Tue 14 Jul 2009
Subconscious Motivation
Posted by Norton Lam under Twitter
[2] Comments
As I was preparing to write my Why I Tweet post, I had a discussion with my wife about my thoughts on the subject. While she didn’t really understand what I was talking about, or understand Twitter in general, she understood enough to have her own theory about why people tweet. While she doesn’t like to take credit for it, she has a lot of insight into the human psyche. While my Why I Tweet post dealt mostly with the conscious thought processes of why I tweet, my wife offered a deeper, subconscious motivation.
Her theory was that tweeters are the type of people that are wanting to make an impact on the world. They are trying to make a difference in people’s lives by being informative. On a less flattering note, they are also people that are looking for a place to belong. I had to put some thought into her hypothesis, but I think there is some truth to what she said, in both respects.
I do want to make my mark on the world and, as much as I hate to admit it, I enjoy participating in the clique that is Twitter and in knowing that fellow tweeters like me enough to recommend me for #followfriday.
Blogging is much the same. If you’ve read any of my earlier posts, you know I think of Twitter as a microblogging tool. So as a blogger, I have the same motivation, but just in a more long-winded sense. Blogging would, however, tend to skew toward the impact-on-the-world theory more than the wanting-to-belong theory, but as a blogger, I do like to see comments appear on my posts agreeing with my babble.
Certainly, the blogs like Mashable and TechCrunch are more online magazines than weblogs that the word “blog” is derived from, but blogs from people like you and me are more of our soap box in the virtual Hyde Park of the web.
What do you think? Agree or disagree? Please leave a comment with your thoughts. So I can feel loved.
2 Responses to “ Subconscious Motivation ”
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[...] discussion about Generation Y was originally part of my Subconcious Motivation post, but as I was writing, I determined it was really a subject on its own, so I pulled it out to [...]
I Tweet and use Facebook because it makes me feel more connected to my friends when I know what they’re doing and when I feel like they know what I’m doing and are supporting and cheering me on in those endeavors. I guess that puts me more in the “wanting to belong” category. I don’t think either my Tweets or my FB status posts are informative; or, at least, rarely so.
I blog because I’m passionate about my blog topic, and I love sharing that passion with others, whether they’re my friends or not. There, and on Yelp, my motivations are more in the “wanting to be informative” category, although there is a “wanting to belong” element to those, too. I think your wife’s theories are basically true, and that the extent to which they are varies depending on the person and how they use that particular tool.