How are the needs of people on the Internet

In this article we will try to describe the mechanism for transferring real human needs into the world of the Internet and realizing them there with the help of games and various services. After reading you will be able to reasonably answer the question why this or that service is popular, and whether a new startup will be popular.

People's needs

There are different needs - they can be generated by social circumstances, physical body or lifestyle (I want to eat, I want to sleep, I want to move faster, I want to come home from work earlier), and they can be internal - I want to communicate, get new impressions, get rid of loneliness, need in the sense of understanding the world, religious need.

Even Jean-Paul Sartre said that a person has a hole the size of God inside, and each person fills it in his own way.

Freestyle interpretation of Sartre's quote

Man somehow realizes all these needs. If he cannot realize the need in the real world, he fills it in the virtual one.

Marshall McLuhan, a media analysis guru, states that any technical means is an external extension of the human body. A wheel is an extension of a person’s feet, a television is an organ of perception, a social network is an extension of the nervous system. A person takes out his functions outside, gives them to other devices in order to get rid of stress and increase his capabilities.

Without new means of communication, the physical body of a person would be in a state of constant stress, and eventually it would break into pieces in space - the new world requires instant reactions and a large number of contacts.

Transfer of requirements to virtual space

From unrealized needs, a person experiences tension, stress. To get rid of stress, you need to transfer your part to the virtual world.

For example, a person has a need for meaning. He brings it into the world of computer games, and there he implements in those rules that are clear to him. Or the need to explain the surrounding world, the behavior of people, society, but in the physical world a person does not find this explanation - there are clear rules in the game, the players' behavior is predictable, and staying there is safe for self-assessment.

What needs are implemented in a social network

Social networks and the Internet relieve a lot of stressful tensions and needs that put pressure on a person. Here is an approximate, not a complete list:

• The need to communicate with several people at once, either simultaneously or distributed in time (a type of letter is deferred communication, which continues even when one of the interlocutors is engaged in another matter).
• The need to always be in touch.
• Maintaining strong ties is a constant presence in the life of congenial people - comments, likes, posts.
• Introducing new information from friends or opinion leaders.
• Participation in public life. Because of the high speed of life, narrow professional specialization, a person does not always succeed in realizing important meanings - a person wants to participate in the life of society, culture, friends, the state, and communities. At work, a person is a narrow specialist who is assigned tasks, and in a social network he is a citizen of the world, there is no routine, there is no work, there is only interpersonal communication, humor, observation and meaning. Social network gives you the freedom to communicate and interact, involvement in the life of friends and society.
• The need for personal space. In large metropolitan areas, people live in rented apartments or are constantly traveling. It is not always possible to furnish your home in your taste, if you know, for example, that it is temporary. A person has a need to have in the virtual world a repository of those things that are pleasant to him, important and inspiring: music, music, quotes, contacts of people.

How to articulate needs

As a practical tool, let's present the rules by which people can describe insights and needs. When launching new products, brands are looking for insights for which they can “hook” a potential client. Insights are the formulation of a person’s need, which he doesn’t realize for any reason. The main thing in insight is not even a need, but the nature of tension - it is important to describe why a person cannot fulfill a need, therefore insight consists of two parts - a description of the desire and why the need is not realized.

For example:

You can learn more about the rules for formulating an insight by watching a video of Alexander Novikov's speech from the BBDO kitchen:

It can be seen that the characters of tension in our example are removed using a social network, LJ, or a cell phone.

Anton once said that the service on the Internet is the more popular, the more it is connected with the needs in real life. tinderis popular because it allows people to solve a specific task - to meet and have a good time. Topface, for example (Facebook application), with seven and a half million subscribers, also resolves, in the form of a game, the specific needs of a young Facebook audience.

Services is a game

In fact, all services are games. (The game does not mean a frivolous attitude. Rather, on the contrary. The wonderful Shashi Martynova disclosed this question in detail in the lecture “Playing as a way to live”). The social network itself is also a game. It defines the rules of access to the players, and there is a connection with real life.

Topface dating app is a game in the game. The game of relationships in the game of life. It is necessary to add uniform rules for all participants as it becomes easier to play.

In real life there are no descriptions of the rules, each, guided by his own experience, creates the rules of life for himself. Creators of services summarize the experience of many people and put emphasis on certain aspects of life. Moreover, the more specific the desire, and the more clearly defined the limitations, the more popular the service