quoted for ultimate truth:

schemingreader, Writing Fan Fiction: Doing Something or Doing Nothing?: Fandom is weird. It's a great way to meet new people and to reconnect with old friends. There's no better way to meet a lot of goofy intellectual oddballs of the type you want to hang out with all the time. The way you meet them is, you sit in a room by yourself and type while imagining fictional scenarios. Then you sit in a room by yourself and read stories. Then you sit in a room by yourself and type responses and read other people's responses.

Of course, you type "ha ha ha" or "lol" or "I <3 u" a lot.

In essence, it's a way to fall in love with a lot of people who are far away and whom you might meet once or twice if you're really lucky. It's somehow both social and isolating, at the same time.