We covered gratification theory a bit in Dr. Byrd's Comm 101C class last semester. I remember I found it interesting and valid, but we didn't apply it to Facebook (I'm not going to mention MySpace after this, no point anymore!). I hadn't seen the 'process and content gratification' breakdown by Kayahara and Wellman prior to reading this article. It seems like a useful tool, being able to categorize types of gratifications one would experience from using SNS. I also found this quote very interesting, “the person follows his or her
interests, choosing media content according to his or her needs and synthesizes that content to
satisfy those needs.” That is why the Internet is so much cooler than TV and other older traditional forms of media as far as gratification is concerned. Our ability to customize and re-customize our needs based on our changing wants. This was a really good article, see ya'all next post, Sharxjay.
Sarxjay
ReplyDeleteGreat to see you got a lot out of the article! I’d like to touch a bit on your analysis of the part of the article where a “person can follow their interests, choosing media content according to their needs…”
I agree with you completely. It’s great how we have the flexibility to watch and participate in discussion about the things we enjoy. The like button on Facebook is a great example of that. If you look at my Facebook profile, I’ve liked a lot different sports teams and brands. The same can be applied to people’s twitter and who they want to follow. The internet and social networking allows us to be connected constantly to the things we love, and that’s much higher level of instant gratification than any other current media can provide. I wonder what will be the next level of social networking to provide us with a greater feeling of gratification.
-Jossshhuaa