Bonding With Bondy: Why Like? ( The power of "Like")

Communication is a wide world of many definitions that is said to have mysterious aspects, which behind them stand theories

based on theories based on theories.

During my academic studies, I became acquainted with the matter "Definition and Characteristics of Influence".

In this essay I will describe briefly three major influence processes I've learned:

Compliance is a process in which an individual agrees to adopt the recommendations or requirements of an "Influence Agent", hoping to receive positive feedback.

The power of the "Influence Agent" lies in his ability to provide "rewards" and "punishments" according to his own personal requirements.

For example, the relationship between a captive and his captors; the captor will cooperate with his captors, so they are pleased with him and therefore reward him by improving his living conditions in captivity (more food, more sleep, etc).

Another example is an employer-employee relationship; A junior employee will try to please his boss, so that one day he might promote him.

Identification is when an individual adapts the attitude and behavior of the "Influence Agent", which is derived by wishing to be like him.

Unlike in the process of compliance, the "Influence Agent" doesn't have the ability to reward the "Affected Individual", for good or bad behavior, but he does have the power to gain his affection and admiration.

The identification helps the individual define his identity and align himself with the desired social group.

An example of this process can be best seen among teenagers, who idolize a certain person, so they imitate their style of dress and behavior, hoping to be like them.

Internalization happens when an individual agrees to take a point of view introduced to him, since it matches his perception of reality or finds it compatible to his moral system.

In this process, a person accepts the idea only after examining and judging the message logically and understanding its relevance in solving the problem on the matter.

Contrasting the previous processes, in this process the individual is not affected by the power of the "Influence Agent".

Taking a specialist's recommendation is a good way to demonstrate internalization.

If a person takes the doctor's advice to practice more sports, it is because he understands, logically, that it is good for his health.

After examining the Influence Processes, I began to wonder about the meaning of various actions all of us with an active profile do on the social network – Facebook.

Do we click "Like" on another person's update because we want to please him so he might "Like" us back? Was the "Like" meant for us to let another person know how much we admire them? Maybe the "Like" button is because we internalize and empathize with the content of the updates or displayed image?

Even though clicking "Like" is a very basic action in social networking, it might have great significance in this world.

The influence processes I mentioned earlier apply to any action we take in the social network, from a happy birthday or good luck wish or commenting on a status update to an article or picture on your profile page after seeing it on someone else's profile.

Until now, I haven't really thought about the things I do when I'm exposed to certain content and respond to

them.

Now, before your finger hits "Like" or before you respond to something or share content that someone else introduced to you - think to yourself, on which level were YOU affected when you saw the content?