A good friend asked me this question a few days back and I thought more about it this weekend. So here are some quick thoughts why I feel people share stuff online:
Ego Boost
Like it or not, a majority of us share stuff online with the final motive of being liked and commented upon. It is one of those things everybody does, nobody likes to accept. All my posts about my new gadgets belong here.
Journaling life
In lack of a dead simple tool that lets you journal your life and all aspects of it, people choose to use the services that they love to journal their life. Half of my Instagram and Path pictures fall in this category.
Your perspective of the world
I know many people in this category. People who share with the simple purpose of sharing how they see the world through their eyes. Or just an opinion. The other half of my Instagram is this. Random photos of oddities I witness everyday.
Random thoughts that cross your mind
I post almost every “safe for work”, not highly opinionated thought that crosses my mind on Twitter. I am guessing there are more like me. It is more like an alternate blog that just takes a lot less time to post on.
No matter what you say, people share for some random combination of the above reasons. Their is most of the time, not just one reason to share this. Like everything else, it is complicated.
