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.
Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs states that all humans are basic, psychological, and self-fulfilling needs based on a hierarchy. Maslow’s hierarchy emphasizes the point that individuals tend to focus on the lower tier needs and transitions to higher self-actualization needs over time. As cyber behavior is related to the social sciences of human behavior, the Maslow’s hierarchy is described as followed and is necessary to describe digital needs:
Self-actualization (Highest Tier) – accomplishing one’s full potential and self-creativity.
Esteem needs – accomplishing one’s prestige achievement.
Belongingness and love needs – accomplishing an intimate relationship and friendships
Safety needs – accomplishing security and safety.
Physiological needs (Lowest Tier) – food, water, clothes, sleep, etc.
Personally, I think I have experienced Maslow’s hierarchy of needs on a digital level and can relate to the hierarchy with different examples of my needs.
Physiological needs – Not finding or losing my phone in the morning causes physiological stress and panic, as I have a constant need to always have my phone on me
Safety needs – With personal information transitioning online and malware continuing to evolve, I constantly update all my devices firmware/software to the latest patch to acquire my digital safety needs.
Belongingness and love needs – The more interactions, followers, likes, and posts I make on my social media accounts, the more I feel belonging and connected to my friend groups.
Esteem needs – social media can have an adverse effect on needs and self-esteem. Having little interactions or followers can change an individual’s self-esteem and make them feel like they belong. Lowering their self-esteem.
Self-Actualization – To achieve my own full potential the need of technology helps me achieve my career goals in life and empowers my own digital creativity with cybersecurity