SOCIAL.
"We cannot despair of humanity, since we ourselves are human beings." - Albert Einstein
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WHY DO WE EXPRESS OURSELVES ON SOCIAL MEDIA?
Social media such as facebook or professional platforms such as linkedin have been increasingly omnipresent in our daily life for several years: facebook applications alone have recently had over 2.7 billion active members and they uploaded more than 350 million photos daily (!). Of particular note is the enormous development of these applications in recent years in relation to the original customer group: was e.g. facebook initially an exclusive networking opportunity among Harvard students, after a few years all age groups and world regions are represented. With this tremendous success, we almost inevitably faced the question of whether social media simply benefits from the entrepreneurial ingenuity of a few founders or whether they are more likely to satisfy a deep-seated human need that is anchored in each of us.
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WHY DO WE EXPRESS OURSELVES ON SOCIAL MEDIA?
 | whyve - Social Media Why do we express ourselves on Social Media? whyve_Social Media_Download_1.pdf (232.78KB) |
Why do we express ourselves on Social Media?
| whyve_Social Media_Download_1.pdf (232.78KB) |
Social media such as facebook or professional platforms such as linkedin have been increasingly omnipresent in our daily life for several years: facebook applications alone have recently had over 2.7 billion active members and they uploaded more than 350 million photos daily (!). Of particular note is the enormous development of these applications in recent years in relation to the original customer group: was e.g. facebook initially an exclusive networking opportunity among Harvard students, after a few years all age groups and world regions are represented. With this tremendous success, we almost inevitably faced the question of whether social media simply benefits from the entrepreneurial ingenuity of a few founders or whether they are more likely to satisfy a deep-seated human need that is anchored in each of us.
Situation and question
In everyday life, our presence in social media such as facebook and instagram or even in the professional field such as linkedin is hard to imagine: almost everyone is more or less active in liking, commenting or even sharing their own interests to be successful in business. Even if the platform changes or even disappears over time, the hype about being able to exchange ideas in various forms has seemed unbroken for years. In addition, many people spend several hours a day online so that in some cases some kind of addictive behaviour is apparent.
Therefore, we unsurprisingly asked ourselves whether there is more of a natural behaviour behind an apparent trend that all social media address in a certain way. In other words, did the creators of facebook came across a trend that is independent of technology and society and which we find difficult to escape from a pure genetic perspective?
Causal relationship
As already shown in our overview, a possible interdependency is divided into the following areas: expression, vehicle, target and overarching mission.
Expression
Above we describe an almost addictive behaviour to make our fellow human beings aware of us on social and professional media. Examples include uploading the skilfully staged vacation, sharing political opinions, highlighting new knowledge and job promotions, or disclosing apparently very private details such as weddings or births. In an ideal case, these activities also open up a beneficial source of revenue.
Vehicle
Closely connected friends or colleagues usually take up this type of activity with joy or interest. From an objective perspective, this behaviour seems to serve only one overriding purpose: self-staging. We have ourselves photographed at the perfect angle and moment, deliberately exaggerate success in work and private life and want to achieve the greatest possible range.
Target
The overarching target behind maximum self-presentation can be discussed controversially. It could be argued relatively simply with a kind of social constraint or dynamic, i.e. just because we observe an activity on social media in our environment or even celebrities, we also would like to present ourselves. This explanation may be slightly correct, but it cannot explain the actual origin and, above all, the uninterrupted growth. In our opinion, behind this self-presentation lies the genetically rooted purpose of recruiting and convincing a biologically perfect partner. This can be observed in many ways in the animal kingdom: birds want to stand out from the competition with a particularly dazzling plumage to attract the perfect female, lions with the largest mane and strength prevail and are allowed to mate, etc.
Mission
Behind the greatest possible success to find a perfect partner can only be a relatively obvious genetic mission: survival of one's own kind through reproduction. Humans - just like any other species on this planet - are programmed to let their own race persist through offspring. This goal can apparently be achieved by choosing the seemingly perfect partner in terms of assertiveness or potency.
Conclusion
This seemingly trivial context of action offers us far-reaching insights. On the one hand, we can better explain our uncontrollable waste of time on social media and, based on this, find solutions. On the other hand, this conclusion can be used a business sense. Retrospectively, it is often relatively easy to find explanations for a successful business model. In the case of social media, however, the idea generation could have arisen much earlier if the shown impact chain had been dealt with earlier. Specifically, a business model focused on imagery, such as instagram or tinder, satisfies our genetically predisposed goal of initially finding a biologically perfect partner.