Maslow, Memes, and Moderators: How the internet constructs the self.

  By Sarah Jane

When psychologist Abraham Maslow developed his theory of human behaviour in 1934, he never had the internet nor a Millennial in mind (Ghatak & Singh, 2019). However, his Hierarchy of Needs Theory or Maslow’s Pyramid, which highlights the order of needs a human has to fulfil to reach self-actualisation, plays a significant role in understanding the way a person uses the internet, and specifically social media to construct the self. (Ghatak & Singh, 2019).

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs 

Note. Source: (Wikimedia Commons, 2019).

 

        No, Maslow would not understand how accessing Wi-Fi is often easier than accessing food and shelter, and as much as the internet can be useful in improving a person’s physiological and safety needs, he would not appreciate that the lines between successfully constructing the self, and self-actualisation are being blurred or complicated by social media.  The internet is an abstract realm that we inhabit in various ways to reflect the image of ourselves as we wish others to know or not know it.  It is also an extension of community, and like most members of a community, we try to assert ourselves into relationships with others that fulfil our need for belonging, recognition, eventually self-actualising or reaching our full potential.  As a meme somewhere states; ‘Find your tribe-find your vibe.’  But as members of these virtual communities we are also bound and influenced by rules, rule-breakers, politics, the media, and our ego.  Professor Rosita Henry (2020) reminds us that Michel Foucault’s theory of subjectification is how Maslow’s Pyramid becomes complicated:

“In its classical sense, subjectivation is a complex set of processes whereby one’s sense of self as an individual agent is paradoxically shaped according to processes and forces external to the self” - race, class, gender, social norms, educational, health and economic circumstances.” (Slide 14).

Note. Source: (Unsplash, 2020).

          Like Maslow, Foucault was also not aware of  Millennials or memes, but he had knowledge of moderators. All communities are full of these umpires in varying spectrum's who: call out, highlight, even troll those who use the internet as a tool to construct the self.  With such obstacles in place, the path to self-actualisation becomes a precarious balancing act between self-censorship, and oversharing.  How can a person be the most they can be if the person they are on-line does not match the person they are in real life?  How can a person navigate the operations of power, if they struggle to navigate the desires of their ego?  How can a person reflect their true self when the selves of many others are owned and projected by the powers of corporations and audiences?  

            The answer to these questions lies in recognising what Tim Rayner (2012) points out in his online article Foucault and social media: I tweet, therefore I become, that we are ‘willing participants in our own subjectification’(p.2).  By knowing what we are participants of, we can read the rules and play the game safely by: reflecting on our online activity, staying aware of our actions and their consequences, know how we are placed by the operations of power, and realise that if you do not feel safe online, then do not go online.  A person’s self does not cease to exist if their online abstract disappears.  But if you cannot bear the thought of not being part of Social Media, take a read of Two Hats 2017 blog titled How Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs explains the Internet. 

https://www.twohat.com/blog/maslows-hierarchy-needs-explains-internet/

 

References

Ghatak, S., & Singh, S. (2019). Examining Maslow’s Hierarchy Need Theory in the Social Media Adoption. FIIB Business Review, 8(4), 292-302. https://doi.org/10.1177/2319714519882830

Henry, R. (2020). BA1002: Our Space: Networks, Narratives & Making of Place [PowerPoint file]. LearnJCU. https://learn.jcu.edu.au/

Napriakhina, D.  (2020). All we need is more likes [Online image]. Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/gGoi4QTXXBA

Rayner, T. (2012, July 4). Foucault and social media: I tweet, therefore I become. Philosophy for Change. https://philosophyforchange.wordpress.com/2012/07/04/foucault-and-social-media-i-tweet-therefore-i-become/

U3155259l. (2019). Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs [Online image]. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Maslow_hierarchy.jpg#filelinks