Practicum 7: Special Interest Groups -- When Groups Meet Offscreen

It is not unusual for media fan communities to have meet-ups, Comic Con, SXSW, Mega Con, etc... but what about special interest groups? While geographically they are spread all over, Disney theme park enthusiasts have quite a telepresence--especially on Tumblr. How does one find fellow Disney park enthusiasts on Tumblr? Tags. Searching "Disney", "Disneyland", and "Vintage Disney" is the easiest way to find fellow enthusiasts. Follow them. Reblog the stuff of theirs that you like. Send them "asks" to encourage conversation. Before you know it, you'll end up with 525 followers of a Disney Parks themed blog of your own!

....I'm really not quite sure how this happened yet. So now that you have all of these cool friends with similar interests as you, you want to actually hang out with them. Sure, Disney offers their own events--like the D23 Convention or "Destination D" events, but why would you pay to go to those? Social media and microblogging sites like Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter have made possible events like Dapper Day, where Disney (specifically retro Disney) theme park fans can meet up and reminisce about times when people actually dressed nicely for things like travel and visiting theme parks.

photos from Tumblr of Dapper Day Also, just when I thought I couldn't love the Disney parks Tumblr community more, this appeared in my Tumblr inbox: