miércoles, 19 de julio de 2023

THE NEED TO BELONG AND FOMO (AND OTHER OMOS)

Lack of constant, positive relationships has been linked to a large range of consequences. People who lack belongingness are more prone to behavioral problems such as criminality and suicide and suffer from increasing mental and physical illness. Based on this evidence, multiple and diverse problems are caused by the lack of belongingness and attachments. It therefore seems appropriate to regard belongingness and attachments as a need rather than simply a want.

According to Roy Baumeister and Mark Leary, all human beings need a certain minimum quantity of regular, satisfying social interactions. Inability to meet this need results in loneliness, mental distress, and a strong desire to form new relationships. Several psychologists have proposed that there are individual differences in people's motivation to belong. People with a strong motivation to belong are less satisfied with their relationships and tend to be relatively lonely. As consumers, they tend to seek the opinions of others about products and services and also attempt to influence others' opinions.

According to Baumeister and Leary, much of what human beings do is done in the service of belongingness. They argue that many of the human needs that have been documented, such as the needs for power, intimacy, approval, achievement, and affiliation, are all driven by the need to belong. Human culture is compelled and conditioned by pressure to belong. The need to belong and form attachments is universal among humans. Those who believe that the need to belong is the major psychological drive also believe that humans are naturally driven toward establishing and sustaining relationships and belongingness. For example, interactions with strangers are potential first steps towards developing non-hostile and more long-term connections which can satisfy one’s attachment needs. Certain people who are socially deprived can exhibit physical, behavioural, and psychological problems, such as stress or instability.

Be willing to not have it all. Needs are limited. Desires are endless. Accepting the essential futility of trying to fulfill every desire we have is much wiser than indulging all of our impulses for gratification. Prioritizing certain activities enables us to let go of others. Decide what your highest priorities are and focus on them. The word decide comes from the Latin decidere, which means “to cut off.” Deciding what to prioritize requires us to cut off other options, but makes it possible to give clearer attention to those have heart and meaning for us.

But that is SO HARD...

¿Cuántas veces la expresión "edición limitada” en el envoltorio de algún producto acelera tu deseo por comprarlo? 

Las ofertas de tiempo limitado. Si una determinada oferta tiene fecha de caducidad, es más fácil que el consumidor se sienta tentado por ella.

El concepto edición limitada no nace con la generación millennial, aunque esté viviendo con ella su momento de máximo esplendor. “Debemos remontarnos a la época victoriana y al mundo editorial para encontrar su origen, cuando los productos de la más alta calidad se vendían a un precio superior”, nos comentan desde MBAKnol.com, asesoría especializada en negocio, marketing y dirección de empresa. “El término pretende darle al producto algo nuevo e inédito, más allá de la edición regular. Esta estrategia de marketing conlleva una sensación de inmediatez y de exclusividad, ya que los artículos solo estarán disponibles por un corto tiempo y/o en cantidades limitadas”.

Aprovechan el FOMO: fear of missing out o el miedo a perderse algo, para crear emoción. El 60% de las compras se basan en este sentimiento. “Debes convencer a los consumidores de que si no compran de inmediato, se perderán una oferta increíble que nunca volverán a encontrar”, alienta a todos sus clientes la agencia Bold x Collective. Para algunas personas, este temor es tan intenso que si se perdieron el lanzamiento están dispuestos a pagar más para obtener lo que quieren en mercados como Goat y Stockx. 

Te lo perdiste” es una frase que se ha convertido en un conjunto de palabras aterradoras. Esto nace del miedo a ser excluido, a no estar presente en un evento o perderse un momento que hizo reír a muchos. Este fenómeno se lo conoce como FOMO: the Fear Of Missing Out, el cual se ha desarrollado mucho más gracias a las redes sociales y se presenta en su mayoría en jóvenes menores de 30 años. Un estudio realizado por Eventbrite afirma que, en millennials, el 69% acepta que sufre FOMO y no es para sorprenderse, pues esta generación demanda cada día más inmediatez e instantaneidad.

