photo by storvandre

It doesn’t matter if you are 15 or 55, at one point or another everyone feels that they are misunderstood, or don’t share anything in common with the immediate people around that. Social Media changed the ball game.

Well, if we take a step back and think about what human’s needs v. want, social media seems to have been filling in various gaps. See, humans need interaction, contact and touch- even if it’s virtually sometimes.

My psychology professor would be proud because of what I’m about to do. If we go back to basics, we can take a peek at Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs. This is a theory in psychology that focused on levels of human needs which is usually visualized like a pyramid.

*disclaimer- I’m not a psychologist, at all.

There are 5 deficiency needs:

1. Physiological needs

2. Safety needs

3. Love and Belonging

4. Esteem

5. Self-actualization

For now, we will focus on the 4 & 5 esteem & self-actualization.

The esteem consists of items like self-esteem, confidence, achievement, respect of others, respected by others. Perfect. Take a teen that’s obsessed with cars. He/she loves to take them apart and put them back together. Now, what if they lived in a place that put a negative stigma on a blue collar mechanic job?

Sad day right?

Well, maybe not.

What if that teen had a network that talked, supported and discussed what they loved- cars. They could grow in their knowledge, talk about their current projects and accomplishments. This could help boost their self-esteem, feel more confident and possible start respecting other people in the field.

Is this a stretch? Not at all. It happens every day. My great-great uncle has a blog. Yup, he’s 78. He has made a community on it talking about birding. He’s respected by others and it gives him an outlet.

Now, let’s touch on self-actualization. This section holds morality, creativity, problem solving, lack of prejudice, acceptance of facts. For me, social media hits all those- and more.

How?

First, I’m going to put the ‘morality’ part aside because that’s a whole other blog post. Instead, let’s talk creativity  and problem solving.

Creativity oozes from social media.

You have YouTube where you can upload a personal work of art. What about learning HTML code to make your blog one of a kind? That’s an outlet for photographers, writers, journalists, avid golfers and more. Since the possibilities are endless, it’s hard to go wrong. This leaves room for complete creativity.

Take a poll- active problem solving

When I look over my twitter feed, it’s not uncommon to see someone asking for help. Sometimes, you’ll even get an email or (in my case) a phone call to assist you with a problem. I’ve worked with people in Canada to get something set on their blog.

Giving people the opportunity to share passions and their creative sides with the world is very empowering.

How has social media help you explore your creative side? Have you seen people benefit from using social media?

Kristina is based in the Twin Cities and eats and breathes social media. Her love for technology’s influence on culture can be found here.

Tags: community, relationships, Social Media