Dancing Uphill

The last couple of years online communities have been developing applications for users to share daily updates about their life, thoughts and whereabouts. Hyves provides a ‘WieWatWaar’ and Facebook has it’s own ‘Wall’ where users can update their friends. Twitter does it the light-weight way. It allows an easy and light-weight form of communication and enables users to broadcast and share information about their activities, opinions whereabouts and status. But why are we using Twitter anyway? Is it a tool that nourishes our social needs or is technology increasing our needs to keep track of out ‘friends’ every minute of the day?

Some quick facts about Twitter

Within eight months after launching Twitter – back in April 2007 – it had reached about 94,000 users [1]. Pew Internet & American Life Project stated that:

“As of December 2008 11% of online adults used Twitter or updated their status online… Just a few weeks earlier, in November 2008, 9% of internet users used Twitter or updated their status online and in May of 2008, 6% of internet users responded yes to a slightly different question, where users were asked if they used “Twitter or another ‘microblogging’ service to share updates about themselves or to see updates about others.” [1]

However more recent research has shown that the growth of Twitter is not increasing but rather decreasing. Back in 2008 Twitter had grew with 422%, but research conducted by Hitwise indicates that the rise of Twitter may be decreasing.

‘In September of last year, it was around 0.01%. Then growth skyrocketed to a high of around 0.20% in June 2009. Since then though, it’s been dropping, and is now at 0.17%.’ [2]

Human behavior: Our social being and needs

Humans are social beings with social needs, that is a fact. We need each other to grow as well. Rom Harré describes in his book ‘Social Being’ that we exist as persons for ourselves and other people. We exist solely by the virtue of networks of relations in which we stand to other human beings of our kind. We are partially created by others and our actions and interactions are jointed actions [3]. Twitter in this case would be a platform on which networks of relations are enhanced. Networks are created and maintained on a daily basis and the followers you follow and that follow you in return are mostly people you have shared interests with; they are ‘humans beings of our kind.’

Aristotle on the other hand speaks of how achieving the good life. We all have social needs and to have a good, successful and happy life we need to socialize with others. And because humans are by nature social beings it is good to live in a society in which the social life is mostly based on a community. Social life in a community is a necessity for a human’s complete flourishing as a human being. Another aspect that Aristotle addresses is friendship. This mutual admiration between two human beings is a necessity. This moral admiration for one and another is essential in friendships and taking advantage of these friendships can make a person fully human [4].

The Maslow’s hierarchy of needs also addresses this fact. After physical and safety needs we all have our social needs. According to Maslow these social needs involve emotionally based relationships such as friendship and intimacy.

Twitter: enables or increases our social needs?

Both Harré and Aristotle seem to agree on the fact that we are social beings that need networks / relationships to become fully human. Twitter seems to enable this need to keep our networks updated on our status; our well-being in other words. Back in the old days we would make time to catch up with our friends and family in a more intimate way. We would gather together with friends to discuss the latest developments. Unfortunately society is speeding up and time is not always on our side.

Applications like Twitter enable us to maintain our social relationships and nourish our social needs on an easy, direct, mobile and faster way. But a question raises: is this a mass medium that only nourish our basic needs or is it meant, like Adorno stated back in 1944, to manipulate the masses into passivity? Is Twitter it in other words enslaving us to keep other updated every moment of the day? Or are our existing social needs nourished by web-based applications like Twitter?

A small quantitative  research I conducted recently confirms that we have this huge urge to keep in touch with each other on a daily basis. Platforms like Twitter are a mostly appreciated because they offer a quick and easy way to keep track of each other. Respondents stated that they twittered because they wanted to share information, thoughts, simple or bizarre things that happened in daily life. One Twiffer-fanatic stated:

‘I love to twitter about personal things that happen in my life, about new media, jokes, pictures, interesting things I come across on the Internet, twitterevents, things that happen in the world and that grab me, songs…’

Maybe I am a little bit skeptical but why would we want to share this kind of personal information on platforms like Twitter? The openness in which quite some people Twitter about there whereabouts is stunning. And all this information is visible to everyone if you don’t have a private account. So why are we posting this information for basically everyone who wants to read it? Are we only nourishing our social needs or is something elso going on? And more important: can platforms like Twitter succeed on the longterm?

Answers could be looked in the sphere of ego boosting for example, but more emperical researched is recommended. Any ideas on specific methodologies for reseach in this field?

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Sources:

[1]
Amanda Lenhart, Susannah Fox. ‘Twitter and status updating.’ Pew Internet & American Life Project. February, 2009.

[2]
Ben Parr. ‘STATS: Has Twitter’s Growth Peaked?’ <http://mashable.com/2009/09/25/twitter-traffic-ceiling/>. September 25th, 2009.

[3]
Rom Harré. ‘Social Being.’ 1993

[4]
Edward W. Younkins. ‘Aristotle, human flourishing, and the limited state.’ <http://www.quebecoislibre.org/031122-11.htm>. Montreal, 2003.