Postcard from Bishkek

I learned a new acronym the other day: FOMO – the Fear of Missing Out.

It was in a promo for yet another social media outlet – Snapchat.

Snapchat is a video messaging application created by entrepreneurs when they were students at Stanford University.

For the record: If I understand correctly, their idea was to create a platform quite unlike the other examples of social media that were around at the time, where people post messages, (text, photographs, video, links to webpages that have caught their attention and the such like), which go to their ‘followers’ (all, or maybe – as in the case of Facebook – just a selection of them), who may or may not follow up on them, but are always available.  This can sometimes cause embarrassment – or worse – with people trying to clean up their social media presence, (before, for example, a job interview).

They were more interested in the act of communicating a feeling or reaction, in the moment, rather than creating a record for posterity … a notebook rather than a diary or scrapbook; notes rather than letters.  As they put it:

Snapchat isn’t about capturing the traditional Kodak moment. It’s about communicating with the full range of human emotion—not just what appears to be pretty or perfect.

… and …

Snapchat is about sharing moments and having fun. Our goal in creating these rules is to accommodate the broadest range of self expression while balancing the need for Snapchatters to be able to use our service safely and enjoyably.

Posts could be directed to particular individual followers and, once they had been seen, (or after a period of time – 24 hours or 30 days, depending on the channel used), would be deleted (… although that has been a little controversial … as they themselves have pointed out, “If you’ve ever tried to recover lost data after accidentally deleting a drive or maybe watched an episode of CSI, you might know that with the right forensic tools, it’s sometimes possible to retrieve data after it has been deleted”).

As they put it

Delete is our default. That means that most messages sent through Snapchat will be automatically deleted once they have been viewed or have expired.

♦ Snaps: Snapchat servers are designed to automatically delete Snaps after they’ve been viewed by all recipients. Opened Snaps typically cannot be retrieved from Snapchat’s servers by anyone, for any reason. Snapchat servers are designed to automatically delete unopened Snaps after 30 days.
♦ Chats: Snapchat servers are designed to automatically delete a Chat after you and the recipient have seen it and swiped out of the Chat screen, unless either of you taps to save it.
♦ My Story: Snapchat servers are designed to automatically delete Snaps you post to your Story 24 hours after you post each Snap.
♦ Live Stories: If you submit a Snap to a Live Story or Local Story, we may archive the Snap and allow it to be viewed again through Snapchat or other sources.

Apparently, when they presented their idea to their contemporaries at University, the response was not particularly positive … and I think I understand that.

To their credit, however, it proved to be a popular concept.  According to their published statistics, as of May 2015, users were sending 2 billion photos and videos per day, while Snapchat Stories content, (one of their products within snapchat), was being viewed 500 million times per day.  By November 2015 that had reached 6 billion sent videos per day and in 2016 it has reached 7 billion daily video views with over 100 million people using the app every day.

It seems that most users tend to be quite young – between 13 and 23, according to some user statistics … sending ‘selfies’ … but that seems to be changing, (it is ” … reported that older millennials (25-34 year olds) account for the second largest share of users on Snapchat”), hence the email I received suggesting that hotels and other service providers whose ‘product’ involves providing an experience, might be, (or should be), interested in exploiting the opportunities that such a Social Media outlet provides.

This profile of users has presented them with other problems … and the possibility of abuse has led them to address a number of privacy and exploitation issues … hence their guidelines:

♦ Don’t send people Snaps they don’t want to receive—especially if the Snap is mean.
♦ Be thoughtful about what you Snap and whom you send it to. It’s okay with us if someone takes a screenshot, but we can’t speak for you or your friends. Snapchat attempts to detect screenshots and notify the sender, but it doesn’t always work perfectly. And keep in mind that your friend can always capture the image with another camera.
♦ Keep it legal. Don’t use Snapchat for any illegal shenanigans.

I am not sure how useful the outlet is for someone like us, a hotel in Kyrgyzstan.  I don’t see many 13 to 23 year olds wanting to book a hotel room in Bishkek … although, or so I am told, the profile of the userbase is changing … and, as the marketing gurus tell us, the 18-34 age group is considered the group with the most spending-power, and the most active on social media.

