social interaction as a basic human need
A while ago I read a psychology paper* about why cults are appealing and addictive. (I wish I could find the link again. My google-fu is weak today.) The paper explained that people have an intense need to be social. As Joe Rogan explains "For punishment in prison you get taken away from rapists and child molesters. If being social wasn't such a basic need?" Cults essentially fill this need: they provide a social network in which you're constantly exchanging social cues.
I think of the paper's conclusion every so often when I participate in LiveJournal, or Tribe.net, or Twitter, or any of the recent social networking internet phenomena. With social interaction being on par with food or sex, it's easy to indulge this urge purely for the satisfaction of indulging it, and it's easy to confuse a lot of "junk interaction" with real social bonding just like it's easy to eat a three-pound bag of potato chips and think you've had dinner.
I don't mean to label any particular mode of modern social interaction, online or otherwise, as "junk interaction" or "cultish" - I've just been thinking about the concept lately and wondering how to gauge the quality and value of certain social interactions.
* My memory of the actual paper is pretty shoddy, so I reserve the right to totally rewrite this entry in the event that someone actually locates the paper and I can give it another reading.
I think of the paper's conclusion every so often when I participate in LiveJournal, or Tribe.net, or Twitter, or any of the recent social networking internet phenomena. With social interaction being on par with food or sex, it's easy to indulge this urge purely for the satisfaction of indulging it, and it's easy to confuse a lot of "junk interaction" with real social bonding just like it's easy to eat a three-pound bag of potato chips and think you've had dinner.
I don't mean to label any particular mode of modern social interaction, online or otherwise, as "junk interaction" or "cultish" - I've just been thinking about the concept lately and wondering how to gauge the quality and value of certain social interactions.
* My memory of the actual paper is pretty shoddy, so I reserve the right to totally rewrite this entry in the event that someone actually locates the paper and I can give it another reading.