For today's post, we're going to use the basic hierarchy of needs. This is the stuff everyone should know at GCSE or A-Level. Aiming higher? Have a look at the post on the expanded hierarchy when you're done!
We talk a lot about 'want' and 'need' in today's society without really understanding what these two words mean. Worse, we sometimes mix the two up, turning the things it would be nice to have in life into things we absolutely must have (advertisers are very good at doing this!) Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is imagined as a pyramid and, like a real-world pyramid, higher layers cannot possibly be built and sustained until the lower layers are in place and solidified.
The hierarchy is divided into two sections. The bottom layers are the deficiency needs, physical needs or very simply needs. These are the things that are essential for forming a happy, healthy human being. Without them, life cannot happen.
The top is about spiritual or growth needs, but really, it's about what we want. These things are not essential for our survival and we can do without them if we have to, but life is much richer and more fulfilling if we pay attention to them. The world, however, is changing, and non-essential wants are transforming into being thought of as basic needs. As a case in point, the United Nations now considers Internet access a basic human right - not 20 years ago it was something you were extremely fortunate to have at home.
The Needs
Physiological or Basic Needs: this is the stuff without which life simply cannot proceed. Breathing air, eating food, drinking water, sleeping, using the toilet, keeping sanitary and maintaining the right temperature. Since meeting these needs is essential for our health and survival, many are driven by instinct. It's down to our parents when we are younger and then ourselves to meet these needs, not the media!
Very cunning (perhaps even underhanded) media products might present a sense of threat to our basic needs if we don't engage with their message, product or service.
Safety Needs: having somewhere to call a safe home and a feeling of being in a lawful and ordered group of people are the two main ways in which we feel safe. Again, we have very powerful instincts designed to keep us safe. Media messages can play on our sense of safety to sell us products and services.
The Wants
Love and Belonging: once we have somewhere to live, a bathroom and kitchen to use and a bed to sleep in, we quickly feel the pull towards others. As social creatures, we seek connections with other humans, in work, in leisure and in love. We've seen in UGT that people enjoy media as it can provide relationships and social interactions that we find gratifying, doubly so thanks to the Internet and social media. Esteem: as the above three needs are gratified, we start to have a standing in our communities and feel good about ourselves. Many media forms can give us a sense of self esteem. The message of an advert or music video might promote self-confidence, for example. However, the media also has some strange ways of working negatively with esteem. Reading a tragic newspaper article might make us feel better about our own lives, while seeing an advert about Christmas weight gain might well guilt us into trying a diet fad. Self-actualisation: self-actualised people feel fully accomplished. They know who they are and they know what their place is in this world and this life. In a sense, their lives are complete. That doesn't mean that this need can't be revisited. There are times in our lives where we will feel self-actualised and times where we will not, take it from your Media Studies teacher... Again, the media will play very cleverly with these sense of self, challenging it and attempting to feed you the message that your life could always have a bit more in it...