Uses and gratifications was an interesting article because it made me think about the psychological reasoning behind Social Networking Sites (SNS) in a whole different way. According to Katz and Gurevitch uses and gratification is focusing on "the social and psychological origins of needs, which generate expectation of the mass media or other sources, which lead to different patterns of media exposure resulting in need gratifications and other consequences." (as cited in Rubin, 1994, p. 419)
The media sites are used for cognitive and affective needs such as personal and entertainment. These three concepts interested me the most.
1. Personal Identity
2. Escape
3. Self-Presentation
As far as personal identity goes, this article showed through research that many people use SNS to be seen. In other words they like the popularity they get out of having a lot friends and having people view their page. Also people like to escape their problems and also face-to-face communication and SNS is an easy route out. Lastly is self-presentation. Self-presentation is all about how you want others to view you, based on your pictures and online posts. It could also be from who you are associated with online. But overall I believe this article really helped me to see that SNS users really are seeking personal gain, usefulness, and gratification. After reading this I started to realize how selfish we really can be without even noticing.
Great response to this article. I agree that it presented a new look on social media / SNS – greed and self-gratification. With sites like Myspace and Facebook we are able to be who we want to be, or who we perceive ourselves to be. We are able to post the pictures or status updates that we want, and become friends with the people we want, not just the people who we befriend by default. I love the words you chose to describe this – personal identity, escape, and self-presentation seem to describe SNS in a nutshell. I think it also goes to show how much work we put into these sites – putting up pictures on Facebook, adjusting our “Top 8” and music and videos on Myspace, etc. – all just to put on a new face or be someone different.
ReplyDeleteI found your commentary about society being selfish to be very interesting. I identified heavily with virtually everything that was said in this article, but I don’t consider myself to be a selfish person. However, after reading your post, I guess I am a little selfish. I use Facebook as a tool for the upkeep of my personal identity, which includes portraying myself on Facebook as I am not necessarily like in real life. I also use Facebook as a form of self escape to catch up on gossip regarding all my friends on Facebook. After analyzing myself and reading your post, I have determined I am selfish at least in the virtual world.
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