Weekly Blog #4

From Edward Deci’s Soma experiment, he shows that motivation can be both intrinsic and extrinsic. However, with the addition of an extrinsic motivation to a task that previously carried out with intrinsic motivation, the productivity for the task may decrease. When it comes to the internet, Deci also points out two personal intrinsic motivations that people tend to have: the desire for us to be autonomous and our desire for us to be competent. However, since competence is a moving target, our motivation to be “good” at what we do constantly drives us to learn and apply knowledge.

One of our motivations that can explain our social media behaviors can be our longing for connectedness and membership to be a part of a community. This is why we feel it is important to reach out to our peers that we haven’t talked to in a while, to post pictures of our vacations, or to volunteer on a site with people that share a common interest (community service also counts).