Brian Solis: sociology versus technology

In modern day, sociology is at the helm of any great business venture; this is especially true in social media where if someone wants to get into the fray of social media and build a business out of it they will need a thorough and in depth understanding of the human psyche. Although the technology is key, and without a solid mainframe you wouldn’t have much; if you didn’t have users you wouldn’t have a company at all. It’s like an engine with no fuel. The users are the fuel and they drive the engine, they dictate the course the technology takes and in what direction it goes.
Like brain solis’ quote states, “social media is about sociology not technology,” if it were not for sociology in social media the technology would have no basis. Sociology has been in existence since the Stone Age, the ability to understand and communicate with people has been a valuable life skill since the beginning of time. This has been proven countless times by social media companies like twitter and Facebook who understand people and make millions in dollars in revenue each year on mans insatiable desire to communicate and let people know how they are. People love to communicate with others, to share their pictures; to be noticed. They revel in the opportunity to see what their friends are up to and let them know what they are up to.
Technology also has a firm grasp in social media and can push the business in new directions. When companies come out with new interfaces for their social media dynasties they usually have no problem getting people to adapt to the new technology. Tweaks here and there are what revolutionize the technology and make its more users friendly. Facebook and twitter are continuously updating their servers and adding more and more way for people to communicate. However the sociology side of social media is what drives the majority of changes in the technology. When people get bored or they find the social media to be too complicated or out dated they normally go in venture of newer outlets for their social craving. The companies that continuously keep their clients and users happy with their social media are the ones who survive. They understand peoples love for the outlet stems from simple desires and more often than not simple innovation is better.
Psychological factors also play heavily in to the sociology side of social media with the emotions and the behavior of the person being expressed vividly in the most successful social media mediums. People have a longing desire to express themselves and let people see who they are and what they are feeling. This prehistoric human trait is what drives the social media revolution; not the technology, the technology is what caters for the user, if people are looking for emotional content then more emoticons are added, if the person wants to feel more connected with the people they speak to then the technology caters for that with live chats and more expressive content. The simplicity and complexity of the human mind, paired together in harmony in the social media medium is the key. People want everyone else to see what makes them tick, their popularity, there class, who they hang with and how they fit into the intricate spider web that is society. The technology caters for the constant change in human society, it’s driven by sociology and psychology and without a good understanding sociology, social media would be nowhere near as succesful