What we observe may not reflect underlying motivations
…observed behavior is not necessarily reflective of what we are unconsciously driven to do to satisfy our needs. I was a teenager in the period before social networks AND cell phones. My friends and I had to borrow the car from our parents to go out. It was much easier to borrow a car on the weekends than a week night for a host of reasons. If, however, you were a social scientist observing behavior without being privy to local culture and parent-teen negotiations, you might assume that in my town, teens preferred to go out on the weekends. If you did so, you would be making an attribution error, assigning motivation or preference to what was simply a lack of technology (wheels, in this case).
Therefore, what we observe across society may not reflect the underlying motivations. On the other hand, when we do see ‘new’ behavior, it is most likely the empowerment of goals, not the creation of them. Facebook and Twitter did not cause the Arab Spring. But social technologies did connect people in a way that inspired them to act on existing motivations and goals.
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