Why social experience is the future of online content

Social interaction is a fundamental need. People have an innate desire to create and share knowledge with one another.

Social media is a fairly new term, but the concept of exchanging information through communal means existed since our forbearers used cave drawings to share stories. Similarly, Egyptians advanced the system of hieroglyphs into a widespread form of communication.

Psychologist, Abraham Maslow theorized that people have separate levels of need fulfillment. According to his Hierarchy of Needs, physical requirements are foundational; followed by safety obligations. Social needs are the third tier from a total of five. Human connectivity is imperative for survival.

Human achievement thrives in an uninhibited social climate. A casual, nonthreatening atmosphere is more conducive to problem solving than an authoritative, ceremonial setting. Diplomatic leaders who understand social dynamics have used them to break barriers of mistrust and misunderstanding.

Take for instance President Obama's 'Beer Summit'. Whether or not it succeeded, Obama understood the power of social experience and used it to demonstrate his wish to create empathy and compassion across racial barriers.

Reagan also made great strides in his Geneva summit meetings with Russian Prime Minister, Mikhail Gorbachev. The relationship that these two leaders established led to the 1987 INF Treaty; the first step to the end of the cold war.

Social networking is conducive to informal two-way exchanges instead of a one-way formal message delivery. Organic interaction is vital for problem-solving and idea sharing.

Intellectuals need social reinforcement as much as the rest of the population. Stereotypically loners, geniuses rely on peer input which cultivates ideas and inventions.

Between 1765 and 1813, a group of British intellectuals, artists, industrialists, and progressive thinkers formed a group that met during each full moon (so the bright light could guide them home) and called it the Lunar Society. The members jokingly nicknamed themselves "lunaticks".

A few of the prominent lunaticks were; Earasmus Darwin (Charles Darwin's grandfather), James Watt (steam-engine pioneer), Thomas Day (author), Joseph Priestley (Chemist), Matthew Boulton (manufacturer), and Josiah Wedgwood (industrialized pottery).

Meetings were unceremonious social gatherings. They shared stories, told jokes, and stayed up late into the night breathing energy and life into each other's discoveries and dreams.

This 18th century "philosophical laughing"' (as Darwin called it) contributed to progressive ideas that helped sweep the free world right into the Industrial Revolution.

Today's digital "philosophical laughing" is advancing humanity faster than any other time in history.

Wireless communication transforms the spread of innovation. The emergence of worldwide networking propagates the idea that we are all part of a global village.

The Six Degrees of Separation theory implies that we are all separated from, say, the Prime Minister of Cuba by only six people. Which means you know a person, who knows someone, who knows someone else, who knows another person, who has a connection, who is acquainted with someone, who knows Castro.

Stanley Milgram explored this theory in his 'Small World Study'. Milgram, a Harvard social psychologist, conducted an experiment in 1967 to find out how connected we all really are.

Dozens of Nebraskans were randomly selected to send packages to a stock broker who worked in Boston. However, the Nebraskans couldn't just mail the packages directly to Boston. They had to forward them to someone they knew-someone they thought could get them closer to the stockbroker.

The packages were forwarded from Nebraska by over a hundred people, but at the end of their destination, the packages reached the stockbroker through only three. These three people are what author, Malcolm Gladwell, refers to as "Connectors".

In his 1999 article, Six Degrees of Lois Weisberg, Gladwell writes, "...the people who know everyone, in some oblique way, may actually run the world. I don't mean that they are the sort who head up the Fed or General Motors or Microsoft, but that, in a very down-to-earth, day-to-day way, they make the world work. They spread ideas and information".

Connectors are powerful people. We think of power, usually, in terms of politics and money. Or fame. Connectors may not have any of those attributes. Yet, they are extremely influential. They weld social power because they are heavily connected. A Connector is a bridge between a few and everyone else.

For over a decade the Internet has leveled the field of social networking. Whereas we once relied on government, professional journalism, the advertising industry, and the entertainment sector to act as our connectors, technology now offers the "Lois Weisbergs" of the world a digital platform on which to expand their influence.

Connectors bring their magnetism to the online community where they change the rules of public relations and society in general.

According to Pew Research Center ," social networks, and other online tools offer ‘low-friction' opportunities to create, enhance, and rediscover social ties that make a difference in people's lives. The internet lowers traditional communications constraints of cost, geography, and time; and it supports the type of open information sharing that brings people together.

The future of online content lies within the social experience because human interaction is the original and true conveyance of ideas. Social networking will continue to foster the creativity ,innovation, and inspiration that changes lives.

Source:.

Straker, David .(24 Jul 2010) "Maslow's Hierarchy." Changing Minds. Retrieved from. http://changingminds.org/explanations/needs/maslow.htm

"Beer Summit Details: Obama Hails "Friendly, Thoughtful Conversation"." Huffington Post (30 July 2009) Print. Retrieved fromwww.huffingtonpost.com/.../bee r-summit-details_n_248261.html

Savranskaya, Svetlana, and Thomas Blanton. ( 24 Jul 2010) "Reagan, Gorbachev and Bush at Governor's Island." National Security Archive Electronic Briefing 261. (2008). Retrieved from  http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/N SAEBB/NSAEBB261/index.html

"The original Lunar Society." (24 Jul 2010) The Lunar Society. 2008. Retrieved from http://www.lunarsociety.org.uk /3

"Stanley Milgram: Small World Experiment." (24 Jul 2010) Helping Psychology. Argosy University, 30 June 2010. Retrieved from http://directory.leadmaverick. com/Helping-Psychology/DallasF ort-WorthArlington/TX/10/11278 /index.aspx

Gladwell, Malcolm. "Six Degrees of Lois Weisberg." ( 24 Jul 2010) New Yorker 11 Jan. 1999: n. pag. Retrieved from http://www.gladwell.com/1999/1999_01_11_a_weisberg.htm

Anderson, Janna, and Lee Rainie. "The future of social relations." (24 Jul 2010) Pew Internet and American Life Project. Pew Research Center, 03 July 2010. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/Rep orts/2010/The-future-of-social -relations.aspx

 

 

 

About the Author

Jeannie Corona is an artist, writer and researcher with 20 years of experience.

Mount Harvard Climb

Tags: harvard&co, harvarduniversity, oxforduniversity, psychology, reasoning, wedgwood harvard

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 5th, 2003 at 3:58 am and is filed under China. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.