Stafford, Stafford and Schkade (2004) suggests five goals for social media use –

1.     To gain knowledge and information

2.     Entertainment

3.     Escape from reality

4.     Enhance social connections

5.     Identify with others

In the lock-down period of COVID-19, we all understand the power of social media in our daily life. It showed us that how we could survive with the help of this virtual world.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs

Maslow’s theory states that a person possesses needs in a hierarchical manner , which starts from basic to their effort to achieve full potential. Which are as follows-

1.     Physiological  needs

2.     Safety needs

3.     Love & Belonging needs

4.     Esteem needs

5.     Self-actualization

Use of social media and to be a member of virtual society provides the sense of safety that we  are not left out of any necessary information, any opportunity. For some it is an earning source also. Feeling of love and belonging with other members of the virtual society. Wishes, praises, more views, more likes followers etc supports the feeling of self-esteem. But on the other hand  cross-sectional study conducted by Btachnio and Pantic (2016)  revealed that facebook addiction was negatively related to life satisfaction and self-esteem. And finally the stage of self-actualization - on social media we can saw many people trying to achieve their potential , trying to accomplish what they can do. That leads to the realization of their full potential. They  attain the ultimate goal of their life and now pave the path to others. People saw their journey and get motivation to do something better in their own lives.

Virtual Society and Virtual Community

 Society is built upon interactions with different people. Society is a collection of different communities, so we can say that community is the basic unit to form society. The virtual society is a collection of  gadget based communications , information technologies and their impact  on individuals, groups, organization and societies. Virtual societies reflect the concept of “Vasudhiav Kutumbkam”. You can interact, communicate from any where, any time to anyone in the world whenever required. In this culture goods and services are available for consumers without physical or face to face interaction with digital payments. But increasing number of virtual societies also increases the new challenges and risks along with opportunities and possibilities. It formed a new generation society but on the other hand weakens the old, tightly knitted structure of our real actual society. It becomes quite difficult to hold someone responsible on such platform for their doings. Virtual societies are full of advices but at the same time lacks the experience, values and knowledge that has been given by grandparents to their next generation. Despite the all ‘if’ and ‘buts’ virtual communities are growing because of the increasing interaction between technology and human need. The world is changing and so are we. In this virtual community we observed the different kind of  users or we can say browsers, both actively and passively engaged. And  passive engagement is not far better as it is also correlates with  poor well-being, low self-esteem, depression (Burnell et.al., 2019).

Motivation

According to Morgan & King, motivation refers to the driving and pulling forces which results in persistent behaviour directed towards particular goals. Use of social media or need to be a member of virtual society is naturally not a biological motive, then we can attribute it to the acquired motives , both the intrinsic and extrinsic.

Acquired Motives 

1.     Need for Achievement

2.     Need for Affiliation

3.     Need for Power and Status

4.     Need for Aggressiveness

5.     Need for Approval

1. Need for Achievement

Achievement motive is defined as a desire for attaining some specific standard of excellence (Munn, Fernald & Fernald, 1972). We click photos, selfies, beutify them( Mingoia et. al. 2019) write blogs etc and post them, upload them and then start waiting for replies, comments, likes etc and obviously for positive ones. We don’t expect the negative, evaluating or criticizing replies. In virtual gaming we set higher and higher level for ourselves.  If you  have done a commendable job ,don’t worry for recognition it will came to your way automatically. Members of virtual communities often compare themselves on these platforms, which brings pride and guilt among them. We are not able to see that this comparison is just like a fiction not a reality.

Achievement motive could be explained on the basis of Atkinson’s theory, where achievement oriented behaviour  is the result of motive to seek success and motive to avoid failure. Where pride and shame plays an important role in determining behaviour. More likes, increasing number of followers, comments ,beautiful photos and selfies promotes the feeling of pride and just opposite is true for shame. This is the reason for what people desire to promote their best part in virtual society.

