In last week’s blog I wrote about a municipality’s proposal to use Facebook as a mechanism to attempt to instill the fear of embarrassment and public ridicule in repeat drunk driving offenders. This week I’d like to talk about a different aspect of social fear: not as a mechanism to encourage good behavior but social fear as a demotivating or dampening factor inherent in social networks and some of the different forms it can take.
You probably know what glossophobia is, and if you are like most people you’ve probably even experienced it to one degree or another at some point. Glossophobia is the fear of public speaking, perhaps one of *the* most common fears out there (and as those who know me would be quick to point out, clearly not one from which I suffer). If you have this fear your body actually starts to produce adrenaline when you are in a public speaking situation (the flight or fight hormone, or in this case “speak” or flight) resulting in physical symptoms: sweaty palms, heart palpitations, dry mouth and even nausea. In some people this phobia is so intense that they go out of their way to avoid situations that could potentially cause them to have to speak in public.
The reasons behind glossophobia are complex and certainly have strong psychological components, but I have to think that deep down they probably also have a fundamental genetic component as well: human beings have limited survival skills as individuals, so early humans who had a genetic bias to hang around and work in groups had a far better chance of survival.
Certainly a big factor in social fear as an impediment to participation in social networks is related to glossophobia: when presented with a new social network a potential member must overcome the fear of contributing in a way that would lead to public embarrassment. No one wants to post something that others in the community will ridicule or revile, so successful social networks try to reduce this barrier by giving potential users control over their privacy settings (who is allowed to see or comment on what I post) and interaction settings (who is allowed to send me messages or see if I’m online). Effective and timely moderation is also a method of reducing social fear; users can see that abusive or offensive material is quickly removed and repeat offenders banned.
But there are other elements of social fear besides embarrassment that act as barriers to participation. There is the fear that a social network will use your participation to try to sell you things you don’t need or want, or the fear that a site might be using your participation for other more sinister purposes (elements I’ve written about previously).
There is another social fear that I haven’t yet touched on in any of my earlier blogs that I’d like to bring up here. Anytime a social networking community attempts to do ideation—the generation and improvement of ideas by a group of community members—the community must overcome the fear of intellectual property theft. If, for instance, I visit a site that asks me to submit an idea (or improve upon one that’s already been submitted), how do I know that my idea won’t be appropriated and used by others without compensating me for my contribution? How confident am I that if I post a great idea, someone else won’t steal it (or take credit for it)?
Protection of ideas online is an interesting problem, and one that may not have clear cut solutions. People submitting ideas might hold certain details back from the submission with the hope that a potential idea thief wouldn’t appropriate it. But that might defeat the purpose of submitting the idea in the first place, if the reason for submitting it is to get suggested improvements or interest potential investors (a la Kickstarter.com). To be successful, ideation sites must offer value for value: if you expect members to contribute content that is valuable to your organization, you must offer something of value in return. But how do you offer value to a member for contributing a million dollar idea?
Readers who have ideas on how to overcome this issue are cordially invited to submit them in the comments below.
(You see what I just did there…)
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