Are you digitally emotional?
Being more emotional within virtual platforms
Communication means sharing information with an audience. Every living being is communicating with its peers. In nature, a variety of techniques are used; the pheromone, the language, the behavior.
Decade after decade, humanity has shown some incredibly inventive ways to improve its interactions. For instance, in 1876, Alexander Graham Bell filed a patent for the telephone. It was one of the first viable ways to share a voice thanks to an electric signal. The telephone has changed the way we interact; everything is immediate, now we are able to reach anyone around the globe at any time. Over time, the telephone has been improved with new features; voice sharing is just one of the diverse things that you can do with it.
In 2007, Apple launched the iPhone, an all in one device based on sharing experience technologies. It is not only about telecommunication but also having continuous access to the Internet in our pocket. Now we are able to stay in touch with others and their content at every moment. This device that you carry in your daily life plus seamless access to a global network is the perfect mix to create a link between you and a virtual world.
Do you remember more than 5 phone numbers? Or do you personally know each contact you have on LinkedIn? Have you ever looked for a destination itinerary on Google Maps even if you know how to get there by yourself? We all rely on our smartphones for these things. The smartphone has a unique relationship with its owner, it is like a brain extension and we trust its results.
Can smartphone usage be leveraged to engage user emotions in social media?
In 2019, more than 3.46 billion people were active users of a social network and there were 3.2 billion smartphone users. Many services have been developed to take advantage of this constant Internet access. Some of the most used applications are social networks. In Eastern Asia, more than 70% of social media connections were made with a smartphone in 2019, and 61% in North America.
According to the analytics, it’s becoming more important to be smartphone compliant for social media companies. Furthermore, we all see our smartphone like an inert device, but we must keep in mind that how the user interface has been made is influencing our behavior.
Social networks rely on our herd mentality to appeal to users; the system is made to encourage exchange and interaction. For instance, Facebook’s news feed algorithm has been developed to push relevant information according to our profile of interest.
Facebook’s top priority is showing content you will engage with (comment, like, share, saved) and to make you come back to the platform.
The algorithm’s equation should priorities posts with a potential emotional reaction from the user. Have you ever noticed that you are more likely to see posts from people you have most affinity with?
It is the same for Messenger’s conversation proposal or Instagram’s stories.
Why? Because you will be more engaged emotionally if you see information related to your closest relationships.
According to GfK’s survey, in 2018 what teenagers experienced when they used social media made them feel 20% more popular, confident and 25% less lonely; it gave them a better feeling about themselves.
It’s all about creating reactions within the platform. Social networks are made to trap their users; by increasing the time you spend there, your lifetime value increases. It means that you are more valuable if you are a captive of social media, from an advertiser perspective.
If we see our virtual avatar or the content we are sharing as part of our person, the smartphone looks to be a good way to access the “social” network.
Further, Facebook invented a new form of engagement on its platform. The EdgeRank is now monitoring how we react to a publication. This rating feature is also giving more details on our state of mind about the publication and how we interact with each other inside the network.
In 2012, Tania Bucher explains how Facebook is trying to increase its users’ knowledge trough the algorithm. It serves one goal; personalizing your “Timeline”, because we are all waiting from the web an experience linked to our wants and likes
In 2015, the YouTuber Casey Neistat released Beme, a new social media app. This smartphone application allows short video recording (less than 8 seconds) and instant sharing with user’s subscribers without any editing.
To have an immersive video, you were supposed to carry your phone close to your chest during the record. The purpose was to overcome the barrier created by the device by giving more spontaneity to the digital conversation.
Vadim Lavruski, former “Journalist Program Manager” and John Fremlin, engineer, has started to work on Facebook Live in 2012. The service was primarily open to stars via the Mention App.
In 2015 it becomes public and Facebook has allowed the user to share live video with their audience.
This step into live streaming has been at the forefront of a new extension to social media where the audience can interact live with the broadcaster. Mark Zuckerberg said it’s “like having a TV camera in your pocket”; Facebook Live is the user’ generated modern TV show.
With iOS10, Apple introduced Heart Beat to allow people to share their heartbeat within iMessage. In 2018, Apple launched Animoji. With these two systems, the company attempted to improve the emotional aspect of the iPhone.
The power behind a network is the users — the more users it has, the more relevant and vibrant it becomes. Behind such application improvements, developers are looking for ways to align social media solutions with our emotional behavior to recruit and retain more users.
The companies behind these networks would like to increase the time we spend on their social network and their understanding of people’s habits. Firms are selling advertising space and need free brain time and precise audience segmentation for their clients.
To achieve these two goals, both the smartphone device and its social app need to be more personal and more “livable” with the rise of machine learning, to extract personal data from our usage.
In time, solutions will be increasingly more tailored, with a responsive user experience according to your day to day or hour to hour mood.
What is better than a place where we are emotionally linked with each other to convert users into a captive audience for advertisers?
About this article
This article has been written by Jean Chabaud, a student on the Grenoble Ecole de Management’s Advanced Masters in Digital Business Strategy. As part of a content creation assignment, students are given the task of writing articles based on their digital interests and disseminate the articles online. Articles are marked but we make minimal changes to the content. Thanks for reading!
James Barisic, Programme Director, MS DBS.
