As a fan who joined in 2019, even i have noticed a change since then. I feel its happened over the past 1.5 years especially, basically right after butter. Its like everyone latched onto the group because they were popular/trendy instead of connecting to the message, the guys as people. Its really disheartening to see all those spam, rude, and immature comments in lives completely drown out all of us who are fans for more than their looks exclusively, but for the music, the connection over a shared message, the artistry.

I seriously wonder why these "fans" keep commenting the same dumb "jokes" in the chat too. I literally blame tiktok for these "marry me" " im x's wife" comments. The platform promotes these unhealthy, obsessive attitudes focused only on physical appearances towards the guys (and other kpop groups too) .

I think before tiktok there was less of this because youtube just wasn't as conducive to these short, y/n videos that now are everywhere, across fandoms.

Its like these "fans" don't see the members as real human beings, just puppets to play with in their deluded fantasies because tiktok has basically made them that and some of these younger fans don't see their humanity.