T_A    =   T_S   -  T_F

Achievement Oriented Behaviour  =  Tendency to Seek Success -  Tendency to Avoid Failure

Weiner (1974) proposed attribution theory for achievement oriented behaviour and attributed behaviour for two dimensions- (1)  Internal or External & (2) Stable & Variable. When people receive negative responses and they attribute it to their internal traits, it affects their self esteem negatively. So we have to be very cautious for our behaviour on virtual platforms.

 2. Need for Affiliation

The tendency of some organisms to prefer their own species and to live in groups is called affiliative behaviour (Whittaker, 1970). This motive enables a person with strong and healthy social life and support. We are social animal and depend on each other for our needs, whether it is just sharing an information or emotion. Use of social media fulfills this need. If we lost our mobiles, our contacts or network for sometime we have a feeling of loose something important, alienation. While we know that we again will find or get them.  Nothing disastrous is going to happen without them. It is true that social media provides some comforts but tensions too. A large number of friends, accounts on such platforms do not make you sure to have more and real friends. On whom we can depend on at the time of need. Such kind of social bonding and ties is lacking in virtual society. We also found some positive aspects of social media where people got and provide help because of social platforms on which you can cry for help. But if people lacking time, or delayed in response or made no response it also conveys negative meaning to the other side. Blocking or unfollow someone also creates a sense of self-negetivity.

Kim, Shim and Ahn (2011) found that the use of social networking sites is mainly for connectivity. It also provide us the opportunity to make new friends from different communities and found the old ones again on this platform (Ross et.al.,2009)

We helped another person after evaluating the cost and reward for our action. People are more ready to raise voice against any undesirable action in the form of like –dislike, voting, forwarding etc where they have to pay minimum or not any cost. On social platforms we are not bound or forced to help someone because of other factors like role playing, social norms, justice, equality, reciprocity and social desirability etc. Virtual society lacks this kind of sacrifice and bonding

Even we lack the social responsibility for our actions, as we have lost our individual identity and responsibility. In virtual society on several occasions we have crowd behaviour. As we do not worry about to get instant and real reactions from other people. And if we do not have  or reveal our real identity on such platforms, then sense of responsibility became more worse.

3. Need for power

Ability to mould , affect or control the behaviour of other person is  known as  social power . Social media is a platform that provides us  this power. We write and post, we desire consciously or unconsciously that our writing ,our comment affects other. We expect other people show their agreeableness to our expressions, and if this doesn’t happen we became impulsive or aggressive. People prefers to show their best qualities within virtual societies which may not be real  in physical interaction (Khaldi,2014) . We want to impress people with our personality . If people does not show uniformity to our perspective; it gives rise to irritability. And on the other side if people show their agreeableness, it boosts our self-esteem.

While we know the fact that all can’t support our opinion. We have to broaden our mindset that each and every person has his own thoughts and perspective.

4. Need for Aggressiveness

Aggressive behaviour intend to harm or injure another person or property, physically or verbally. Negative comments, trolling, hacking, cyber crimes etc are the forms of aggressive behaviour  we found in virtual societies. This is  an easily approachable platform for spreading rumors, which is very harmful for  the peace of our real society. Sometimes even a single dislike, blocking  account or removing from friend list promotes the feeling of frustration, that ultimately results in aggressive behaviour of  any sort. So most of the times it has been recommended to comment in a dignified way. Even then it has been seen that people find it very easy to blow out negative feelings on virtual platform.  On Whatsapp,  we frequently  became the witness of very harsh , reciprocal responses just like two enemies . some people use this platform to catch soft target.

5. Need for Approval

We expect positive evaluation, appreciation, praise from the person we value more than others. Adults can hide or manipulate this behaviour. People with this motive behave according to social norms and ideals, they show more conformity. That results in more self-esteem as they got more appreciation or approval from the society for their behaviour. If we don’t get positive responses on social media for our posts, for photos  etc, it lowers our self-esteem. So we follow the same path even for our responses that doesn’t fall out of  a particular line and  save ourselves from  becoming the victim of non-conformity. Some studies  shows that authentic and  actual online self-presentation is not problematic (Wang et.al., 2019).