Los usuarios que experimentan FOMO tienden a engancharse más con las redes y se sienten motivados a realizar compras debido al miedo de no tenerla o perderla.  Por esto, es una herramienta bastante funcional para las marcas. A continuación, les presentamos la manera de utilizarlo:

Experiencia

Los millennials valoran más las experiencias que los productos, por esto, nuestra marca tiene que ser una completa promotora de experiencias. Es hora de brindarles oportunidad que ellos no se quieren perder, crear momentos memorables y darles una razón para siempre estar pendiente de nuestra marca. Nadie se quiere perder algo grande que está ocurriendo, como es el caso de los “Corona Sunsets Office”. Este es un evento de Corona diseñado especialmente para empresas, a las cuales invitan a disfrutar de un atardecer junto a compañeros y una cerveza.

Escasez y urgencia

Algo que hace actuar a los consumidores con urgencia, es la incapacidad de dejarlo después. Hay cosas que ellos simplemente no se quieren perder y nosotros podemos convertirnos en una de ellas. Para esto, podemos crear los famosos llamados de atención como “edición limitada”, “últimos modelos” o “solo nos quedan pocos días”.

The scarcity effect is a cognitive bias that causes consumers to place a higher value on an object that is scarce and a lower value on one that is abundant. These scarce products pique our interest and therefore immediately become more desirable than a product that is abundant.

Apart from the aesthetic changes, limited edition products have a time window in which they can be purchased before becoming unavailable. Some of the limited editions are part of an entire concept dedicated to the notion of planned scarcity.

Since scarceness carries of sense of immediacy and strikes into the fear of missing out, it results in a rise in demand and value of the product in question.

Summing up

Human beings are characterised by the need to be part of a community and are afraid to remain, for example, without something owned by the majority of people or to miss important events. For this reason, people are willing to wake up in the middle of the night to watch the screening of the latest Game of Thrones episode, or to queue in the rain to grab tickets for the Champions League final or the latest iPhone model.

This feeling, called FOMO, is the basis of scarcity marketing: a persuasive technique that is based on the consumers’ fear of losing the possibility of choice, creating a sense of urgency and exclusion in the customers to entice them to proceed with the purchases.

Amazon, Booking, EasyJet, Eminflex, etc., are just some of the many brands that exploit the scarcity principle within their marketing strategies. By offering time-limited discounts, signalling the limited availability of desired goods, or intentionally producing reduced stocks, companies exploit some unconscious levers of human psychology to encourage the purchase of products and services.

As we have seen, this type of marketing has created a real product hunt, with Lidl clothing or Nutella cookies that have become a cult object among collectors and are sold in secondary circuits at three times their value.

However, basing your sales solely on scarcity marketing could prove harmful, as consumers are now used to these strategies. The companies mentioned in this article do not base their strategies exclusively on the scarcity principle: these dynamics are part of a broader communication strategy, which also embraces more traditional techniques.

Brands need to develop a marketing and communication plan that also includes other strategies and channels, in order to create content that constantly attracts the attention of their (potential) customers.

Have you ever experienced this feeling of FOMO? Have you ever bought compulsively because of the fear of running out of a product or losing the chance to get a discount, only to regret it after a few days?

Fear of missing out (FOMO) is the feeling of apprehension that one is either not in the know about or missing out on information, events, experiences, or life decisions that could make one's life better. FOMO is also associated with a fear of regret, which may lead to concerns that one might miss an opportunity for social interaction, a novel experience, a memorable event, or a profitable investment. It is characterized by a desire to stay continually connected with what others are doing, and can be described as the fear that deciding not to participate is the wrong choice.

Fear of missing out has been associated with a deficit in psychological needs. Self-determination theory contends that an individual's psychological satisfaction in their competence, autonomy, and relatedness consists of three basic psychological needs for human beings. Test subjects with lower levels of basic psychological satisfaction reported a higher level of FOMO.

A study by JWTIntelligence suggests that FOMO can influence the formation of long-term goals and self-perceptions. In this study, around half of the respondents stated that they are overwhelmed by the amount of information needed to stay up-to-date, and that it is impossible to not miss out on something. The process of relative deprivation creates FOMO and dissatisfaction. It reduces psychological well-being. FOMO led to negative social and emotional experiences, such as boredom and loneliness. A 2013 study found that it negatively impacts mood and life satisfaction, reduces self-esteem, and affects mindfulness. Four in ten young people reported FOMO sometimes or often. FOMO was found to be negatively correlated with age. Ie the older the person the less the FOMO. People who experience higher levels of FOMO tend to have a stronger desire for higher social status, are more competitive with others of the same gender, and are more interested in short-term relationships.

