What are people’s motivation for using social media?
The tech giants have cracked the code to attention. They have managed to gather vast amounts of data on people and managed to figure out how to keep our eyeballs on the screen. “The institutionalization of the attention economy keeps us engaged long enough to monetize our attention and create a tyranny of trends” (Aral, Kindle Location 1782–1803). Dopamine plays a role in that attention. We get a like, it feels good, someone sends a message, it feels good. We get a shot of dopamine which is the same sensation you get from drugs, as mentioned by Simon Sinek on an interview about millennials, it’s addicting. In the book, The Hype Machine, the interplay of the 3 technologies mentioned in the Hype Machines Framework, digital social networks, machine intelligence, and smartphones, propel the Hypersocialization trend. It wires us into a vast amount of new digital social signals from friends and families connecting our thoughts, behaviours, and actions with over 3 billion people in a new “Hive Mind.” Angela Cirucci (2013) states, “Social media provides a valuable course of action for its users, perhaps giving them a sense of agency. In a world where we feel we have little control; social media provides a way to respond and to act.” She argues that social media platforms function like a mirror and reflect back to users their own identities in ways that likely impact their identity formation and the perception of their identities. Social media creates a kind of immersion, much like video games, wherein users invest large amounts of time either participating in social media or thinking about it, and it increasingly frames how they experience other aspects of life.
The attention economy is just one aspect that makes us want to stay on social media. The other reason is that people want to be seen by other people. In the book, Social Media Freaks, “Media Scholar and Microsoft researcher Danah Boyd (2011) reminds us that many social media users sign up specifically so that they can be seen” (Kidd, pg 14). Attention from others is the reason why many people use social media, the motivation to post content in order to receive attention, likes, subscribers is what keeps many people glued to social media.
Communications scholars Java and colleagues (2007) did an analysis of how and why people were using Twitter and found that the chief uses were “(1) daily chatter about routines, (2) conversations like @ replies, (3) sharing information and URLs, and (4) sharing news.” They divided Twitter users into three overlapping categories: (1) information sources, (2) friends, and (3) information seekers. These empirical data confirm some of Cirucci’s suspicions in that it is an immersive environment in which millions of posts and interactions can slowly create some shifts in our beliefs and assumptions, or at least lead us to believe that such shifts are possible. We post news in hopes of both informing our network and nudging some of our followers toward thinking and acting differently. (Kidd, pg 15)
In a book by Clay Shirky, he talks about 2 types of motivation, “Intrinsic motivation is a catch-all label, grouping together several reasons one might be motivated by the reward that an activity creates in and of itself.” Stating that intrinsic motivation is the doing of an activity for its inherent satisfaction rather than any other consequence, good or bad. (Shirky, Pg 95) Extrinsic would be the opposisite, completing a task or exhibiting a behaviour because of an outside cause such as avoiding punishment or receiving a reward.
Attention and Self-Satisfaction seem to be the main reason why people stay on social media. I am sure many people will say that they use it for Self-Satisfaction, but I believe that if you check your phone everyday to see the status of your posts then you’re not. I believe that I fall into a mix of both. I say this because certain platforms make me feel one way or another. Like Instagram would be a seek for attention and YouTube a Self-Satisfaction outlet. Plus maybe it has attention as a bonus if a video gets popular. What about you, do you do it for attention or self-satisfaction?
“The social network was the product Facebook was selling. While Apple sold computers, Facebook sold the network” Sinan Aral. The Hype Machine (Kindle Locations 1191–1195).
References
Aral, S. (2020). The Hype Machine. New York: Currency.
Kidd, D. (2017). Social Media Freaks. Colorado: Westview Press.
Shirky, C. (2010). Cognitive Surplus. London: Penguin Group.
This is why you don’t succeed — Simon Sinek on The Millennial generation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNgQOHwsIbg
