Better to be "With" Than Without

I don't know how anything was ever accomplished before the internet. I mean, I am old enough to remember life before the "World Wide Web" came into being - people called each other or wrote letters....or just went years without contact at all. We call those "the good old days..." But what I am wondering is how large groups of like-minded people came together without the aid of one status update on Facebook? Revolutions, protests, Woodstock.....How the heck did all those naked hippies find each other without IM? It is a puzzlement.... However, in our modern day and age, fans of every genre can find each other with just a couple clicks of a mouse. This comes in handy when you really, really like something and want to talk about it (or really really DISLIKE something and want to talk about it.) When it becomes mega-useful, though, is when you start to wonder if you are the only person in the whole wide world who feels a certain way......like maybe those talking-baby commercials freak you out. Or you wish M&Ms would be classified as a vegetable (they DO make them in green!) Or you are sad because your favorite of all talk show hosts was taken away swiftly and unfairly....Yeah, lets go with that one.
I've always been a fan of all sorts of things - movies, singers, places, foods, magazines, and, since I was raised with a TV instead of a sibling, television shows. As a kid I would hang posters on my wall of people I liked or places I wanted to go. Not so much as an adult, though. Even though I still have just as many people that I like and just as many places that I want to go....It just doesn't seem "grown-uppy" to surround one self with images and reminders of those happy things. I also never joined an online fan page. Again, I imagined that to be kind of a "teenager" thing to do. I am almost 40. I am good enough at math to know that is not teen-aged.
But all of that changed when Conan O'Brien was made to leave "The Tonight Show." In a classic case of not knowing what you've got until it is gone (someone should write a song about that!) I was flabbergasted at just how upset I really was. I wondered if I was the only one....until I saw a segment on TV about a group called "I'm With Coco." They were out in the pouring rain, protesting his ousting and showing their support. What cool people, I thought! And as this is 2010, I Facebooked them. When asked if I wanted to join the page, I swallowed my adult pride and join I did!
Now, it is one thing to join a page, it is quite another to actually stick around and read what is being written. This is where I got "schooled" on Coco fans. (Yes, I do call him Coco now, it's what WE cool people do....) You see, there were teens -yes there were. Very smart teens, fun and cool and witty. Also, though, there were adults such as myself. Adults *gasp* older than myself! People from many countries, many walks of life, with many differences, but one all-important commonality - a love for Conan O'Brien. What a remarkable find! And, as I stuck around to get to know the place, I found so much creativity, humor, and silly reverence for this man whom I always suspected was bigger than even his huge hair let on. Mike Mitchell, the artist behind the now iconic "I'm With Coco" portrait, had created an amazing place for we Coco fans to vent, plot, laugh, sing, share art and photos and memories of skits that made us laugh until we cried. Oh yeah, we also cry. Or, at least I do....And since there are almost a million of us, I hope that I'm not the only one.
And as for all that "grown up" stuff I was so worried about before.... Now I know I can be an adult AND a fan, especially a fan to someone who is so worthy of the adoration. I even ordered a Coco poster to hang on my wall. Hey, he's no Shaun Cassidy.....but who is, am I right?