The fear of missing out stems from a feeling of missing social connections or information. This absent feeling is then followed by a need or drive to interact socially to boost connections. The fear of missing out not only leads to negative psychological effects but also has been shown to increase negative behavioural patterns. In aims of maintaining social connections, negative habits are formed or heightened. A 2019 University of Glasgow study surveyed 467 adolescents, and found that the respondents felt societal pressure to always be available. According to John M. Grohol, founder and Editor-in-Chief of Psych Central, FOMO may lead to a constant search for new connections with others, abandoning current connections to do so. The fear of missing out derived from digital connection has been positively correlated with bad technology habits especially in youth. These negative habits included increased screen time, checking social media during school, or driving while texting. Social media use in the presence of others can be referred to as phubbing. Multiple studies have also identified a negative correlation between the hours of sleep and the scale at which individuals experience fear of missing out. A lack of sleep in college students experiencing FOMO can be attributed to the number of social interactions that occur late at night on campuses. Another study has highlighted the impact of FOMO in university students making adverse decisions with alcohol such as underage drinking, and binge-drinking.

Cultural

FOMO, as a word and as a social phenomenon, has several cultural variants. Before Westerners defined FOMO, however, Singaporeans had already named their own version, "kiasu". Taken from the Chinese dialect Hokkien, kiasu translates to a fear of losing out but also encompasses any sort of competitive, stingy, or selfish behavior.

Linguistic

The term FOMO has also inspired offshoots such as FOBO, FOMOMO, MOMO, FOJI, BROMO, NEMO, SLOMO and JOMO.

  • FOBO – meaning Fear of Better Options – was coined by author Patrick James McGinnis while he was a student at Harvard Business School. McGinnis describes FOBO as a byproduct of a hyper-busy, hyper-connected world in which everything seems possible, and, as a result, you are spoiled for choice.
  • ROMO is a term coined during the COVID-19 pandemic that stands for Reality of Missing Out. ROMO describes the feeling of knowing that you are not missing out on anything.
  • FOMOMO stands for the Fear Of the Mystery Of Missing Out. FOMOMO refers to a more extreme case of FOMO that occurs when one's mobile device is unusable, resulting in angst caused by the inability to see what one is missing out on social media. Deprived of seeing friends' social media posts, one may automatically assume that those on your social media feed are having a better time than you. Both FOMOMO and FOBO are connected to the saying "the grass is greener" (elsewhere/on the other side of the fence).
  • MOMO stands for the Mystery Of Missing Out, referring to the paranoia that arises when one's friends do not post anything on social media resulting in attempts to piece together what one may be missing out on.
  • FOJI stands for Fear Of Joining In and refers to the fear of posting on social media in the worry that nobody will want to connect, follow or be friends with you. FOJI is often seen as the opposite of MOMO.
  • BROMO refers to instances when one's friends ("bros") protect them from missing out. An example of BROMO would be if one's friends refrained from posting pictures from their night out for fear of making anyone feel left out.
  • NEMO stands for NEarly but not fully Missing Out. NEMO can refer to people who are on online networks, but do not check them frequently.
  • SLOMO stands for Slow to Missing Out, and refers to the gradual feeling that one is missing out.
  • JOMO stands for the Joy of Missing Out and refers to the feeling of pleasure when missing out. JOMO is a relatively positive belief that cutting off all social media and digital devices can be blissful. (As a Seven on the Enneagram and a thaasophobe, I do not understand this. I am more into information FOMO and FOBO!!!)
  • FOBIA stands for the Fear of Being Ignored Altogether and refers to the necessity of maintaining an online presence in order to feel validated as a human being.
Estudios recientes descubrieron un posible vínculo entre cierta predisposición a alguna clase de neofilia, con niveles altos de la enzima monoamino oxidasa A. SOY UNA NEÓFILA INTELECTUAL.

En psicología, la Búsqueda de la novedad (NS, por las siglas en inglés de Novelty Seeking) es un rasgo de la personalidad asociado con la actividad exploratoria en respuesta a una estimulación novedosa, la impulsividad al decidir, la extravagancia hacia el logro de recompensas, y la pérdida rápida del temperamento, así como la evitación de la frustración.

