Let Social Media be your Motivation
When it comes to social media, there’s always a tension between generations. The younger generations continue to keep up with the newest social media and somehow never seem to be satisfied. However, the older generations seem to either struggle to catch on to these new social media crazes or stick with what is familiar to them. Overall, there is one general theme that connects them: sharing.
No matter what social media platform you use the most: Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, etc., they are all made so that you can share funny videos, priceless memories, useful tips and tricks, whatever you want to anyone else in the world at a snap of your finger. This started to replace the idea of face-to-face interactions. Before social media in America, if you wanted to share something with your friend, you would either have to call them on the phone or meet up in person. This has now changed to dm’s, private messages, sharing and all that good stuff.
Shirky in Cognitive Surplus states that we (humans) have “social as well as personal motivations”. Both of these motivations are key to why we stay on social media. The fact that you can send something to your friend instantly, post a picture on your feed and get likes instantly is what keeps us on social media. The idea that one person could talk to their partner while abroad keeps us using social media as well. So these motivations could be instant gratification through attention (personal motivation) or connectivity with those you love (social motivation)
When it comes to those types of motivations, it changes what you share as well as the frequency. For example, social media influencers have their personal motivation by how many likes, followers and/or views they get. They always strive to get more, which is why constantly posting updates because one of the posts will come on someone’s feed which will then either spark that viewer's attention or they will just ignore it. In terms of social motivation, they might chat with a few of their followers, talk to other influencers about collaborations but the motivation that drives them would be their personal motivation. Someone whose social motivation drives what they do on social media would focus less on sharing their life and more on sharing things they saw on social media with the one they are communicating to.
