In the context of the question:
Why do people have the urge to stay networked?
While reflecting on people’s urge to be part of a network, I was drawn in thinking of what people do in order to relate to others. It is not uncommon for an acquaintance in the real world to be discovered through an Internet search, commonly referred to as “online stalking”. Shuffling around other people's posts on the Internet is no longer considered an invasion. Thus, online stalking has become a normal engagement for students, doctors and academics, often becoming the main methodology for their research. The data collected from such an activity can be used to draw and publish conclusions. But nobody would like to dirty their hands, looking at user profiles one by one. The machines and the code can do it for them. That is how it becomes a pure and socially reputable work.
The massive stalking of social network users is called social media analytics. It is a very profitable process, especially if compared with the old social study and critique. To gossip on a massive, global scale is a job that any profitable business, any serious state, can and should do to produce useful social conclusions.
We are accustomed to living in an ocean of information, able to accept any of it, where nothing is considered threatening, even when it is evident that everyday habits do not have the shallowness we thought they had. Even when shocking news stories break, important revelations and scandals are accepted, and finally we digest them. After all, they are part of the information routine. As a member of the networked public, I might be able to sacrifice a lot for my beloved habits. And digital life will continue unchanged.
This is a part of “being related.”