Dopamina

Además de un potencial componente hereditario, los comportamientos de la Búsqueda de la novedad están relacionados con la modulación de la dopamina. El efecto global de la dopamina cuando se encuentra expuesta a nuevos estímulos es una liberación de masa del neurotransmisor en sistemas de recompensa del cerebro incluyendo la vía mesolímbica.​ La vía mesolímbica se encuentra activa en todos las clases de adicción y está asociada con el refuerzo. Debido a esta activación en el cerebro, la NS ha sido enlazada a los desórdenes de la personalidad así como al abuso de sustancias y otros comportamientos adictivos. Los receptores DRD4 son altamente influyentes en áreas del sistema límbico, asociado con la emoción y la cognición.

Edad

Es importante prestar atención a la edad del individuo con Búsqueda de la Novedad. Este comportamiento disminuirá con tiempo, especialmente a medida que los cerebros de adolescentes y jóvenes finalizan su desarrollo.

Sensation-seeking is a personality trait defined by the search for experiences and feelings, that are "varied, novel, rich, and intense", and by the readiness to "take physical, social, legal, and financial risks for the sake of such experiences." Risk is not an essential part of the trait, as many activities associated with it are not risky. However, risk may be ignored, tolerated, or minimized and may even be considered to add to the excitement of the activity.

Sensation-seeking can be divided into 4 traits:

  • Thrill- and adventure-seeking: Desire for outdoor activities involving unusual sensations and risks, such as skydiving, scuba diving, high-speed driving, and flying.
  • Experience-seeking: Referring to new sensory or mental experiences through unconventional choices, also including psychedelic experiences, social nonconformity, and desire to associate with unconventional people.
  • Disinhibition: Preference of "out of control" activities such as wild parties, drinking and illegal activities
  • Boredom susceptibility: intolerance of repetition or boring people, and restlessness in such conditions.

Zuckerman argues that sensation-seeking is one of a handful of "core traits" that can be used to describe human personality. Although other researchers including Eysenck, and Costa and McCrae considered the trait to be related to extraversion, factor-analytic studies conducted by Zuckerman suggested that sensation seeking is relatively independent of other major dimensions of personality. A number of studies have found positive correlations between sensation seeking, especially the experience-seeking component, and openness to experience. Additionally, negative correlations have been found between agreeableness from the NEO-PI-R and total sensation seeking, and the boredom susceptibility and disinhibition subscales. The honesty-humility factor of the HEXACO model has been shown to be negatively correlated with sensation-seeking and risk taking behaviors.

In Zuckerman's alternative five model of personality, sensation seeking has been incorporated as a facet of the broader trait of impulsive sensation seeking. Within Eysenck's "Big Three" model of personality, impulsive sensation seeking is most strongly related to psychoticism and within the Big Five personality traits it is primarily related to (low) conscientiousness. Sensation-seeking has a strong correlation with the Novelty Seeking scale of Cloninger's Temperament and Character Inventory. Furthermore, he presents evidence that this characteristic is influenced by genes. So, sensation-seeking parents are likely to have sensation-seeking children.

ALLERGIC TO ROUTINE:

This person gets bored extremely easily and needs to be entertained at all times. Unpredictability isn't just a preference, it's a necessity for this guy's sanity — if too many days pass quietly, they start to lose their mind. They're the roommate who always "forgot" that it was their turn to clean up, but who dragged you along on their (mis)adventures and kept life so interesting that you ended up not minding. They're also the parent who uprooted their kids every time they felt life was getting "boring" and the spouse who signed themselves and their unknowing partner up for a mission to Jupiter — anything, anything to avoid life becoming "normal".

Your sympathy for this character may vary. On one hand, they're funny, unpredictable and keep life interesting...but on second thought, you'd probably think twice about marrying this character or having them as a parent. They often have a crippling case of No Sympathy, and assume what they want is what's best for everyone. The fact that their significant other is keen to take over the family business in his hometown, or their kid is sick and tired of having to make new friends every four months, will simply not compute with them — life's getting same-y, so let's get out of here!

However, they may not get as far as having a steady partner, much less kids, to worry about — that means commitment, and very possibly the dreaded prospect of domesticity. Many Allergic To Routine characters would rather remain free agents, never hanging around for breakfast after a passionate night or forming lasting friendships. If they do, it will be a major plot point.


They may use dubious means to make things "interesting", or disrupt the lives of those around them just to see what happens. They will enjoy being a Weirdness Magnet, would never dream of declaring "I Just Want to Be Normal" and, if faced with normality, will be spotted running into the horizon screaming "I Just Want to Be Special"...except it's not the "specialness" or Chosen One status they want, it's the ability to make life interesting.


