The magic pyramid is an indication of when, or if, you might have some creative itches to scratch.

Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs, the pyramid in question, is a means to understand when and how human beings experience certain needs at different points in their lives. Maslow’s theory suggests that there are certain basic needs that must be satisfied before other needs become active. The top of this pyramid is self-actualization, the need to realize your potential via creative expression, thought and understanding. On the surface, it seems that social media, an increasingly popular outlet for communication, creativity, and community, can help people satisfy some of their needs, although you would think that it fits better with the needs for esteem and self-actualization than at the basic levels.

Could social media help us satisfy our more basic needs? Just for fun, let’s examine this idea.

Physiological

The most basic of human needs are things like breathing, food, water, sex, sleep, homeostasis, and excretion (sorry, but that’s what the pyramid says!): these are biological musts that we can’t ignore, at least for long periods of time. Can social media satisfy any of these needs? Directly, no. Indirectly? Almost never. The only way that it could is if social media activity leads to income that allows a person to buy the staples of life that would satisfy these needs. Don’t hold your breath waiting for that…

Safety

Safety refers to security of body, employment, resources, morality, family, health, and property. It’s all about being able to believe and trust that these other important things in life are going to be around for the long term. Social media? Again, it’s all about the money.

Love/Belonging

Maslow groups friendship, family, and sexual intimacy into the love and belonging set of needs. Can social media help here? There’s a lot of anecdotal evidence out there that talks about how people meet and become friends via the Internet. Family members can use social networks to keep in touch with each other. Sexual intimacy? Well… I dunno. Two out of three seem to have some potential, at any rate.

So far social media has a decent chance of satisfying one of these three sets of human needs. No real surprises here, but it’s worthwhile to at least think about them.

Onto more needs next time. We’ve still got to work our way up to self-actualization, after all.

Other posts that you might enjoy reading:

• Esteem and social media