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In 'Consuming Life', the Polish sociologist Zygmunt Bauman describes how people are goods and practice marketing. They mutate into products capable of generating attention as well as demand, in order to obtain what he calls social gratification.

We see this happening every day in new media and in particular in social networks: Followers, friends, retweets, feedbacks etc. are just a few examples of social gratifications. The fact that these gratifications are often instant adds to their value.

Whether we want to admit it or not, the majority of us is and always has been very receptive to social gratification. In my opinion this is another major reason for the popularity of new media. After all, how could the average human being obtain social gratification in old media?

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With more and more brands sending more and more advertising messages daily, consumers are increasingly switching off. With approximately 5.000 advertising messages being presented to us every day, this is hardly surprising. Brands are loosing their relevance and trust at alarming rates. Besides the sheer amount of ads, the content is a major reason for this development. Many brands aim to differentiate themselves from their competitors, but forget about people’s needs. Brands need to deliver value, solve problems and enable people: People want the hole in the board and not the power drill.

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Wikipedia defines 'social' as 'attitudes, orientations or behaviors which take the interests, intentions or needs of other people into account'. Media in turn is ultimately nothing more than a platform used to store, receive and transmit information. Let's look at a refrigerator, which is a cooling appliance used to store foods and drinks (at least for most people). Would we ever think about calling this appliance a social refrigerator? Of course not. Social is keeping in mind what others living in our household like to eat and drink and restocking the fridge accordingly, rather than concentrating on our personal favorites. People are social (or unsocial), but not the appliances, platforms and other tools that they use.

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