Hertzberg and Social Media

“… so this ends today’s class and we will discuss Hertzberg 2-factor theory tomorrow,” said the Professor.

It was like one of those beautiful spring evenings and the sun was about to set. The whole sky was shaded with a golden yellow tinge making the sunset more beautiful to watch. Kunal & Rajat were two MBA 1st year students. Both friends have just finished their classes and came out. While both of them were having fun and making a lot of plans to go out after the class, suddenly Kunal has gone dull and sad. They were sitting in the garden sipping their evening cup of filter coffee. Usually, they discuss a lot of stuff with the coffee, today it was different. Kunal was silent and was just looking into his mobile screen.

“… I just don’t know why”, murmured Kunal slowly.

“What happened?” asked Rajat curiously while seeing that he was scrolling through his Facebook account. Kunal just waved his head saying nothing. Both finished their coffee and went to their rooms.

After a couple of hours when Rajat called Kunal to tell him that they can go out, Kunal said he is not in a mood to go out. While Rajat understood that something was wrong with Kunal, he also opened his FB account and went into Kunal’s profile. He saw his latest post didn’t receive many likes. While he thought to give Kunal some personal time, he was worrying about the impact social media had on his friend’s mental state. He has witnessed similar incidents while he was in his undergraduate time also. Hoping all things to be fine, he just went to complete his assignments and stuff.

The next day, both reached the class and Kunal seemed to look fine. Rajat was happy to see Kunal normal and they were listening to the class. In between, while prof. was explaining the Hertzberg 2-factor theory in the workplace, Kunal again scrolled into his FB account. The changing expressions on his face were clearly understood by Rajat. While the motivation theory speaks about the workplace and employees, Rajat linked to this concept in a completely new way. At the same time, the professor ended his lecture and asked if someone can explain this topic with an example. While Rajat was doubtful if his understanding was clear, he just raised the hand and shared the same bewilderment with the Professor. Prof. encouragingly called Rajat to share his example and told him that he will help him if needed.

Rajat came in front of the class and started his example with a question,

“How many of us spend at least more than an hour of time in social media?”

All the students looking at each other confused and all of them agreed. He asked another following question,

“How many of you feel good when you get more likes than your expectation on your posts?”

Everyone agreed again and this time even the professor was looking in confusion. Rajat continued,

“How many of us feel sad when we don’t get enough likes? Please be honest!”

While not all of them, more than half of the class agreed to this question also.

“While social media has a lot of advantages of its own, somewhere it is affecting the mental health of people in a way that cannot be reversed. As this theory states, there are 2 factors, Hygiene needs, and Motivating factors for any person to do things. The likes, reactions, and comments on social media started as a motivation factor for people to use more and more social media. So, initially, when people posted and they got likes, they feel motivated to post more and more. But, if you don’t get likes, you are not bothered much because your virtual persona was just another fun activity.

However, with time, social media became so deeply intertwined in our daily lifestyle and these things became so important that they changed our behavior without even realizing it. Getting likes and responses has become a hygiene need. While getting a certain amount of likes doesn’t matter at all, but not getting likes is definitely leading to dissatisfaction in people. You getting likes or not is based on the algorithms and it is completely out of your hand. But this small nudge of dissatisfaction every now and then is leading people to go into depression and low mental state.

Almost 6 decades back, Hertzberg came up with this theory about the workforce and employees’ motivation. But, today, this theory I feel has become relevant again from an individual perspective with the changing society. Having a presence on social media and enjoying is really a good part, but letting this thing take over our mental peace and stability is an unwanted consequence of it.”

Finishing his example, he turned back and looked towards the professor. The professor was in complete silence for a couple of seconds. Then, he came forward and appreciated the example gave by him. All of them realized and learned a new lesson and concept for a lifetime. Meanwhile, the professor looked towards the clock and the time for the lecture was over. The professor still thinking about the example walked out of the class with a smile on his face. Maybe this example has done some Hertzberg magic on the professor too!