Join da club!

Last lesson, we ended off Unit 3 with Group Communication and the first thing that came to my mind about what to blog about for this weekend was Cosplay. No I’m not a fan of it, I know nuts about Cosplay and I don’t see why it is fulfilling to parade down the streets under the sweltering hot sun and attracting weird stares from onlookers. Nevertheless, I know of a friend who went for the most recent Cosfest at D’Marque Downtown East and I had a fun time playing and camwhoring with his long, red wig. Still, no thanks. Taming the hair after playing with it for five minutes is tedious enough, let alone wearing it for hours under the sun, soaking it with the million beads of perspiration. Oh wait, now they’re like just like oceans, salty and wet. Take a look at the screenshot above. It’s a website I came across while I was trying to find something I can mention in this entry. A recruitment for Cosplay lovers and trying to attract them to join their group in taking part in activities and having discussions about their favourite Manga characters. I have another friend, Stefanie, who joined the SIM Cosplay club, A=Mc2, which well, like I mentioned earlier, has a group of Japanese comics and cartoons fanatics coming together to share about their common interest. Though I may not understand why she wanted to join the club since I’ve got no interest in Cosplay, I believe she has her reasons and I really hope she is going to enjoy herself for the rest of her meetings with the other members of the group.

So, why do people join a group? For Stefanie’s case, the obvious reason why she joined A=MC2 was her undying interest in Cosplay and how she loves dressing up as Japanese Anime characters and be in her “virtual” world for that few hours in the costume. She may have joined it for some benefits she would be able to gain from this club, for example, getting to know more about her favourite Cosplay characters and probably feels that her needs for inclusion, control and affection can be fulfilled. What do I mean by those “needs for inclusion, control and affection?” Need for inclusion, like how the word explains, is the need to be included in a group, feel welcomed and a sense of belonging in it. Everyone of us has this particular need and longing to join a group which we’d be able to feel comfortable in. Need for control means that she wants to be able to voice out her opinions, speak her mind and get accepted by the members of the group without facing any objections and jeers. Lastly, the need for affection is her need for her members to lend her their support in everything she does. Wlliam Schutz concluded that these are the 3 interpersonal needs that the group should be able to fulfill before someone joins a group.

Every group have the characteristics such as interaction between members, interdependence, shared behavioral standards, and collective identity. Ever watched the movie Mean Girls? Don’t they dress the same way? Short skirts and similar traits among them. In majority of high school chick flicks, there is bound to be a group of popular girls who are tall, slim and pretty with similar styles. That’s collective identity for you.

Now, why don’t you think about what kind of group you would like to be part of?

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