Social media and its implications, psychologically

“Social media is about sociology and psychology more than technology” - Brian Solis




Businesses and marketers specifically, often sought for insights on how people think and make their buying decisions. By understanding how people think and make decisions, marketers can present their products and services to be even more appealing to consumers. Consumer behaviour, (the study of individuals, groups, or organizations and the processes they use to select, secure, and dispose of products, services, experiences, or ideas to satisfy needs and the impacts that these processes have on the consumer and society), is a subject that have raked up followers tremendously recently due to its ability to shed light on how people, either as a singular entity or a group, consume.




Consumer behaviour itself blends elements from psychology, sociology, social anthropology and economics and with the advent of the internet and social media, new studies are being carried out in the hopes of detailing how consumers make decisions based on what they read or see in social media.
Before we go deep into the topic of psychology in social media, it is imperative that we understand why people get involved in social media in the first place. According to Dr Susan Giurlo, a psychologist cum social media practitioner, humans are inherently social and want to interact with other humans. Centuries ago, Aristotle voiced similar views “Man is by nature a social animal; an individual who is unsocial naturally and not accidentally is either beneath our notice or more than human”.




Humans generally want to interact with other humans. They want to know what other humans think, feel, wear, eat, drink etc and this information is processed into the most minute detail. A Harvard study that was done in 2012 found disclosing information about the self is intrinsically rewarding. The study found that revealing information about oneself activates the same part of the brain that is associated with the sensation of pleasure, the same pleasure that we get from eating food, getting money or having even having sex.




The most common reason people post on social media is "to share interesting things" (61%), according to a recent report from Ipsos. The next most popular motivation is to "to share important things" (43%), followed by "to share funny things" (43%). Other common reasons for sharing online are "to let others know what I believe in and who I really am" (39%); "to recommend a product, service, movie, book, etc." (30%); "to add my support to a cause, an organization, or a belief" (29%); and "to share unique things" (26%).

Two in ten share "to let others know what I'm doing" (22%) and "to add to a thread or conversation" (20%). One in ten say they share on social media "to show I'm in the know" (11%).









Thus, social media becomes an easy platform for people to express themselves, an inherent part of their daily lives like speaking, communicating and interacting in the real world.




On the same note, different people react differently to social media. There are people who suffer from socmephobia, the fear of social media. This relatively new phobia, brought upon by 21st century technology, causes some people to fear social networking sites and they reject all external attempts to join or participate in it. They fear the thought of having Facebook or LinkedIn invites from colleagues and acquaintances in their inbox and or from any other networking sites for that matter. This fear of social media may be brought by the lack of knowledge of the Internet and as they procrastinate their entrance into social media, they get left behind. The disparity of social media knowledge then widens further between those who rejects it and those who accepts it as social networking sites changes their working model. As those who are already left behind in social media suffers more and more social media knowledge disparity, it is tougher for them to enter it and even if they do, the initial learning curve may be a hindrance for them to participate further and leave their fledgling social media accounts unattended.




People who suffer from socmephobia may or may not be a recluse in real life. Urban Dictionary (a Web-based dictionary that contains more than seven million definitions) defines a “social recluse” as “A person who voluntarily removes themselves from social situations, or society altogether”. Alternatively, there are a growing number of people who are recluse in real life but active in social media. Interactions in social media do not need a physical presence, thus, people who may be inadequate or awkward socially because of their physical appearance may choose to be active in social media in satisfying their innate need to socialise.

There is also a growing debate on whether social media makes people less anti-social. Some argue that people spend a lot of time with their handphones updating Twitter status, posting Facebook pictures, so much so, that they tend to miss the real experience at that precise moment. Instead of communicating with people around them, they tend to look towards their phones most of the time.

Albert Einstein said, “It has become appallingly clear that our technology has surpassed our humanity” and this can be seen coming true in real life social interactions where many are too busy updating their status in social networks instead of reveling in the moment itself. Which is more enjoyable, to share interesting things to people or to enjoy the thing itself?

Many Instagram users posts pictures of their food, vacation, events and social functions; the same things that bring enjoyment to the users themselves, yet they are willing to sacrifice some time (time which includes cropping the picture, editing, selecting the filter and quoting a caption) from it in order to share those rare moments with others.

The phrase “Twitpic or it didn’t happen” became very popular in Twitter, as in the net, people need more than merely words to prove of one’s actual activity. This desire to share what is happening to people in the net which for some may mean more than enjoying the moment itself is becoming a trend in modern lifestyle and worrying, to some.

in 2010, a team of researchers from University College London and Aarhus University in Denmark found out that the area of our brains associated with reward is more active when others agree with, and reinforce, our own opinions. Thus, people who are enjoying or rewarding themselves seeks further reward by having validations from their social circles. Every Like, every Mention, every Share, gives an extra dose of dopamine (a neurotransmitter that helps control the brain's reward and pleasure centers) to the brain of the person who posted it.

Social media falsely rewards our brains and humans, in the modern world without really going through the motions. Getting validation from the real world is so much more tougher and needs more physical and emotional resources. Thus social media does a fine job of deluding us--making us think that we are smart, attractive, above average, considerate, unbiased and blissfully free of the shortcomings and moral defects that plague other people because we live in a bubble that we selfishly create.