Why are social networking sites a hit?

        Before a couple of decades, no one would have thought something like online social networking sites would become phenomenal. The fever and reach of social networking websites has increased exponentially in the last decade and will continue to do so. People are appreciating it and the creators of these sites are enjoying huge success in relatively short period of time. It has been the new buzzword around for quite some time. Everyone of us is

signed up on at least one or the other social networking sites. People are appreciating it. In this article, I will try to probe into reasons which makes social networking a huge success. This writing is largely applicable to facebook and similar sites.


        If you ask yourself or ask around about reasons of using social networking, you are likely to get a couple of common answers:
1. You can remain connected to your friends and family across the world.
2. You can share the stuff you like with your friends.
If you dig a little deeper, you can get more answers like 'keeping up to date with happenings with our friends' and similar. These reasons are perfectly valid, however, I think it goes beyond that. When asked why do they use social networking, people generally think superficially and answer what they are consciously able to observe - sharing, connecting and expressing their opinions. Notice that these reasons are related to what people observe. I believe that actual reasons can be found out using psychology rather than sociology.

        Being human beings, we all have certain kinds of desires or feelings. Social networking websites exploit exactly these desires. Bitter it may sound, but it is the truth. There are lot of different desires a typical person can unconsciously have - lust, jealousy, hatred, narcissism, appetite for recognition and fame and the need to look socially cool. (I am not remarking these as good or bad). The websites like facebook give a perfect platform where these desires or feelings are given scope for satisfaction.
A surprisingly large number of facebook users stalk someone. This perfectly compliments their feelings of jealousy or hatred  without disrepute of their social image.
Stalking can also be out of lust. This can be prominently observed in Indian users where there is significantly large cultural and lifestyle gap between people.
Consider the recent mushrooming of photographers and their clients on facebook. Lot of people are getting professionally photographed and edited. This can be attributed to the appetite for recognition and fame. Good photos get more 'likes' which satistifes the appetite for recognition.
Take narcissism and self-obsession. Yes, a lot of us share this trait and facebook gives a perfectly good platform to upload your good looking photos and showing off which cool places you've been to. Especially, photos with an attractive person of opposite sex are the first ones to make it to facebook.
Desire of lust is a perfect reason for photos of attractive females getting more 'likes' than their male counterpart.
Jealousy and depression are addictive. A person feeling jealous or depressed continues to do acts which makes him/her more jealous (stalking, for example). The worst sufferers are people with social awkwardness, low self-esteem or those who have inactive social life, typically introverts. They get exposed to the happening life of people around them which leads to jealousy which makes them more addicted to it. The vicious cycle continues. There is another term for it - "Fear of Missing Out" (FOMO). Wikipedia defines FOMO as -
Fear of missing out or FOMO is a form of social anxiety — a compulsive concern that one might miss an opportunity for social interaction, a novel experience, profitable investment or other satisfying event.
It is commonly found in people who have unsatisfied psychological needs such as love and respect.

        All in all, Social networking sites compliment many of the unconscious desires we all have. Everything mentioned above leads to more and more use of them, thereby, making them a huge hit.

        This post is not intended for any specific person or group. It is just a my neutral observation of the world around me. Please note that my views expressed here are not applicable to everyone out there, but they hold true for masses of young people on internet.