a theory about social networks.

so why are they so popular? well there are the superficial answers but i like to know why people do what they do. so i asked myself one day “why do people use social networks as they do” for example what would drive a person to share meaningless information with the world? what possible benefit is there in informing others that you were just in the toilet, or walking your dog?

so that part is a twofold answer. first of all people participate in social networks as a kind of adventure…you got to meet new people, go new places, basically live a second life which may be more exciting than the first. but that still leaves the question why should i post something so stupid that no one really wants to know? so i answered that no one wants to be an insignificant blip on the radar of life. everyone wants to have an impact. everyone wants to be recognize, meaning and purpose given to their existence by others. validation. so when they post that they just went to the bathroom, they give meaning to the 20 minutes spend with their pants around their ankles because someone else knows about it. ok.

but there was something more…something else bothering me. because social networks are 2 sided…its not like a blog where you post what you post and people read it and thats the end of the relationships, social networks are 2 sided. someone has to be interested in what you have to say as well. my question was basically “i understand why people post trash on social networks, but why are others interested?”

so i was standing on a subway platform waiting for a train and i walked up to the track, looked over to see if the train was coming, didnt see one, so i stepped back. the woman next to me saw me do this, saw me step back which obviously meant that there was no train, and yet she went over and checked for herself. and this happened in sequence for everyone on the platform. and it hit me!(not the train :P) i was looking for the train because i wanted to know if i was going to be held up. i checked and the answer was obviously no.,..the train is not coming. so why did she look? unless she didnt trust me but why would i lie about that? why did she have to verify something so insignificant?

and it came to me…that basically she was doing it just to know. no particular reason…just information for the sake of information. she just wanted to KNOW. so it got me thinking, why do human beings want to know? so i was thinking about it on the train and i couldnt think of an answer. so i got out early and called my friend and asked this question. i was given a wildly convoluted answer which revealed more about this friend than about the question, so i got back on a train and headed to my meeting.

i posed the question at the meeting and got a very interesting and, at first, unfulfilling answer but then i thought about it and it makes perfect sense. you want to know something because you want to be entertained. plain and simple. our desire for information, our human curiosity is a plain and simple desire for entertainment. thats not to say that every instance in which information is pursued is it for entertainment, but that is the root cause.

but i couldnt leave it at that so i thought about it more. why do we need to be entertained? what does it do for us? why can we not just sit silently when unoccupied? and tnen it all clicked. everything we do as human beings is an effort to find purpose. religion, politics, economics…all of it is in pursuit of purpose and meaning. the answer to the age old question of “why do i exist and now that i exist what am i doing with my existence.” but what happens when you cant be actively religious, or actively political, or the market closes? what do we do to fill the void? what, in that moment, gives our existence meaning? BINGO! entertainment!

so why do you follow the person who posts meaningless stuff and why do you actually enjoy what they post? becuase it gives your existence meaning, however briefly. and that i believe is the reason behind any form of entertainment. we cant be doing anything else at the moment, or we dont know it, or we arent interested so we need to give our existence meaning otherwise we may as well blink out. we need to constantly occupy ourselves to justify our existence. and information, no matter how complex or trivial, is just that entertainment. entertainment…is meaning.

as you can tell im quite pleased with myself but i want opinions.