Social Media Website Growth Linked To Need For Human Connection?

By Author: Amber Singleton
Total Articles: 223
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Since the beginning of time, the human need for connection and conversation has been very strong. If you think back to high school or college psychology class, you may recall a man by the name of Abraham Maslow, and his pyramid of human needs. Maslow, a highly noted American psychologist who is considered the father of humanistic psychology, developed this famous hierarchy based on all the different needs human beings have. His pyramid includes our physiological needs (think water, food, shelter, sex); safety needs; esteem needs; growth needs; and finally, our love, belonging, and/or social needs. The latter refers to the strong need humans have to love and be loved, and feel a sense of belonging and acceptance among others.

Human connection and conversation has evolved greatly over the years. Although our society has become considerably more technologically advanced, this evolution cannot supersede our need for love, connection, and communication. We just choose to have this need met in ways that are much different from our ancestors. Perhaps the greatest communication tool in our present day lives is the Internet. ...
... Through the Internet, we can connect with loved ones, and even strangers, from all over the world, at any time of day or night. While connecting to loved ones or strangers through traditional methods, such as letters through the mail and phone calls, will never go away, it seems as though the Internet is quickly taking precedence in our everyday lives.

We can perhaps attribute this as the very reason for the explosive growth of social media websites. As human beings, we maintain our existence by connecting and bonding through talk. We greatly value conversation, as it is not only a tool for transmitting information, but it is also used as a means of building families, friendships, and communities. Conversation enhances learning, heals emotions, calms disputes, solves complex problems, and more. Social media websites recognize the importance of conversation, and see it as not only a way to influence others, but as a way to be influenced by others.

Social media websites are referred to as any websites that use the Internet to facilitate any kind of conversations. An umbrella term, social media defines the activities that come together in a medium that uses more than one sense of sight, sound, or motion to create varying displays, optimal photo-sharing opportunities, and connection points through content. Such opportunities are critical to social media websites.

Social media websites take on multiple forms - Internet forums, message boards, weblogs, wikis, podcasts, pictures, video, and more. They allow the users to create and/or use blogs, photo albums, wall-postings, email, instant messaging systems, music-sharing systems, and voice over IP, just to name a few.

Some of the most popular social media website applications are Google, a reference and social networking website; Wikipedia, a reference website; and of course, the popular social networking websites of MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube, which also allows for video sharing.

With social media websites, many find that their need for human connection and a sense of belonging are met. Through these types of websites, one is allowed to express him or herself; share with others his or her ideas and opinions; become educated on a number of topics; and basically become a part of a real community. Quite simply, there is nothing that a social media website cannot do. As a matter of fact, social media websites create twice the amount of content as all of the print, TV, and radio news operations combined. With this in mind, these websites will continue to take an active role in the lives of practically everyone today.