It's all true. There's a place for consuming media just so one can be part of the conversation (because the conversation is arguably important). There's a place for doing it because someone told you to. I don't think this part of tv / film / literature consumption should be anywhere near as big as the part where you read or watch because you think it's good though.

And there's an overlap, and there's things that are only mildly popular with your peers that you take on because you think they have some other commendable quality, and there's things that are awful that you refuse to get interested in no matter how much your pals try to get you to.

No universal bads or goods on either side of the argument. Otherwise, it all seems obvious enough?

I do think the types of text that get popular in fandom are worthy of investigation ... sometimes I get a distinct feeling that mediocre texts become the focus of conversation just so fans can have a walled garden in which to practise a fairly poor standard of criticism and fanfic / riffage. When the text is politically questionable or just garbage, but the community is so obscure no one sensible is there to call it for what it is, it can be a bit worrying. I've always felt that way about the exploitative-of-women market niche in sword and sorcery comics and fantasy fiction, for example.