I was like, "I don't think my fandom presence is suspiciously birdy" and then I looked at the fandom name I've had for the last 20 years. Oh right. (Not many people know that's the name of a bird, though!)
When I say media was formative for me, I usually mean it was something 1) I consumed at a young age 2) that introduced me to concepts important to my understanding of the world as an adult 3) which I think I otherwise wouldn't have been exposed to until much later when I might have already formed strong beliefs about its themes. Of course you are right that it's not possible to say definitively that I wasn't already predisposed for some reason to find them compelling, but even if so, the specifics of their presentation influenced me in how that predisposition was shaped into more specific perspectives. Maybe I am naturally an empathetic person, but Black Beauty gave me very specific impressions about animal welfare at a young age when nobody else was talking to me about it. Maybe I am naturally optimistic about humans, but Star Trek gave me very specific ideas about human potential and the inarguable fact that Luxury Gay Space Communism is the ideal human society; if I'd found a different piece of media that spoke to my optimistic tendencies, maybe I'd still believe humans have a positive future but my thoughts on what kind of future it is would be different.
no subject
When I say media was formative for me, I usually mean it was something 1) I consumed at a young age 2) that introduced me to concepts important to my understanding of the world as an adult 3) which I think I otherwise wouldn't have been exposed to until much later when I might have already formed strong beliefs about its themes. Of course you are right that it's not possible to say definitively that I wasn't already predisposed for some reason to find them compelling, but even if so, the specifics of their presentation influenced me in how that predisposition was shaped into more specific perspectives. Maybe I am naturally an empathetic person, but Black Beauty gave me very specific impressions about animal welfare at a young age when nobody else was talking to me about it. Maybe I am naturally optimistic about humans, but Star Trek gave me very specific ideas about human potential and the inarguable fact that Luxury Gay Space Communism is the ideal human society; if I'd found a different piece of media that spoke to my optimistic tendencies, maybe I'd still believe humans have a positive future but my thoughts on what kind of future it is would be different.