Good old Abe Maslow worked so hard trying to figure us humans out. He created his famous Hierarchy of Needs diagram in 1943 that has held up pretty well in those Intro to Psych classes over the decades.
But that was way before the Internet and its wily offspring Social Media begat the world of online culture in which we not only inhabit, according to the diagram on the right, we need in order to survive.
Before you say you don’t – think about how Googling an allergic reaction to a bee sting has saved lives and Facebook has put us back in touch with people we thought we’d never see again (and never realized we missed in the first place). Who hasn’t been safely led out of a jungle once or twice with their handy GPS on a SmartPhone?
Kathy Drasky regularly writes about online culture. Her marketing and communications work with the ANZA Technology Network, Advance Global Australians and with various Australians and Australian enterprises has led to at least a dozen trips Down Under.
An accomplished digital photographer, her photos have appeared in 7×7 Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle and Google Schmap.