

Ask YC: Why do people share on social websites (like Youtube, Digg, Reddit, YC)? - surya

I have been thinking about this: What do you think is the <i>need</i> that drives the "social" media? Is it the feeling of charity, or something more personal, or do these users (who submit and filter content) expect others to return the favor?
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ryan
According to a survey from McKinsey[1], in answer to the question 'Why do you
upload videos?':

* 65% seek fame/want the world to see their videos

* 59% do it for fun

* 41% want to share experiences with friends

* 29% want others to benefit from their videos

* 12% do it for other reasons

[1] - <http://www.aedipenavarra.es/include_asp/fichero.asp?id=35>

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DarrenStuart
so thats 206% of people? I am confused by those numbers.

I personally do it to share cool stuff and engage with people with the same
interests as me.

~~~
JayNeely
I'm assuming people were able to choose more than one option. Check-boxes
rather than radio buttons.

~~~
DarrenStuart
yeah good point.

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log0
I have been quite an addict in fields like blogs, online games, forums and the
like. The desire to withdraw could have been strong at those times, but it is
almost impossible to do so as those who experienced that.

Even now I still am addicted to blogs. And it makes so little sense not to
discontinue should visitors come no more. In fact, it's the reason why the
blog is in partial apathy.

Over time, I believe it is the social networking : "connecting people". Or in
more concrete terms it is... the ability to announce your presence, as well as
offering you things that would not be possible or not easy to achieve in
reality. The web makes these possible. Like the blogs for life and a place to
express your views without a column or a book, the video sharing you can share
your videos, imaging sites where you can share your photos, getting to know
friends and lie tremendously with much less fear being exposed ( not quite the
case as of a decade, in my opinion, as privacy problem arises ).

It has something to do with making something possible and easier, and most
importantly to identify yourself.

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chmike
In some discussion group we just settled, we were asked to write down what
would be the most important for us in our lives. And to our big surprise 90%
youngsters in the group used the words "recognition" or "social recognition".
There wasn't any significant discussion before that could have biased this
informal survey. It was surprising enough to catch my attention.

20 years later, here is how I explain this to myself. It is known for many
years now that our brain has special centers responsible of fundamental drives
in our behavior. These centers have been detected and localized by changes in
people's behavior when altered by an accident or a disease. The drives are
related to hunger, libido, aggressivity/love, etc.

Assuming that mankind is the product of an evolution driven by natural
selection, the existence of such drive centers makes sense. It ensures
perennity of our species from the biological and the physiological
perspective. Maybe the social perspective did not get the same attention.

To me, the existence of a drive for social recognition would make sense
because it pushes toward social coherence and cohesion and thus also to
stability while being flexible enough to preserve the capability of our
society to evolve and adapt to context changes.

This social recognition drive is thus equivalent to sexual drive, with all the
possible related pathology. Social recognition compulsion can for instance
lead to mythomania or eccentric behavior.

So my impression, if you allow me to push the logic to its extrema, social
network sites are a variant of porn sites. They just tickle the brain centers
driving our behavior.

I would thus say that social networking is directly related to the social
recognition drive which is itself a component to get a stable dynamic system.
If this is true, animals would show the same fundamental drive, and why not,
ETs too.

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nostrademons
Social approval. People seek recognition and acknowledgment. Social websites
let folks feel like they're important.

You notice that other than outright trolls (who seek attention through
infamy), few people will continue to use a social site where they repeatedly
get negative karma? And the aphorism "Don't feed the trolls" attempts to make
them go away by denying them attention?

~~~
curi
I lost about 24 karma on a thread yesterday. I'm still here :)

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rms
It's a positive type of social interaction that is different than real world
interactions. For me, it's a way of feeling more connected to a culture that
does not exist in Pittsburgh.

I contribute to news.yc because I find it more entertaining than TV or video
games. I should really pick up Rock Band though, that could get me to quit
news.yc for a couple days.

