After what's next

Following up on the "What's next?" post, there's something that's on the edge of the Maslow hierarchy of needs triangle,

(not to be confused with the Ron Swanson Pyramid of Greatness). I remember when I first read Maslow's book where he introduced this principle (note that I say "first read" to imply that I've read it more than once, which isn't true, at least in the last 40 years) it contained the seemingly made up word, "belongingness." And at its heart, I think that's the most basic need that constant communication tries to serve.

I'm not sure that it does that, but it does tease at it, which is perhaps more addictive than the real thing. I've heard the phrase "like-minded people" used in both positive and negative contexts, and Internet (actually, I think OED just eliminated the capitalization for that word and don't ask me how I know that because I have no idea) connectedness allows these people to find each other.

So if we're going to search for the next big thing, we should first decide if we're going to move up or down the triangle from belongingness, which is in the middle. It's not an easy choice, because as you move up you are possibly getting people more likely to innovate and embrace new things, but as you move down you encompass more people and more basic needs.

Honestly, I'm not even sure how to approach this. There's not likely to be one specific aspect of a person's life that sparks it. Once you move above the physiological needs, everything gets more complicated. Pick anything, morality, or health, or self-esteem and you can see there's more than one set of indicators and decision points working. It's a system of things, and systems are messy.

The need for belongingness comes from (and notice how definitive I sound here with no basis for being so) from the societal changes that have isolated people from their tribes, for lack of a better term. We're all much more separate now, and our kids even more so. Suburbanization, an overload of organized activities and not enough free play, needless caution to the point of paranoia about what's "safe." All of these (and many more factors) contribute to feelings of isolation.

So maybe we should turn around and approach it another way. Not what's in the hierarchy, but how are people feeling? Talk about a mess, but here's an idea. What's the stock reply you get any time you ask them how they are? It's always "Too busy, but..." Maybe the Next Big Thing springs from the need for relief from the overload in general or from specific symptoms of Too Busyness.

Of course, it's just an idea and it may not be right, and even knowing the underlying motivation isn't enough. You need the "Wouldn't it be great if...?" question completed. Too much for a Sunday afternoon.