Network Psychology

The Need to Belong

The increasingly technological nature of modern society powerfully affects the relationship formation and preservation process. In fact, various forms of mediated communication are becoming a way of life for many people. It has been suggested that many individuals fulfill their most important social needs, such as affiliation, [Page 610]acceptance, affirmation, and social support, through human interaction in online environments. The field of psychology, and social psychology in particular, is established on the fundamental notion that human cognition, emotion, and behavior are powerfully influenced by the imagined, implied, virtual, or actual presence of other human beings. For example, various studies show that people's thoughts, feelings, and actions are often affected when thinking about specific others, imagining how they might feel when seeing an old friend, or simply speculating about potential future interactions with strangers. Social psychologists, however, are principally concerned with how people are influenced by other individuals with whom they actually interact in real and/or virtual communities.

Social science researchers generally agree that humans share a common need—the need to belong. Regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, culture, or class, the need to belong is a mutual and powerful social mechanism. Simply put, humans are highly motivated to spend time with one another and make decisions on a continual basis about with whom they interact. This is the fundamental basis for psychological studies on affiliation, acceptance, and belonging. Network affiliation studies examine people who are merely associating or interacting with one another via online social networks without specific regard to quality or duration of relationship. Social network affiliation, in other words, is simply utilizing social networks to fulfill what many researchers consider to be fundamental social behavior. For example, studies indicate that many individuals visit social networks simply to engage in what researchers refer to as everyday talk or trivial conversations. Although this type of social interaction may seem inconsequential, studies of this ilk conclude that it is often these simple interactions that create a sense of belonging to the world and, in some cases, lead to a deep sense of psychological connectedness and feeling of social interdependence.

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