Another issue for potential users like us is that (in 2013, at least) something like 80% of the users and posts are based in the US … so its value to a hotel in Kyrgyzstan might be somewhat limited … but, I suppose, that situation could change.

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If you’ve got this far, you will probably have gathered that, although I can see the value of Social Media outlets such as Facebook and Instagram, to create profiles and communicate with both former and potential clients, I am not yet convinced of the need for us to setup a snapchat profile and start posting material there … despite the urgings of a marketing specialist.

However … I was intrigued by that acronym: FOMA.

It was one of the points being used to promote considering the use of snapchat:

Your Snapchat friends will feel compelled to view your latest content because they know it will disappear in 24 hours.  If they don’t view it now, they risk missing out on your content which will evaporate and never again be seen.

As it happens, I think that there is an element of this with all social media outlets … OK, the posts don’t disappear on Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler, Youtube and Instagram … but they do get relegated down the timeline and can be difficult to locate later on.

I know that I used to start the day by downloading emails, and while they were arriving in my inbox, logging into Facebook and Twitter, Tumbler and so on … and also various news websites.  Having checked the email and replied where necessary, I would turn my attention to the stream of posts in my various timelines … then scour the news.

It’s a good start I start the day early!  Fortunately, I have usually finished this ritual by the time my colleagues start turning up and I turn my attention to the routine (and not so routine) matters of the day.

That’s not the end of the story, however, because, several times during the course of the day I would return to the social media outlets to see what had been posted in the interim … whilst I had been otherwise engaged … ‘afraid’ of what I might have missed … and, of course, there would be one last check before the end of the day and I packed up to go home for the evening.

Maxim often sits with his telephone logged into Instagram, especially when he has just posted a new photograph … with the display flashing as he gets an alert: someone has liked one of his pictures or left a comment.

He reads the comments and then ‘pens’ a reply … it’s important, he assures me, to reply quickly and keep the conversation going – even if it is only with a ‘thx’, (thanks).

This Fear Of Missing Out and the need for instant reinforcement or gratification is, I find, a common feature of modern life … the pace of which seems to be ever increasing.  I find myself, these days, often having to remind the kids that life is not always like a film or video game: with fast and furious action and instantaneous results.  I remind them that people thought that both the first and second world wars would “be over by Christmas” but in the end lasted for years.

On the other hand, I have to admit that it is true that, (sometimes), situations can develop quickly … and for ‘problems’ to be resolved quickly … but I think that is the exception rather than the rule.

One of the great surprises of the first Gulf War was the sudden and complete collapse of the Iraqi military … and the speed with which it was over.  In fact, I think that this did a disservice to the bravery and achievements of the soldiers who fought in the conflict … it implied that life was simple and ‘problems’ could be easily and swiftly resolved … whereas, in reality, life is complicated and time is, (more often than not), needed to reach a conclusion.  It raised expectations and made for difficulties when we encounter situations which are not, (or worse, cannot), be resolved quickly.

I also accept that there are times when, for ‘fear of missing out’ on something, I do log into a news website, or switch on the TV to catch a continuous broadcast, reporting developments in some ‘breaking news’ story … such as the events of September 11th or last month’s Super Tuesday primary elections in the States.

I know that we are advised to avoid clichés, but I do find them useful … they seem to encapsulate a lot of folk wisdom gathered over the ages … but they should be accepted for what they are and not taken at face value and granted the status of ‘gospel’.  Take, for example, the phrase “a quick fix” which one dictionary defines as “an easy remedy or solution, especially a temporary one which fails to address underlying problems.” (My stress!).

Sometimes, we need to stop and “take a breather”, perhaps to recover and regroup … after all, “time is a great healer” … or, perhaps, to wait and see how things will develop, (especially when those developments are out of our control and we need to see how others will react),”time will tell” … and, anyway, “patience is a virtue” … isn’t it?.

 

But, maybe that’s another postcard … the advantages and disadvantages of being patient.

 

 

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