Does Joining Clubhouse Pronounce Your FOMO?
In the midst of the pandemic, so-called herd behaviour and the velvet rope strategy find new ways to greet us. Are you in?
Clubhouse is an audio-only social media platform, another baby born from the Silicon Valley. In a word, it’s a talk-or-eavesdrop app. With rooms to share your thoughts, info, laughter, joys, and stories, voice interactions made possible within.
The rise of this app illustrated how even the unforeseeable disruption failed to cease the way humans evolve and survived by the way we reconstitute our new life in the pandemic, thanks to Paul Davison and Rohan Seth. Launched in April 2020, it grows exponentially ever since Elon Musk buzzed it up in late January. First of all, Clubhouse was entitled as the invitation-only social media app. Is it?
The fact is, everyone can create an account before an invitation.
Create your account, wait until someone in your circle (contacts and social media) endorsed you, which lets you in within minutes. There you go, as easy as ABC. It is currently only available in iOS — its concept of limited entrance also exists in terms of the wares. Now, if you have previously known that the app was not that hard to join, would you still value it highly?
Thank the velvet rope strategy.
Previously entitled as the invitation-only app, Clubhouse perfectly depicts the application of the velvet rope strategy. Stirring an atmosphere of exclusivity and urging the sense of limit itself, Clubhouse has successfully drawn people in. René Girard’s Mimetic Theory explained how human desire is a collective process —never autonomous nor personal — yet this is how we decide what we pay our attention to. What drives you to install the app at the first place, was it because of the feature that the app offers, or frankly, because your peers posted their new Clubhouse accounts in another social media platform, which seems to be a fun place to explore?
Peeking how beautiful lives inside the velvet rope, there’s such psychological fulfilment of being “in”, letting those who are “outside” to envy your faux privilege. What drives us to be “inside” the velvet rope, in the first place?
The Herd Behaviour
Musk’s arrival on the app allowed professionals and key opinion leaders to foresee the growth of this venture when we started to install and create accounts — creating the craze. It’s very human, it’s natural: it’s the herd behaviour.
The interaction of cognitive and emotional factors (let’s say, FOMO) were explained in behavioural science. John Maynard Keynes defined herding as a response to uncertainty and individuals’ perceptions of their own ignorance, where people follow the crowd because they think that the rest of the crowd is better informed. Beyond cognitive and emotional factors, neuroeconomics must not forsake sociological and psychological factors. We could start being a conscious user by reassessing the decision we “jumped on the bandwagon”*, every time the urge arises.
… as a response to uncertainty and individuals’ perceptions of their own ignorance, where people follow the crowd because they think that the rest of the crowd is better informed.
The idea of being “in” is an economy on its own — yet that what makes Clubhouse surprisingly popular, acceptable, and well-reputed among its newbies, despite the little time we have spent with the product. Along the fear of missing out, we might take some time and a wee bit of wisdom to take a look at ourselves and the way we conducted our decision-making skills these days. Did you join Clubhouse before you read the Community Guidelines? Did you create your account before you even get the know-how?
Along the fear of missing out, we might take some time and a wee bit of wisdom to take a look at ourselves and the way we conducted our decision-making skills these days.
Clubhouse has rooms (literally) for diverse interests, topics, and interesting people in between. I hardly remember when was the last time I have my interests refined in a better, faster, and more effective way before I started using this app. This app allows every listener to listen, and everyone who wishes to speak to set up their own stage & crowd.
As stated in a Medium article by Marsha Chan, the existence of social media apps “simply makes it infinitely easier for people to make social connections as a means satisfy other goals,” and the latest trend of Clubhouse could not prove a better example to us. Maslow would be happy to know that now technology somehow enables human to fulfil their self-realization. With the small space to write bio, people are putting their achievements in a brief title, trying to effortlessly brag their achievements or positions, in order to gain respect — if not merely followers. Some would add their e-epaulettes, and some created their self-titled honor. Harsh self-judgment would bring those with low self-esteem at a nadir of their confidence levels, even poorer with all efforts spent during these struggling year of the pandemic.
With the small space to write bio, people are putting their achievements in a brief title, trying to effortlessly brag their achievements or positions, in order to gain respect — if not merely followers.
Perhaps, we need to reconstitute the way we make decisions. Our behaviours were not supposedly judged in a simple dichotomy — either rational or irrational — but we need to realize the most important thing: we need to get back to who we really are and acknowledge our core values, if ever identified. Should we live in freedom, we put the fear of missing out aside and stop conducting harsh judgment towards our own selves.
It’s not about the Clubhouse app per se. Thanks to this app and its rising phenomenon, it has shyly exhibited FOMO within our social circles and ourselves, maybe. Cumulatively, the expansive growth of its users rises opportunities as well as challenges. Does the luxury of the app remain when we discovered? What remains to be discovered?
Clubhouse has personally enabled me to explore the novel way humans interact and amaze each other. Time would tell, but maybe on a room no one could currently join.
Miles Davis ingeniously says, “Time is not the main thing. It’s the only thing.”
*If you see someone posting their Clubhouse profile on other social media, promoting their profile and adding a caption to justify themselves, “jumping on the bandwagon”, kindly appreciate his/her honesty.**
**But still, screw the bandwagon.
