Editorial: How important is Facebook to you?

We think now is a good time to observe and reflect on our priorities. We think now is a good time to observe and reflect on our priorities.

The London Science Museum surveyed 3,000 British adults and found that they ranked Facebook ahead of cars and flushing toilets.

The Brits also ranked sunshine as their No. 1 need — and with more dreary Pittsburgh weather always just around the corner, we can definitely relate. So let’s think: Would our needs be any different than theirs? Are we really so aware that we would ditch Facebook in favor of, say, a nice, hot shower? We’d sure like to think so, but let’s look closer.

Facebook is our gate to communication. It links us with past friends, network contacts and family while providing access to their thoughts, ideas and lives. It’s unnerving to acknowledge, but Facebook is what keeps many of us sane. Our societal needs are satiated by the ability to be social through a computer.

Online addictions work in some way to meet human needs, according to psychologist Abraham Maslow’s famous Hierarchy of Needs. Even though online social contact is through computer screens, social networking and Internet satisfy the need to be loved, social and connected to others. Sunshine, clean drinking water and refrigeration allow for our bodies to function in a healthy way.

The Science Museum’s study worked with the exhibit, “Water Wars: Fight the Food Crisis,” to show the importance of clean drinking water, which ranked in importance one place lower than an Internet connection.

It’s too clear that it’s easy to overlook the bare essentials of life. As college students, things like clean drinking water and refrigerators are commonplace in most of our lives, and it’s obvious that a commodity like the Internet is ranked highly across the pond because the first tier of Maslow’s needs chart is already met for the vast majority of those polled.

We need to belong, and Facebook allows us to do so. But this study shows that it’s interesting to take a look at what’s really important in our lives. The list of material needs produced by the study shows that perhaps our priorities aren’t exactly where we thought they were. Much of the world is mocking this study and how the subjects’ needs are out of balance.

You can decide for yourself.

But would you really go so far as permanently using an outhouse just so you could keep Facebook in your life?