Review Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and explain how each level relates to your
experiences with technology. Give specific examples of how your digital experiences
relate to each level of need
There is A pursuit of happiness and the desire of fulfillment that comes to every
human being during the journey of their life. As our life begins, we gradually start
learning and thinking for ourselves. Eventually we create dreams and goals. Individual
aspirations that mean something to us; hoping to one day reach our own objectives.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is just that. The achievements that we gain along the
way of our journey. In Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, the theory explains the
psychological impact for motivation and self fulfillment which is needed for human
motivation. There are our basic needs, physiological needs, and of course our self
fulfillment needs. Within these categories, we have self actualization, esteem,
belonging and love, safety and psychology.
During my own educational journey, I have learned that I desperately need and want
to succeed. I desire to learn more about Cybersecurity, which is my current major
interest. I am also eager to graduate and head into the work field of technology. My
passion and determination for Cybersecurity fits into my psychological and
self-actualization needs. Though, there is still much more to learn from technology, my
digital experiences taught me that knowledge of technology can provide me with so
much safety and security. I am confident that with the free resources available to me, I
am able to protect myself and those around me against cyberthreats. Knowing this
boosts my esteem, allowing me to feel accomplished about the knowledge I possess to
prevent future risks.
A close friend of mine had recently been hacked online through one of her social
media accounts. With a click of a button, she lost access to her own personal account.
My friend is not from America and does not have much knowledge about hackers. To
her, she simply pressed on a link that was sent to her from someone she thought she
knew, and then her phone started to freeze up and logged her out of her social media
account. Because of this event, she lost years worth of memories in photos and
conversations, and had to go through the hassle of creating a new account and adding

all her close friends and family members again. The hacker continued to use her social
media account and posed as her, to ask people for money. Some of her family members
fell into this trap as well and lost some of their money thinking they were helping her.
The moment I realized that my friend was hacked was when “she” began to text me in
Spanish. This was abnormal behavior because within my 11 years of knowing her, she
had not once texted me in Spanish. This simple detail raised my suspicions, so I texted
her phone number instead. When she finally told me what had happened, I educated
her more on cyberthreats, phishing attacks and spam. I advised her that there are a lot
of ways to avoid hackers and one of them is to definitely not press unknown links.
As stated above with the example regarding my friend, there are many ways one can be
hacked. At times, we often even play a role in our own cyber victimization. At my
previous job, I was employed to James Madison University (JMU) as part of the facilities
management department. During my training process, I was taught about the
importance and my role in keeping the company/universities information safe. Before
logging into “My Madison” which is a company account for employees, I am obligated to
download DUO as a Multi Factor Authentication protocol. Due to how much of my own
and the university’s sensitive information is held within My Madison, it is important that I
frequently update my password and use MFA before logging into my account. In
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, this is part of my safety needs for employment and
personal security.
Overall, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs relates greatly to my experiences with technology.
My Digital experiences have connection to each level of need when it comes to my
personal, education and employment encounters.