We learn at a pretty young age that all good things come to an end. But everything great needs a somewhat fleeting quality. Without it, it loses its magic.

This common saying has become worth contemplating with the news that J.K. Rowling will be releasing an eighth “Harry Potter” installment, a publication of the script for “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” a play that picks up where the series left off. And fans are already asking for a movie adaptation.

Before this announcement, there had never been a shortage of new “Harry Potter” material since the book series’ end in 2007 and the premiere of the final movie in 2011: fandom revivals include the gaming website Pottermore in 2012, the spinoff movie “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” coming in November 2016 and a nearly endless stream of Potter commentary from Rowling via social media and interviews.

Millennials have grown up in an Internet age that has allowed them to proliferate fiction properties ad infinitum. This has been observed as a phenomenon that has become the norm for young people, who have frequently chosen to do away with the notion that there can be too much of a good thing.

Continuing their favorite characters’ story may be as simple as writing and posting fan fiction or as large as funding a Kickstarter campaign to bring back a TV show like “Veronica Mars.”

All of this is bolstered by the connectivity of social media, which has allowed people to connect with entire networks of fans and thus demand more content. These efforts have occasionally yielded quality results, such as the recently revived “X-Files.” But most of the time, the resulting creation has demeaned the impact of the original as opposed to improved it.

There is no better example than “Community.” Initially earning praise for its mix of originality, high-quality writing and ensemble cast, the show gained solid ratings as well as a substantial cult following. During its first two seasons, it was not unusual to hear “Community” described as the best comedy on television.

After that, creator Dan Harmon was fired. The ensuing third season was met with lukewarm responses and by the time Harmon returned for the fourth season, Chevy Chase had left and Donald Glover was on his way out. For a show so dependent on its core cast, this decline was a devastating blow on top of Harmon’s previous departure and poor ratings.

However, instead of letting it mercifully end, the eager “Community” fan base, who somewhat glorified Harmon as an artist, demanded the show be brought back. This lead to two more seasons that were excruciatingly painful to watch on Yahoo!’s online network, which now no longer exists.

And this actually wasn’t the worst-case scenario: fans could have kept demanding more lamentable seasons and Harmon would’ve been unable to co-create “Rick and Morty,” a show just as acclaimed as “Community” and in a better home on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim.

In this same way, exhausting “Harry Potter” could distract Rowling from pursuing other projects that could be instrumental to her career outside of the series. As of now, fans have eaten up and demanded anything new that Rowling can provide them in regard to the “Harry Potter” series, not stopping to consider the implications of their actions or the recent examples that prove why they should be.

“Harry Potter” is arguably one of the most universal literary experiences of all time. Even if a millennial hasn’t read the books or watched the movies, “the boy who lived” has affected the vast majority of young people somehow.

Many in the millennial generation — some older, some younger — have an incredibly special attachment and the series conclusion felt like a lifelong friend passing away, both figuratively and literally with the death of Alan Rickman, who portrayed Severus Snape in the films.

It is very hard to create a great piece of art. Her talent aside, Rowling’s legacy of a seven-book series that consistently provided quality content was essentially a miracle. But the longer and more frequently you go to a well, the more likely it is to dry up.

Millennials need to learn that just because they have the power to demand more doesn’t mean they should use it, no matter how important the creative property is to them. As Stephen King, a frequent victim of overabundance, said in “Pet Sematary,” “Sometimes, dead is better.”

Mark DiBona is a senior television, radio and film major. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at mdibona@syr.edu and followed on Twitter @NoPartyNoDisco.

Published on February 22, 2016 at 12:33 am