Why do we join groups?

Background

So I was given an assignment to which I needed to poll at least 10-20 peers asking specific questions about the groups they are in and what caused them to join or kept them from joining groups, to which I created a google form (More technically 2) and put them on my Instagram story. But this sparked me to want to collect even more data which is not in my actual submission (for the ai summary reasons), so here it is.

Form Responses

Are you in any groups?

If so, which ones?

Why did you join these groups? - Summarization¹

Individuals participated in various clubs and groups for reasons that include wanting to meet people with similar interests, seeking social connections, finding a sense of purpose and community, enjoying performing or playing sports, wanting to learn new skills, being invited by friends or peers, aligning with personal beliefs or values, and accessing free food and educational opportunities.

Why are you continuing to be in these groups? - Summarization¹

Being part of this group provides a sense of community and belonging, allowing me to socialize with like-minded individuals, engage in graphic design through my role as social media head, and gain valuable experience that enhances my resume, while also bringing joy and personal fulfillment through shared interests, such as photography, and providing opportunities for growth and learning from others.

What caused you to join these groups? - Summarization¹

Individuals joined various groups due to Friends, clubs with specific interests (e.g. track, photography), and faith-based organizations due to a combination of reasons including socialization opportunities, shared hobbies or interests, boredom, seeking new experiences, personal relationships or recommendations, academic benefits, and spiritual affiliations, but the primary motivations seemed to be meeting like-minded people, having fun, and potentially enhancing their college experience.

Are there groups that you have been deterred from joining?

If so, which ones and why? - Summarization¹

Individuals express varied reasons for not participating in extracurricular activities such as negative social environments, personal preferences, conflicting schedules, concerns about commitment requirements, and moral objections to certain types of organizations or ideologies.

Do you seek to be included in groups, or do you try to actively avoid them?

Why? - Summarization¹

Individuals have varying motivations and comfort levels regarding group participation, with some seeking inclusion for socialization, recreation, or a sense of belonging, while others prefer to avoid groups due to anxiety about making connections, difficulty getting along with people, or simply preferring independence; in general, the decision to join a group often depends on factors such as familiarity with its members, shared interests, and individual comfort levels.

Do you see communication essential to meet your basic needs?

Why? - Summarization¹

Effective communication is essential for various aspects of life, including personal relationships, career development, and daily functioning, as it enables individuals to express themselves openly, build connections, organize their lives, plan with others, and work together towards common goals; in essence, communication serves as a fundamental tool for human interaction and efficiency, allowing people to share thoughts, feelings, and needs, and ultimately contributing to overall well-being and success.

Do you see affection or appreciation as needed in your day to day life?

Why? - Summarization¹

The desire for affection, appreciation, and recognition from others can be a significant need for some individuals, providing a sense of belonging, validation, and connection, while also contributing to overall happiness and satisfaction; however, others may not require or prioritize such emotional support, instead relying on self-sufficiency, autonomy, or existing relationships that already provide them with the necessary human connection.

Do you see any benefits to joining groups, specifically Knowledge or informational wise?

Why? - Summarization¹

Joining groups can provide various benefits, including personal growth through the exchange of ideas and experiences, access to specialized knowledge and expertise, opportunities for community building and socialization, and exposure to new interests and hobbies; in essence, participating in groups can broaden one’s understanding and perspective, foster a sense of belonging and confidence, and ultimately contribute to both academic and professional development.

Do you think you can help to answer the question “Who am I?” with socialization or group memberships?

Why? - Summarization¹

The perception and understanding of one’s identity can be influenced by the groups and communities they belong to, but it is not solely defined by them; rather, group memberships can serve as a reflection or validation of individual personality, values, and interests, while personal self-discovery and awareness are essential in understanding and defining oneself beyond external affiliations.

Do you feel you are contributing to something beyond yourself by joining or participating in groups?

Why? - Summarization¹

Being part of a group provides various benefits, including opportunities to learn and grow from others, contribute to one’s own personal growth by stepping out of their comfort zone, participate in activities that bring joy and fulfillment, enhance civic engagement and volunteering, develop leadership and role-modeling skills, share knowledge and experience with others, foster social connections and friendships, and ultimately enrich the lives of oneself and others through collective efforts towards a common goal or purpose.

