Lurking: In the Perspective of Self-Determinnation Theory

     For the last few days I have been reflecting on lurking and lurker. I laughed at myself when I realized that I sometimes have a double standard for lurking: when I was new to a community, either online or face-to-face, I felt the need to be a lurker: I could learn what is expected, what the norm was, what proper behaviors were, how I was expected to interact with others...(Read Wikipedia for benefits of Lurker). Whereas, when I was an active participant or a leader of a community, I often urged the lurkers to play a more active role (Read Wikipedia for costs of Lurker). It was not a good practice holding double standards, so I am now looking for ways of motivating both myself and others.       If you know that I am an educational psychology major, you can predict that I will use a theory.  Sure, and I will use my favorite theory for motivation--Self-Determination Theory.  The theory, also known as SDT, presents a broad framework for the study of human motivation and personality.  The most wonderful part is that SDT focuses on how social and cultural factors support or undermine people's sense of volition and initiative. Three key elements the theory concerns are competence, autonomy, and relatedness. According to SDT, "conditions supporting the individual’s experience of autonomy, competence,  relatedness are argued to foster the most volitional and high quality forms of motivation and engagement for activities, including enhanced performance, persistence, and creativity" ("Overview", para.2, http://selfdeterminationtheory.org/theory/ ).       Applying SDT to the behaviors of lurking, I will talk about the three elements one by one.  As for competence, when people feel that they are able to learn valuable skills or achieve their goals, they are more motivated to participate. Some lurkers, like myself, will think that I will be able to better contribute to a group, a class, or a community when I feel I can participate effectively. Learning to be competent takes some time, so the lurking occurs, especially during the initial period. If we want to encourage people to participate, we can create activities that scaffold the lurkers so that competence can be supported.  Autonomy support is important, too. When people choose to do something, they are intrinsically motivated. Therefore, we can offer a couple of choices for lurkers. When they can choose what they prefer to do, they will feel that you have control of their own learning, and thus are more likely to reduce the lurking behavior. Last but not the least,  relatedness is a very important element for the engagement in activities in a community. When people enjoy the social interaction with others, or when they feel connected to a group, they are motivated to participate. Therefore, creating a friendly, welcoming community atmosphere is important to encourage lurker's engagement. Another consideration in terms of relatedness is that people lurk when they want to observe the norms of behaviors in a community before they participate. This will work for a better sense of relatedness--no one would like to rush into something important and screw up at the very beginning. 
     In sum, a community that supports competence, autonomy, and relatedness can encourage participation, reduce the time for lurking.