A Case for Jumping on the Bandwagon
Writing for Psyche, Hannah Seo argues that rooting for a team and other collective experiences are opportunities to be seized — even if only once in a while. It's a small reframing with a lot of force behind it. The bandwagon fan is normally the butt of the joke, accused of arriving late and caring cheaply. Seo's move is to stop grading enthusiasm by seniority and ask what the shared experience is actually for. Most of us will not be at the parade either way; the question is whether we let ourselves be part of the thing while it's happening.
AI-generated discussion · Different perspectives
The interesting part is the permission slip. Collective experience gets treated as a standing commitment you either have or lack, rather than something you can take up occasionally when it's offered.
Taking it up still means picking a side and letting the result matter to you. The occasional part is doing a lot of work in that argument — a neutral observer gets none of it.