Do you participate in a religion?

Why? - Summarization¹

Some individuals believe in and practice their faith, finding comfort, clarity, or moral guidance through organized religion or personal spirituality, while others reject it due to perceived flaws, contradictions, or lack of empirical evidence, instead embracing scientific explanations for the world’s phenomena; some are neutral or undecided about the existence of a higher power, while still participating in cultural or familial traditions; and a smaller group identifies as atheist, rejecting the concept of a creator or supernatural being altogether.

My Take on this information

This information does indeed support and clarify the learning I did last week. This is evident with the source from the Nobaproject as this source showed that we seek to be included rather than excluded alongside that groups can provide people with information. This is clearly shown in my data as per the poll. The other source I used from Libretexts states that we need to communicate with other people to meet basic human needs which my data from my poll also shows. Now, about the Gem². The gem pointed out that we join groups and contribute to the group “for a goal that benefits the entire group will rather make indiviuals care more for he group rather their own self”. Now, the statement that individuals will care for the group rather than one self is not exactly stated in the poll, the data from the question “Do you feel you are contributing to something beyond youself by joining or participating in groups?” could show us that, yes, people do think that they participate in groups beyond themselves, but not exactly caring about the group more than the individual. The religion question was added to hopefully get a majority of praticing religion and to get some reasoning out of it, however, majority of the responses said no, they do not participate in a religion. However, some parts of the assignment from last week can be denied with religion as most people either do not go to church or they want to do other things rather than practice a religion, which does not work with my research last week due to the fact that the Gem suggested that ones will join religion are due to the fear of death. This all goes to show that my learning from last week is backed up here.

AI Data - Standards in all posts

This data was assisted to be presentable by AI, specifically, llama3.1:8b, which is self hosted with the ollama command line tool on Linux. Sure, an 8b model does have low resources and will make mistakes. These mistakes were checked before adding to the website. The PC used has an i7-13th gen intel core processor with an 4060 Nvidia GPU. This AI had zero access to the internet. All other content on this post that is not explicitly labeled with a footnote is human made. AI Detectors do not work on this model as it is locally ran, therefore, these detectors are not built to detect this model unlike other models like ChatGPT-5.2, Google Gemini 3, etc. And before you are concerned, the machine the model is ran on is air cooled, using no water.

AI Data - Specifically this post

AI was used in this post to summarize thousands of words into something more readable. This was required as data collection stopped on Thursday, which I would not be able to process all of the data within a timely manner. AI was not used under the actual submission as the Why questions were stripped out to comply with the syllabus, and that we were not required to add the questions of why. AI was also used for spelling checks.

AI Data - Prompt

Prompt for your Reference - Generated by ChatGPT:

Summarize multiple provided statements into a single, cohesive statement that integrates all key points.
Remain neutral and unbiased, accurately representing differing perspectives and topics in proportion to their presence.
Do not omit major ideas, add new information, or include personal opinions.
The resulting summary may be long but must be written as one unified statement. Output only the summarized statement.

Other Notes:

Charts in this post were created with Draxlr’s pie chart creator Bar Graphs in this post were created using Canva

Credits

Thank you to Ella Bissmeyer, Alexander Carpinello, Abram Bailey, Kaylie Leeman, Quinn Taylor, Carter Portewig, Elizabeth Wegeman, Wyatt Botham, Ethan Sibert, Nina Younis, and other 8 Anonymous Peers for assisting me in collectiing data

1. “Arthritis Exists” - Fowler 2025 (Moved you to the bottom so you don’t need to scroll, you’re welcome) ↩︎ ↩︎² ↩︎³ ↩︎⁴ ↩︎⁵ ↩︎⁶ ↩︎⁷ ↩︎⁸ ↩︎⁹ ↩︎¹⁰ ↩︎¹¹

2. The gem was the previous’ week assignment where we had to interact with google gemini about the book, Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel ↩︎