Calvinball is essentially this trope in game form, so if the Calvinball-like game in a work is presented as one specific character's brainchild, then you can guess that character will probably exhibit this trope (as Calvin himself definitely does).


Compare and contrast Desperately Looking for a Purpose in LifeCommitment Issuesand In Harm's WayThe Hedonist is this character but even darker.


FRIENDLESS BACKGROUND:

There are a lot of Characterization Tropes that can be used to quickly and non-verbally introduce a character, and one of the sadder ones is the Friendless Background. The character will, through fate or choice, be presented as not having any friends, or at least not within easy visiting or communication range. They will be eating lunch alone, or looking forlornly/enviously at others with friends and Love Interests, and usually be found immersed in reading, video games, or some other highly solitary activity.

These are (some of) the most common causes:

  • Newcomer: Be they a New Transfer Student in a new school, an employee at a new workplace, or having escaped their Doomed Hometown as a refugee.
  • The Loner: Might be because of preference or ostracism. Freakishness optional. Jerkass-ness optional.
  • Homeschooled: Similar to Newcomer, the character has grown up or lived away from others. May or may not come with interesting psychological quirks.
  • Incompetence: A character may simply lack the social intuition required to connect with others, regardless of how willing or confident they are.
(I HAVE BEEN ALL FOUR OF THESE!!!)

The Homeschooled and Incompetent types (like me) types can result in envy for more extroverted characters (like Misao from Magical Project S).

What's curious about this Dark and Troubled Past (or present) is that it's incredibly easy to fix. "When you have nothing to lose, you stand to gain everything", so to speak. In short order the character will Crash-Into Helloget in a fightdrop their groceries or make a new friend through less quirky means. Before long they'll make loads more friendsnote (Which for some reason usually become a Limited Social Circle, but hey, it's easier to keep track of than the Cast of Snowflakes!) or join a group of them. Despite their lack of social skills or experience they'll magnetically gather new friends thanks to their at times strange but honest charm and learn to use The Power of Friendship to its fullest.

Of course you can expect the "genuine" loners who become one of the True Companions to moan about being stuck With Friends Like These... — all while secretly thanking them all.

In more tragic cases, a friendless character whose new friends turn out to be False Friends is very vulnerable to falling to despair or even worse things.

It should be mentioned that this can become implied against the author's wishes if the character never mentions or demonstrates having had friends before meeting their new ones, and/or never hangs out with anyone outside their Limited Social Circle. Fridge Loners, so to speak. If they had any friends, they're kind of like a set of living Forgotten Fallen Friends. Of course, this can be fixed by introducing a Beleaguered Childhood Friend, showing a photo album, or introducing Those Two Guys as friends. (Oooh, Lucky Draco Malfoy!).

I Just Want To Have Friends, like The Four Loves, is a form of Wish-Fulfillment answering to the desire that some members of the audience have to form many close friendships. A probable reason this is so common in fictional media is the fact that a high amount of people consider themselves to have very few or no friends at all. some studies have shown that the majority of people have at most two good friends while 1/4 of people don’t have anyone they would trust with a huge secret. As this is not limited to real life, however, those with few or no friends (like me!!!) look for the same fulfillment as the reader, leading to two variants of this trope, of which the first, as an extrovert, I prefer:


Type A

While "doing something really cool" is the focus of most fantasies, they also tend to focus on the friendships the characters have. These fantasies often provide "idealized" friends that the audience presumably doesn’t have. While in Real Life a true friendship needs time and investment, in this kind of fantasy setting often the protagonist will obtain tailor-made deep bonds and friendships with little to no time or effort at all. (Lucky Harry, Luna, Hermione, Draco!!!).

This also happens in Real Life online, where e-relationships eliminate most of the usual hardships of making friends and they help shy people to open themselves and show how they really are without worrying about their self-image.

In Real Life, this trope is defined psychologically as the "need to belong."

Related to Wish-Fulfillment and Friendless Background as these tropes are often, respectively, the meta and In-Universe justifications of this trope. Also related to I Just Want to Be Loved (a craving for love in general), The Four Loves (a general theory of love that includes friendship as one of its types), First Friend, and Imaginary Friend.

Compare with I Just Want to Be BeautifulI Just Want to Be Normal, and I Just Want to Be Special, as these tropes are also something the character desires.

See also You Are Not AloneFalse Friend, and Et Tu, Brute?. Although I would never like to experience the latter...







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