There are five levels in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and with my digital experience as a twenty-year-old, I can see how it helps with my growth as a person. For physiological needs, when I am extremely busy and need to get groceries but don’t have time to go and shop, I schedule a pickup order so I can go pick up everything. I could just stop on the way home for less than ten minutes to get all the groceries I needed instead of shopping for over an hour. For safety needs, I rely heavily on SMS authentication to log into my banking app. Even if someone knew my password, I get a text message sent to me each time there is a login with a code that I have to input for the app to log in. For belongingness and love, I have social media, which I use to keep in touch with my family members that I can’t see often. I can see my little cousins’ accomplishments through Facebook posts or see that a family member just had a new baby. For esteem needs, I also use social media. With one of my creative hobbies, I upload images of what I’ve worked on, and my followers can interact and seeing comments and likes and words of encouragement helps increase my self-esteem. When it comes to self-actualization, I use different online platforms like Khan Academy or edX to learn things I am passionate about, and I can further my interests this way.
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