Fyre Fraud and the Falsities Of FOMO
If you’re like me then you vaguely remember there some festival thingy that was kind of trending a few years ago. I didn’t pay it much attention at the time as I’m not really one to look at just trending topics and am more like to go down my timeline to see what the people I actually know are talking about. My timeline is made up mostly of college friends, a few new friends and probably some spam accounts. So it makes sense that I had know idea that almost 2 years ago there was a event happening that would change the landscape when it comes how we view social media and, more importantly, how we let it tell us who we are — or should be.
I recently watched both of the recent documentaries on the festival (Hulu and Netflix) and they were both by far some of the most captivating documentaries I’ve seen in a while. Both documentaries follow a kind of chronological storyline of the beginning of Fyre Fest all the way through its impending doom.
Fyre Festival was apparently the brain child of Billy McFarland, an “entrepreneur” (read: scammer), who had an over-the-top idea to create a music festival for regular people (read: rich, mostly white kids) who wanted to party with celebrities. Fyre Fest promised an exclusive, “luxury”, beach experience with 5 star catering and “luxurious” (that word is important) accommodations. Two of its promoted selling points were that the island was once owned by Pablo Escobar and that Ja Rule, himself, was helping throw the event. Because who wouldn’t go after an opportunity to party on a beach once owned by an infamous drug lord, paid with blood money. And of course, anywhere Ja is, we must be also.
Fyre Fest was heavily promoted by “social media influencers” who are basically people with a lot of followers who have the power to shape the minds and actions of those who follow them. Shaping minds and actions might sound like a stretch when talking people who have only one social media account, but they don’t call them influencers for nothing. Fyre Fest kicked off its promotion with a bang and had sold out all of their tickets pretty soon after launching. Customers who bought tickets were counting down the days until their one-of-a-kind first ever beach experience. But behind the scenes there was chaos, obvious criminal activity, narcissistic leadership and the makings of what would become one of the biggest fraudulent schemes of my generation.
I’ll skip the more juicy parts of the story as I think the documentaries tell them best but I’ll go right to the end. Instead of private jets, they got economy flights. Instead of a private beach, they got a secluded parking lot with sand freshly put down over the asphalt. Instead of luxurious (sigh) villas, they got leftover FEMA tents (I’m not sure if I would be more upset that I got a FEMA tent instead of a villa, or that I got the leftovers of a FEMA tent instead of a villa). Instead of car service to the “beach”, they got yellow school buses. Instead of partying with celebrities, they got panic and apocalyptic mayhem with strangers. Instead of a vacation getaway at a new music festival, they got stranded in a country with no immediate way home. And, instead of being able to make their friends, family and followers jealous of their high lifestyle on social media, they became laughing stocks, meme fodder, and the poster children from the unsympathetic for white millennial privilege.
After the dust settled, Billy McFarland was sentenced to federal prison where he is currently serving that sentence out. He’s apparently also still in tremendous debt. But most importantly, he ruined not only his customers, but the lives of the Bahamian people he employed and promised to pay. It’s been almost 3 years now so Im not sure if everyone has received compensation yet but regardless the hospitality and vigorous work ethic of the Bahamian people were exploited and abused. He also might have ruined the reputation of his staff — who he largely kept at arms length or denied them access to important information — who actually believed in what he was allegedly accomplishing. All in all, Fyre Fest should have been thrown in the fire long before it got off the ground.
There’s one more character at play in the story that gets slightly mentioned but not the full attention it deserves. It’s not social media; it’s the nagging message that social media promotes. It’s the message that “their” life is better than yours and you need to live like them to be happy like them. Elsewhere it’s called FOMO: the fear of missing out. My generation (millennials) didn’t invent FOMO as people throughout history have always longed to feel included in events that they couldn’t, but apparently this fear is so prevalent for my generation that we needed a full-blown acronym.
FOMO though, like Billy (and Ja), sells us a bunch of bs to get us to buy into its business: the business of using fear to motivate people to find their identity in whatever they feel like they lack. Con artists are essentially street sociologists who know how to pinpoint voids and cause you to believe they have the answer to filling them. FOMO works in the same way. It is the event in our soul that tells us we are empty without something and promises that if we follow through on its promise, it will deliver exactly what we need. And don’t be fooled. As stated earlier, my generation may have coined the term but we didn’t invent the event. Humans have always noticed the voids in the deep recesses of our innermost parts, and we have always done whatever we could do to avoid them or fix them.
That is what Fyre Fest promised. It wasn’t just promising a luxurious (last time, I promise) beach experience with models and people who would never talk to you in real life; it was promising your soul that it had the answers to what you’ve been searching for. And this promise was first sold to the salesman himself, Billy McFarland. Billy’s own FOMO is the entire reason behind the Fyre Fest. FOMO, even without him knowing, has always been his biggest investor. And his FOMO, like ours, oversold on a promise it couldn’t keep.
Don’t let FOMO control your life. It is a lie. Yes, you might be missing out on some fun activities your friends or other people are doing. But FOMO isn’t about the fear of missing out as much as it about that fear defining us. When we miss out, we feel like something is wrong with us. Why weren’t we invited? Why can’t I be there? Why don’t I have the following he has? FOMO is a communicator. It is always telling you something about yourself. You don’t have to listen to it. And you shouldn’t. Because if do, you might planning your very own Fyre Fest without knowing.
And sadly, Ja won’t be a part of this one.
