Modern humans have a lot of time on their hands. It does not always feel like it, but it’s true. We keep ourselves busy with appointments, sporting events, work and school. But 70,000 years ago, back when we were first learning how be humans, we were BUSY. Every waking moment was probably spent doing something to secure the safety of our tribes. We constantly had to move. We had to hunt and kill some of our food and search for the rest. Shelter and warmth and predators were constant issues. There was safety in numbers when living as prehistoric people, and working together and helping each other increased our chances of survival. But there is one group of modern humans who I think are still unconsciously looking to find their tribes – fans.
Fandoms act like tribes since they are a safe place for fans, but they are different than traditional tribes since they are not usually a top-down hierarchy; They may coalesce around an actor, character or story, but a fandom’s power comes from how many individuals are a part of it. This power is usually used to secure boundaries and protect members from ridicule. Fans of a certain genre, movie or show are free to be themselves when they are with other people who think and act like they do, and non-members of fandoms - including entertainment entities who produce the media they fander - are not always welcome. Fandoms usually value 'freedom of expression' over making a profit, and while media outlets would like to make as much money off of fans as possible, the value of something made by a fan is often based on how much time and energy was used in making it, so it isn’t for sale. As a result, fans who are part of powerful fandoms are protected consumers…but the rest of us are isolated and out in the open. The rest of us are more like sitting ducks.
People who are not part of a fandom/tribe mentality are not thinking about “what is best for a group” when they buy stuff. Unless they are living in a group setting, modern consumers only need to consider what is good for the few people they live with. This gives businesses more individual opportunities to sell stuff. There are three traditional strategies that businesses use to try and separate people from their money. A logical argument, an emotional appeal, or an expert’s testimony. These strategies were identified by Aristotle a mere 2,340 years ago. He called them Logos, Pathos and Ethos, and they are still very effective. But the reasons they work are MUCH older. Businesses play on our instinctive concerns for scarcity and competition to separate us from our “resources” – and we are completely unaware of it. Evolutionary Psychology contends that human culture has been evolving so quickly that some of our mental habits have not had the time to recalibrate the way we process information, so even humans living today react to certain situations the same way we did thousands of years ago. So if we are still thinking like cave-dwellers at some level, we may feel compelled to collect more “supplies” in order to survive a harsh winter. (This is why so many of us are in debt and “buy one, get one” offers works so well.) And if we did not entirely consume a mammoth we killed, another (possibly hostile) tribe could benefit from our efforts. So even as modern humans, we want whatever is in front of us – and we don’t want people outside our micro-tribes to have it either.
While how we think about scarcity and competition has not evolved very much, our ideas about what we “want” vs what we “need” has. The only thing modern humans really need are the same things that cave-dwellers had way back in the day: food, water, shelter, and help from our tribe. But ask just about any person on the street today what they could not live without and you would probably hear a list that includes coffee, dependable transportation, and a cell phone or computer. But we CAN live without those things. Just not as efficiently. Living efficiently is what drives humans to invent new gadgets because we instinctively want to conserve our energy for hunting or gathering – and as these gadgets are invented, one group of humans wants to buy them so they can be better prepared than another group of humans. But our obsession with efficiency only clears our calendars for more time to worry about what else we might be missing. Consumerism ends up breeding more consumerism, and our old-school evolutionary impulses being played out in a modern, western, “limited time offer” culture are really messing with our ability to be smarter shoppers. Consider borrowing a ladder the next time you need one instead of buying your own. Let your neighbor know what tools you have available in case they need something. And when you do shop, try to keep your impulses to collect things in mind. Ask yourself, “Do I really need this?”…and if you don’t, resist the urge to purchase -- and you will no longer be like a sitting duck.
Jenkins, H. (2007). Fanlib and Fan Fiction. Outriders, BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/out
Scott, S. (2009). Repackaging fan culture: The re-gifting economy of ancillary content models. Transformative Works and Cultures, No. 3.
Yarrow, K. (2016). The Science of How Marketers (and Politicians) Manipulate Us. Everyday Money, Time Online. http://time.com/money/4511709/
Click on 'Congirl vs Cavegirl' above to see more posts. Comment below.
© 2018 Penny Fie. All rights reserved.
References
Scott, S. (2009). Repackaging fan culture: The re-gifting economy of ancillary content models. Transformative Works and Cultures, No. 3.
Yarrow, K. (2016). The Science of How Marketers (and Politicians) Manipulate Us. Everyday Money, Time Online. http://time.com/money/4511709/
Click on 'Congirl vs Cavegirl' above to see more posts. Comment below.
© 2018 Penny Fie. All rights reserved.
Yep - Maslow's hierarchy of needs and all that. Once one gets above subsistence living, it quickly becomes more difficult to distinguish between needs and wants. And it can be easy to believe that products can fill our need for meaning - though they never do.
ReplyDeleteI do think that a limited amount of the scarcity impulse can be helpful, at least with regard to an over-reliance on a just-in-time inventory economy that can can easily be interrupted by any number of factors. For example, I generally keep several weeks of canned/dry foods on hand, as well as some basic toiletries and OTC medications/first aid supplies. But trusting in that stuff for any kind of eternal security would be foolish.
I'm definitely on board with sharing occasionally used tools and other items. There's little sense in all of us having duplicates of such things. But that would require less cocooning and more interaction with our neighbors! ;)
Thanks for your feedback, cuz. My overall point is that face-to-face is important to retaining our human-ness.
DeleteSomething I think is interesting to consider is the leader's impact on the tribe in the form of endorsement, either of their own work or that of others. I am far more likely to take a suggestion from Jack White through Third Man Records than almost any other avenue. Most of my new "discoveries" come to me through that endorsement. If it is Pokey LaFarge or Margo Price or any other artist on the label, I am always pleasantly surprised and delighted. Thus the tribe adds new members and gets ever stronger.
ReplyDeletein addition, artists create scarcity by limiting the methods of accessing or amount of their art available. Again, in that way, artists strengthen their tribes. I, as tribe member, also feel quite special through that scarcity.
And if it means I'm borrowing tools from my neighbor to save my own scarce resources in order to acquire more art, than I am ALL FOR IT
Thanks, friend! And you are so right that a leader's testimony is the ultimate endorsement!
Delete