~~~
DaniFong
I actually just wrote about this today. I was going to use Pittsburgh as an
example, but I chose LA and Jacksonville instead.
<http://daniellefong.com/2008/01/28/third-places/>

Hacker News is an example of a third place. I hang out here, as I've hung out
in many other netspaces. It's creative here, it's intelligent, and it's fairly
diverse. People make things and write things and converse, and for many
people, certainly me, that's a fundamental need.

~~~
pchristensen
Ditto. The level of discussion and topics of interest here are vastly better
than what's available to me with my coworkers and people I bump into in real
life. Can't speak for the YouTube community though.

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Leon
A lot of the big users of social media seem to view it as some type of game -
who can get the most karma, votes, diggs, etc. That's not to say they are the
most wanted users, but usually the most prolific.

The best users of social media have always looked like the ones who are just
showing something 'cool' that they have done or understand that involvement in
the social platform can bring great benefits back in the form of an active
community.

At least that's what my guess is.

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neilk
Yochai Benkler's book _The Wealth of Networks_ talks about this at length. The
whole text is available online but don't let that stop you from running out
right now and buying a seminal work of our time.

Here's a passage you may find interesting:

"For a wide range of reasons - institutional, cultural, and possibly
technological - some resources are more readily capable of being mobilized by
social relations than by money. If you want to get your nephew a job at a law
firm in the United States today, a friendly relationship with the firm's
hiring partner is more likely to help than passing on an envelope full of
cash. If this theory of social capital is correct, then sometimes you should
be willing to trade off financial rewards for social capital. Critically, the
two are not fungible or cumulative."

Benkler's argument is rather complex, so I urge people to read the chapter in
full (if not the book) before gainsaying it.

[http://www.benkler.org/wealth_of_networks/index.php?title=Se...](http://www.benkler.org/wealth_of_networks/index.php?title=Sentence-
sliced_Text_Chapter_4#Motivation)

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mixmax
Darwinism adequately explains the phenomena of social networking. It is
basically just like when we sat around the campfire telling stories to each
other. The men would tell stories about their great and dangerous endeavors.
The women would want to mate with the man who had the best stories (had done
the greatest thing, had most appraisal from his peers) because there would be
a greater chance that he had the support and power to support the children.

This is a derivative of the campfire.

This is of course simplified tremendously, but it gets the basic idea across.
When you think about evolution it is amazing what it can explain in terms of
human behaviour.

~~~
atlacatl
I don't agree. Specially when most users post anonymously.

For example, I participate here, digg, and reddit, but never give any personal
information.

For me is more like the getting my turn at the podium without fear of
anything, as what I say is not going back to the real me. Of course, if
someone really wanted to know who I really am, he or she could find out. But
it's not worth the effort.

What I really don't get is the people that are so active in these type of
sites that it seems that it is all they do. And they are proud of the fact of
being so active. I find the comments interesting; however, for me, they are
not enough to cover all my social needs.

I guess with time, we'll know the full effect of "socializing" with cute user-
names all day long.

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bayareaguy
I enjoy taking short breaks from life responsibilities (coding, family,
chores, etc) and see what similarly minded people are thinking about, ruminate
about it and perhaps offer my own thoughts. The better YC topics and
discussions have a Socratic feel I don't generally encounter in other places.

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Tichy
Social networks are like nightclubs:
[http://gilesbowkett.blogspot.com/2007/11/facebook-apps-
faceb...](http://gilesbowkett.blogspot.com/2007/11/facebook-apps-facebook-
trap.html)

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ojbyrne
I think Youtube doesn't belong here, the motivation and process to create and
post a video are quite different from posting a link.

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zoltz
Difficult to say what exactly it is, easier to say what it is _not_ :

"do these users (who submit and filter content) expect others to return the
favor?"

That would be the classical economic explanation and it would be wrong (for
the typical user).

~~~
eru
Vanity and a lot of other possible causes fit into economics quite well.

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nextmoveone
I share on YouTube for family. I share on YC cause the idea of digital karma
is interesting. I only consume from Digg and Reddit, I dont feel significant
on those sites.

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theremora
<http://bokardo.com/archives/the-delicious-lesson/>

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Prrometheus
Karma. I'm hoping to come back as a walrus.

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mynameishere
_the feeling of charity_

Exhibitionism as charity? That's a new one.

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ajkirwin
When it comes to things like YC, Digg (Not so much YouTube).. for me, it's
about information. I'm something of an information junkie. I need to be in the
know.

And of course, I then like to pass that information on, so that it can be
further disseminated.

