View source for The Drive to Share

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Immediate feedback. Rewards are faster than in real life. They show up faster. There is more of an adrenaline rush. Every social interaction and success becomes quantifiable. One can get mega points (when their content goes viral) or micro points for micro updates. Analog interaction is less quantifiable and not as far reaching. THis is the same reason why one is addicted to Farmville-like games.

But online there's this idea of immediate feedback. Social rewards and often faster and more widespread in the digital world than in real life. Also, the rewards have a quantitative and lasting value. If you share something intimate, you can get multiple comments and multiple likes. You get immediate feedback. It feels good. And the more you reveal about yourself, the more you often get back. Eventually, you can feel a sense of community where you might otherwise feel you don’t. if you think about it, it’s like a cross between playing a videogame and being your own micro celebrity.
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===Potential implications===

Because of this drive to share, there are many potential effects that we can see the beginnings of now. The growing importance of social networking sites is also actively contributing to the phenomenon. 

*Viral marketing is prevalent because of the emphasis placed on personal connections for information. [[http://web.ebscohost.com.proxy.lib.pdx.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=8&sid=4e7df1c4-f608-4340-a68a-a08a1c29dd69%40sessionmgr4&vid=2]]
*Tom Allen of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) found that engineers and scientists were roughly five times more likely to turn to a person for information than to an impersonal source such as a database or a file cabinet. [[http://web.ebscohost.com.proxy.lib.pdx.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=8&sid=2cc29e26-7e16-4a81-aec9-bda04d57dcaa%40sessionmgr4&vid=2]]
*The democratization of learning as knowledge becomes more freely available over the web. [[http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_changing_education_paradigms.html]]