I use the term "circle" because "social network" felt a bit too unwieldy and "community" seems a bit too broad. While either would fit, (most of) this post deals with family and friends. Specifically, how family and friends motivate people to do more.
Do more what? Anything, even if the more is less. Neither is inherently positive or negative; that is, sometimes, doing less is a good thing. Anecdote: personal story. I'll drive myself into the ground for the sake of proving a point; if I'm told that I can't survive on three hours of sleep, I'll do it for a month, just to show that it's possible. So, sure, the point is made, but at what cost to myself? Similarly, when people say that skipping meals leads to a starvation response that results in weight retention and overall retardation of weight loss, I'll skip meals days, to show that it's just not true.
So, while I think it's a great way to give firsthand experience, it isn't healthy. Neither of those two activities/habits. That's where friends and family come in, to encourage us to do less.
Conversely, doing more might entail striving for higher goals. Pushing one's self to achieve, well, anything. And that's something I really find interesting. Please, join me at my armchair anthropology.
See, social networks like Twitter or Facebook or Blogspot or Tumblr or any other site you can think of usually ask for a level of transparency. Not just from the company providing the service (Google Plus nymwars, anyone?), but from the users, as well. People police each other. And, if people have something to lose, that is, pride or reputation, they will stride ahead to keep either in the green. After all, your name can spread over the web at a very alarming rate.
Let's say something terrible happens to your name. Oh, I don't know, you tweet that Angelina Jolie looks like Ellen Page. (This is hypothetical, so let's have fun.) Someone with (invariably) way more followers than you retweets you and people notice. And they become upset. Like wildfire, the malcontent at your serious lack of facial recognition (I hope you have something like this disorder; people will "understand"). Offline, you could switch towns. States. Maybe countries, if the mob brought pitchforks. Online, however, your name is tainted. You're taunted. Hopefully, you used a handle with no significant attachment to you (xXrazorXgurl14Xx) and you never posted anything about your whereabouts. Maybe your friends don't know that xXrazorXgurl14Xx is you. Maybe you don't have friends. At least, not anymore.
So! If you're (in)famous, word gets around. And online, words are everything. Hence, people safeguard their name. Usually.
After all, it's just a name, right? Just a way to refer to one's self? I'll have to get into that in another post.
Another name I call this is social pressure. Basically, we're pressured by the people we interact with. Sometimes it's little things, like speaking in a different fashion to police officers as opposed to our best mates, who we always go wakeboarding with. Whether that fashion is positive or negative is left to your discretion. There is also large social pressure, in the form of the goals you set and the promises you make. On the negative side, peer pressure. Peers pressure you to, or, expect you to, commit certain acts. Well, to be fair, peer pressure isn't always negative, or, bad. But for the sake of clarity, I usually refer to positive peer pressure as social expectation.
Technically, positive can be a bad thing. Positive reinforcement refers to a given reward, such as increased rations. Positive punishment refers to a given consequence, such as reduced rations. But I'm digressing; back to topic.
Let's say it's Monday. If you happened to promise that you'd, I don't know, go wakeboarding on Saturday with your best mates, and Sunday morning you posted photos on Facebook of you slamming bowls of phở at the delicious Houstin restaurant Pho Saigon that I won't shamelessly plug here because they're soup is delicious and I like to hotlink now and again, guess what? Everyone knows that you don't keep your word (and that somehow you spilled tapioca all over the waiter). And those mates? Maybe they aren't your mates anymore. I know I'd feel terribly dug out.
So, you go wakeboarding. The alternative is delicious phở, but at what price? (5.75 for a large bowl, actually, plus a side of deception and grief.)
But that's kind of far-fetched. How about... goals? Perhaps you have a goal to bike from Houston to Austin, which is about 150 miles. So you put that as your status on Facebook. And look! You get a couple of likes. That's pretty nifty! But later, you get cold feet. Maybe the ride will be hotter than you thought. Maybe there's snakes in the road halfway through. Maybe Shia LaBeouf is nearby.
Well, haha, there's no backing out now, buddy. You already said you're going to do it. In fact, you promised. And it's public. Sure, you could go back on your promise. Maybe. But what kind if upstanding citizen does that?
So you bike. Congratulations! You're now a victim of social expectation. You've done what was expected, even though you weren't sure if you would or could. Seeing as people usually rationalize actions after they're committed, you might even feel a bit happier from the ride. It wasn't so bad, right? And what nice friends you have. They cheered you on! They didn't let you fail! They didn't expect you to!
Then again, some things don't work that way. Armchair anthropology over.
In other news, the spring semester ended last week, and I have more time at home. I get to write articles and post to blogs now. Also, I'm here when my sister comes home from school, and that's really nice. We bond and stuff.
So, personal story. Because I wanted to be a good influence on her, I became more studious around her. Well, to put it more accurately, I used her as a crutch to get work done. I noticed that I'm less likely to futz about on the computer if someone's around -- same as how, when I was younger, I needed my mom to stand in the doorway so that I could clean my room. (Thank God that's changed.) In my personal time, I'm a bit more lenient as to what gets done, and when. But when she was around, I worked more expeditiously, because I want her to work expeditiously. Is that hypocritical? Probably. Good thing that we become the masks we wear; I've learned to prioritize in my own time, out of her eyesight. And that's for the best, isn't it? Wait! So really, I was training myself to work better by requiring myself to work at my best, right? Right, guys?
...Guys?
Really though, circle-based responsibility. Set a good example for those in my circle; become the mask. Don't slam bowls at Pho Saigon. Go wakeboarding. It's all connected. I'll write more about this in the future -- social pressure. Not the phở.
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