1. Liking Is A Form Of Human Acknowledgement.
Go to Facebook. Click the like button.
What did you just do? You committed an act of human acknowledgement. It was a social interaction between two or more persons.
2. Liking Is A Form Of Trying To Earn Social Capital.
When we like on Facebook, we’re actually trying to earn social capital.
3. To Like Is To Assert Who We Are.
It would be easy to see liking as something that affects the recipient of the like. But there’s more going on.
When you like on Facebook, you are affirming who you are as a person.
4. Liking Is An Effort To Gain Psychological Feedback.
If we like someone else’s status or photo, then we are implicitly soliciting the same from them. Everyone loves to get a like.
5. Liking Is Often A Substitute For Deeper Levels Of Interaction.
Liking has plenty of positives, but it has some negatives, too.
Conclusion
So what are we to do with these gleaming psychological insights?
Don’t sink into depression. Don’t sign off Facebook. Don’t accuse people of being pathetic. Just acknowledge what it is, and make the most of it.
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