenZ and Gen Alpha audiences.
And lucky for you, you have me to keep you informed about all things fandom-related.
Stay chronically online,
Matt
Thanks for reading my FIRST ever Substack article! I had a blast writing this and I’m excited to show y’all more about fandom culture. So if you enjoyed reading this and want to receive updates about my new posts, feel free to subscribe. Your support means the world to me! - Matt