#lecture12

Self-Affirmation Underlies Facebook Use by Catalina L. Toma and Jeffrey T. Hancock (2012)

This week's article revealed one of the reasons for the ubiquitous use of social networking sites like Facebook. According to self-affirmation theory, people have an inherent need to see themselves in a positive light - “good, worthy and valuable”. They tend to brush off or distort negative information about themselves, so as to preserve their sense of self-worth. Interestingly and unsurprisingly, people seek to augment their self-worth by moving towards information that reinforces it. 

The paper then went on to describe 2 studies. The first showed that Facebook profiles provide self-affirmation to users by satisfying their need for self-worth and self-integrity. 

Study 1 shows that Facebook profiles are self-affirming as it presents a self that is appealing and well put together. Hence, spending time on Facebook and viewing one’s profile actually gives an ego boost. Study 2 then went on to show that people will unconsciously gravitate towards their Facebook profiles when they receive information that undermines their sense of self-worth in order to restore it.

I believe these findings can be readily applied to other social media platforms, and especially so to social media platforms that support asynchronous interaction with low warranting value ( for instance, Instagram). Social media outlets that enable users to share posts with low warranting value enable people to present a profile that is curated and puts themselves in a highly positive light. 

Buckminster Fuller's dymaxion house is one of my favorite architectural projects as well as an amazing example of functionalism. It was built in 1946 in order to meet the need for affordable, mass-produced housing after the war. The house is pre-fabricated, and is sold as separate parts which must be assembled, and can be disassembled, making the house transportable. Like Corb's idea that a house should be like a motor car, the dymaxion house was to be sold for roughly the same price as a car and could be taken from one location to another, if its occupants ever felt the need to move. It used tension suspension from a central column (as shown in the video), with walls that could turn using this axis. Resultantly, rooms could be made larger or smaller as needed - the bedroom could be made larger if the family needed to fit a crib in there, or could be shrunk so as to make the living room larger when they had a party. Additionally, the house was incredibly sustainable; it was heated and cooled naturally, made its own power and was constructed of permanent, durable materials that did not need maintenance of any kind. These are only a few of the many innovative features of the house, a sample of which is on display at the Ford Museum. 

“Some consider it noble to have a method; others consider it noble not to have a method.  Not to have a method is bad; to stop entirely at method is worse still.  One should at first observe rules severely, then change them in an intelligent way.  The aim of processing method is to seem finally as if one had no method.” – The Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting