Why does everybody have to be a super fan these days?

Are Taylor and Beyonce's tours really changing everyone's lives?

In a previous life I worked for an insurance company. Our office looked like a prison compound once you’d driven through all the country roads to get there and we would quite literally cause traffic jams when all 1,800 began to leave from 4pm.

I can vividly remember sitting in the 5pm queue in 2012, with Taylor Swift’s new Red album in my CD player and All Too Well on constant repeat as I constructed scenarios that would never happen in my head.

However, despite being a Taylor fan for over 10 years, I feel my credentials aren’t considered valid because I didn’t even attempt to buy a ticket for her sold out Era’s tour or make my way to my local VUE to watch the cinema version.

While Taylor’s music from Love Story to Dress has been a soundtrack to my life so far, I honestly can’t cope with the super fan mentality of an after school bus bundle to even attempt to get on the Ticket Master website.

And, in terms of the cinema version, I just can’t wrap my head around singing and dancing to a live concert in the one room that I’ve always enjoyed enforced silence.

Maybe I’m too old, too grumpy, but I can’t help but feel I’ve been pushed out of a fandom by newbies who wouldn’t even have stood with Taylor in her ringlet days.

It’s not just Taylor though. Cancel me now because I’m so glad Beyonce’s Renaissance tour is finally over.

I just couldn’t cope with one more Instagram post about how someone’s life had changed forever because they watched Blue Ivy on stage and wore a silver cowboy hat.

Yes, I’m overlooking many things, but, can a concert really change your life? Especially if you’re an adult from a major, cosmopolitan city already.

This isn’t to hate on anyone that did get a ticket to one of these concerts or see the cinema version, rather to despair that the super fan mentality has gone from the minority to the mass.

It leaves me questioning how deserving I am to attend these things in the first place. Yes I know the Red album word-for-word, but I’ve not been publicly vocal. What if people think I’m just jumping on the bandwagon and taking a ticket from a fan who needs it more? Maybe, for me, having a Spotify account is enough.

What do you think? Has everyone become a Swiftie overnight or is it just social media convincing me they have?