For one day, I kept track of everything I did on the internet. I then had to decipher what had motivated me to check Instagram, reply to my Snapchats, check my email, and listen to music. Doing this exercise made me realize that every single thing that we do, we do for some purpose. Something motivates us to eat potato chips just like something motivates us to get out of bed in the morning.
Motivation can be defined in three ways.
1. "An internal state or condition that activates behavior and gives it direction."
2. "A desire or want that energizes and directs goal-oriented behavior."
3. "An influence of needs and desires on the intensity and direction of behavior."
Said another way, motivation can come from within, from goals, or from our own needs and wants. Motivation comes from seven different sources. How might this influence your internet usage?
1. Stimulus-Response
Ding goes the phone and in goes my hand in my pocket.
Our stimulus-response motivation comes from our desire to "obtain a conditioned positive response," or "avoid a negative conditioned response."
For example, if you have a certain ringtone set to play every time your crush sends you a text, you'll pick up the phone to get that "conditioned positive response." In other words, getting a text from your crush makes you feel good. Hearing their matching ringtone is the stimulus, and you immediately answering the phone is the result.
Now, let's say that you have a different ringtone set for when your arch-nemesis sends you a text. To avoid that "negative conditioned response," you won't look at the text when you hear the tone.
2. Social
If my friends posts a pretty selfie on Instagram, does that mean I should post a pretty selfie on Instagram?
I absolutely love the above quote from the movie, "Mean Girls," and I think it nicely illustrates social motivation. This girl saw a popular girl wearing a certain outfit, so she chose to buy a similar outfit which in her mind may help her maintain social affiliation, social acceptance, or social belonging.
A similar phenomenon may occur with social media. When our friends share memes, do we share memes because we're trying to fit in? Perhaps, yes! It all depends on what motivated us to share. Similarly, if our friends take cute family pictures and set them as their profile photo, do we feel compelled to do the same because we want to be accepted by our peers. Again, this is dependent on the individual, but it could certainly be socially motivated.
3. Biological
If you're hungry, you eat or perhaps order from your Domino's app.
This type of motivation usually isn't related to internet use, but there are a few examples of things that activate senses (taste, touch smell, etc), decrease hunger, thirst, discomfort, or maintain homeostasis. For instance, we may listen to music via the internet to change our sense of hearing. If there's a sound that I need to block out, I use my headphones and a Pandora station to only hear the words from the music rather than whatever sound I want to block out.
4. Cognitive
I have a problem. Alexa, help me out here.
We use the cognitive type of motivation on the internet all of the time. This type of motivation is that we use when we need to make a decision, solve a problem, figure something out, maintain attention to something, or understand something.
Every time I go to restaurant in a new town, I use the internet to help me choose the best one. I use the internet to figure things out, often when I'm working on my homework. I use the internet to solve a lot of my problems, particularly when I'm having emotional problems. For instance, I have listened to guided meditation tracks to improve my mood.
5. Affective
I want to feel good, so let's look at cat memes.
Affective motivation is another type of motivation that often motivates our internet usage. Think about how many times a day you pick up your phone to make yourself feel better. I know that I use music from the internet to make myself feel good and social media to make myself feel bad. The internet serves as a good distraction from all the problems in our life, and sometimes, this is just what you need to feel better on a bad day.
6. Conative
I have a goal of becoming a better writer, so I chose to write blogs.
Conative motivation is all about achieving our goals and achieving this. I think that me writing this blog is a perfect example of conative motivation. I have a goal of getting an A in Psych: 532, so I'm writing this blog as a way to achieve that goal.
7. Spiritual
I want to achieve deeper meaning in life, so let's turn on the Headspace app and meditate.
Spiritual motivation is like the very top-tier of Maslow's Hierarchy of needs. We are motivated spiritually when we need to find deeper meaning in life. Recently, meditation has rose in popularity because of apps like "Headspace."
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