A Random Deep Dive into the Relationship Between Content Creators and Fans, Specifically at Barstool Sports

I have spent a lot of time thinking about how comments, whether those be negative or positive, affect us as content creators. Truth be told, this blog was supposed to be about the dichotomy between real life and content. However, after writing for a bit, I realized I was two pages deep in a discussion about internet commenters and the relationship between Barstool employees and fans and hadn’t even begun to crack the topic of real life versus content.  

Especially at Barstool Sports, I think we have a very interesting relationship with our fans and haters. But similar to anything else, I am unable to keep my train of thought contained, and have now led myself down a random rabbit hole of my own mind. And because I know the blog loves to see me coming, I decided to share my train of thought with all of you. With that being said, apologies in advance for the cluster fuck of thoughts you are about to read. 

Before I started working in content, I was a firm believer that any amount of hate would be worth it, in order to work a dream job in content creation. I thought to myself “If you have enough fans, how could you possibly let the hate affect you?” But truth be told, we as humans are not wired to accept thousands of other peoples’ perceptions of us. Before social media, the only people who had opinions on me were people who had met me in person. Nowadays, thousands of random strangers, who have seen only a 15 second clip of me, have strong opinions on my character. And what I’ve found interesting is that this starts to subconsciously affect us as content creators and the way we perceive ourselves. After reading so many comments about yourself, it becomes difficult to decipher the difference between how you actually feel about yourself versus how the commenters essentially want you to feel about yourself. 

Not only do internet commenters affect the way we feel about ourselves, but I truly believe that commenters affect the way that Barstool coworkers view each other. All of us working as Barstool content creators also double as Barstool Sports fans. We all consume each other's content, and interact with one another; and therefore, have a pretty good gauge on what the Barstool audience thinks about all of us within the walls of Barstool. When you are viewing a video on TikTok, Twitter, or Instagram, your opinion on the video or individual is being formed by the comments before you even take a split second to think about your own opinion. This is where the idea of “groupthink” comes in. It is the idea that people form opinions based off of the opinions of other people, in order to fit in. And whether we like it or not, we are all victims of groupthink on the internet. There is nothing inherently wrong with this, it is just plainly interesting to think about the fact that my coworkers opinions’ on me may be partially formed by the random commenters that have never personally met me. 

However, this leads us into an interesting quandary. Obviously, people who are better perceived by the Barstool fans are more likely to get pulled into other content. Business and content wise, this will always make the most sense. If the Barstool audience responds well to someone, of course people are going to appease the fans and put that specific person in more content. The issue with this? Well for one, it's a bit of a double-edged sword. I have a strong relationship with my personal audience, but not so much with the Barstool audience. I am not oblivious to the fact that most Barstool Sports fans are not super interested in my TikTok content and prefer to see someone discussing sports or looking exceptionally sexy, neither of which I am super capable of doing. My personal problem with this is that it makes it exceptionally hard to break through with the Barstool audience. If I am not well- perceived by the Barstool audience, I am less likely to receive invites to partake in other content. But if I don’t participate in other content, how do I change the Barstool audiences’ perception of me? And because I know the commenters will be quick to tell me “make your own content,” I want to reemphasize the fact that I post 5 videos a day on TikTok, all of which are transferred to Instagram trial reels. I also want to remind everyone that I have done multiple podcasts and shows through my time at Barstool, and I have always struggled to mesh my audience with the Barstool audience. Meshing my audience with the Barstool audience isn’t a huge concern, but merely an important goal of mine. 

Now this leads me into wondering whether or not the Barstool relationship with the company’s audience has created a loose version of the Stanford prison experiment, in the minds of internet trolls. During a lot of the Barstool shows, there are live chats that allow the audience to vote on challenges or vote for specific people to either win or lose something. Essentially, I have a theory that Barstool does such a great job with fan involvement, that internet trolls believe they can say whatever they want. And guess what? It’s true. They can say whatever they want. However, that does not mean anyone is going to listen. For example, there are quite a few of us here at Barstool who receive comments along the lines of “@daveportnoy and @barstoolbigcat please fire this person.” More than anything, I just simply find these comments annoying. But it does raise the question; would these internet trolls spend time commenting on things of this nature if Barstool didn’t ever acknowledge commenters? What I am trying to explain is that since trolls are typically aware of the fact that we read live chats and comments, I think they’re more inclined to comment hate. And once again, this is not a complaint, merely a train of thought I’ve been exploring.

Make no mistake, a vast majority of internet commenters are incredibly supportive and kind. Specifically at Barstool, I would never change the close-knit relationship we have with the fans. I’d like to believe that I now know the Barstool audience well enough to know that this blog may not be well perceived. And since this is my blog and I can do what I want, I am going to take this time to emphasize that I am not writing this blog for pity or support. I am writing this blog because I find psychology and nuance exceptionally interesting and this is a topic I spend a lot of time thinking about. As always, have a lovely day everyone!