I recently heard a speaker* describe the most powerful motivator he knew for both teachers and students: FOMO. The “Fear of Missing Out” means simply that. He talked about how just telling people something is great will encourage the early adopters but FOMO is faster than just about anything.
I’m trying to think how this applies to my life and I think I, personally, am just so stubborn and strong-willed that FOMO has the exact opposite effect on me. Examples:
1. Popular movies and books: I was a HUGE fan of the big series- Hunger Games, Divergent, etc. and the single amazing books like The Fault in our Stars. However, once EVERYONE had read them and seen the movies, I just didn’t care anymore. It was like I enjoyed them but as soon as they became popular I was over them. On the other hand, maybe I just got tired of everyone talking about them.
2. Twitter: I thought it was the stupidest thing ever. I knew people were on it, but I couldn’t even begin to understand why. My social media use is really low, actually, in my opinion. I rarely post on Facebook and rarely even get on Facebook. The reason for that is in general I’m a private person (so this blog is a HUGE step outside of my comfort zone) and mostly, I just don’t have anything to say. I don’t want to talk about my kids online, I don’t want to post pictures of my dinner or what I did during the day, so what’s the point?
So Twitter seemed especially useless to me. I can’t remember who changed my mind, but the idea of using it professionally shifted my thinking. And that’s what I use Twitter for 99% of the time. Every once in a while, I’ll follow a hashtag while watching a tv show, but it’s mostly something I’m on at conferences. (I recently read in the book Upstanders by Daniels and Ahmed the term for that is “backchanneling.” That’s not just Twitter, but responding to something via social media while it’s happpening).
I do like Twitter with the ability to tag things with hashtags. I posted during big steps of my dissertation (#dianasdissertation) so it’s a nice electronic journal to go back to.
3. Instagram: I know everyone’s on it. I think I created an account, but never use it. I have zero point zero FOMO regarding Instagram.
I’m struggling through this concept because I’ve seen it in action. I’ve seen what happens at conferences when everyone gets on Twitter and there’s only a couple who aren’t. I’ve seen what happens when a majority are using something. So this leads me to my question to ponder: what’s the tipping point? At what point is it the majority or a large enough percent that FOMO comes into play? I recall from Malcolm Gladwell’s book, The Tipping Point, it seemed like something hard to pinpoint. Coincidence, luck, and timing seemed to be decisive factors.
If I can pinpoint what that tipping point is and what factors make it possible, then FOMO becomes such an integral part of how to motivate.
Future blog topics:
– soccer shots
– enjoying parenting
– spring break
*Steven Layne at TALE (Texas Association of Literacy Educators); excellent conference and speakers by the way
Reflection on my Direction 