What motivates them to share?
After a post on the contribution of Mr. Granovetter on the nature of links between individuals in social networks, it seems important to revisit the motivating factor for sharing and one of its most valuable contributors: Marcel Mauss. Indeed, it is often difficult to understand (or explain) why people share (or should share) their knowledge in social networks. A detour through the gift theory explains many principles. In his essay on “the Gift”, Mauss describes what leads individuals to give, receive and make turns in society. It is is the origin for anthropological studies of reciprocity
Firstly the gift is always motivated or interested. One of the first logic is that individual gives something to exist, to be part of a whole (the Company, a business, a community, …) to participate in a collective action. Another rationale is that individuals are interested in the return of the “gift”: the reciprocity. Individual invests in a relationship based on sharing and trust (fed by a mutual debt) between network members. He knows well what/how he can get his gift out of the community. The more the individual will be socialized, the more the relationship will be durable because it will be rid of opportunistic behavior. The Gift is also motivated in the access of knowledge and valuable information. The benefits can be economic, symbolic, social. Finally, the trendy concept of self-branding, has already been invented since a long time: if the gift is not entirely altruistic, there is always a desire to have good self-image. Finally, there is a dimension of constraints because of the obligations of all sorts hanging over the relationship.
Many other items can be put forward in understanding the motivation to participate in social networks, but it is interesting to note that Mauss had already explored in 1923!
