The Psychology Behind Why We Like, Share and Comment on Facebook

If you’re like the rest of us, you share your friends' posts often. You like, you comment, you interact like crazy on Facebook, sometimes all day, almost as if it’s a knee-jerk reaction. But you’re not quite sure why.

Why??? Why do you do what you do on Facebook, you complicated human lifeform?  

Well, research predictably suggests that clicking “like,” the superficial currency of online human connection, makes you feel involved. Like you care. And you bet Facebook knows this, and, up until recently, it cashed-in on what you like and more, big-time.

Liking this, that and the other thing on Facebook gives the impression -- to you and to others -- that you’re an attentive, engaged individual. You’re a good person who openly displays empathy toward people in your friend circle, deepening relationships with every like. At least it seems that way in your activity log.

Or maybe you’re just too lazy [admit it] to leave a comment. A “like” does the trick quick, the digital version of an acknowledging nod or a thumbs up. When liking branded content on Facebook Pages, your motivations are probably more self-centered, sometimes scoring you a sweet coupon or decent discount. Selfish? Nah. We just call that smart.

So why else do we like the heck out of pics, pages and status updates? And what compels us to comment? Is there a method to our social media madness? Well, lots of people -- marketers, researchers, psychologists, bloggers, you name it -- seem to think so. There’s no shortage of theories.

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