However, the need for belonging is not always very visible, even for the person who is engaged in the activity. Nonetheless, if you look closer and deeper, you can see the strong role of belongingness. For example, I can explain how birdwatching, as a popular hobby, is all about belongingness in one way or another. In my research I noticed birdwatchers do not only observe birds or take photos. They seek belongingness in their hobby in various ways. The first evidence is their strong attachment to the nature. They form special bonds with nature because they know very well, just like birds, we all are part of the natural world. Therefore, they do their best to just be the observer and do not disturb birds or damage their habitat. They feel they belong to the same ecosystem. They do not consider themselves separate from other inhabitants of the ecosystem. Moreover, they form special bonds with the places that they usually travel for their birdwatching trips. They usually have favorite bird species and learn more about their life and behaviors. As they need to seek, search, collect, share and produce information as part of their hobby, this sense of belonging plays a role in their information activities. This is the same for other hobbies that I have investigated, such as bonsai growing, pottery, and knitting. Nonetheless, it is not limited to the leisure pursuits. You can see its impact on various domain of everyday life.

In this article I explain some manifestations of belongingness embedded in various information activities. It is a topic which has received little attention from most scholars in information science, and we know little about it. However, I identified the role of belongingness as one of the key motivations in various information activities ranging from information seeking and sharing to information encountering.

Let us begin with a simple and common information activity, which is browsing news websites. Think about a few headlines that attracted your attention today or yesterday. Why did you look at those items? Why did you choose them among all headings? I can guess that you must have a connection with their topic. Otherwise, it is very unlikely you spend time on an issue that does not relate to any aspect of your life. For example, it might be related to your careers, community, nationality, or any group of people that you think you belong to them. Even for the news which is not directly related to our family or our community, belongingness plays a role at two levels. First, if it is about the whole world, such as climate change or global warming, regardless of who we are and where we live, we belong to the earth and the earth belongs to us. At another level, when we read a piece of news about the global warming, we immediately think about how it affects us, our community, family and any other social group that we have a sense of connection to them.

Let us explore this issue in another level and in the act of information sharing. Think about the most recent information item that you have shared with someone or a group of people. How does your relationship with the receiver or receivers influence the type and details of the information that you shared? Did cultural norms play a role in determining what information is appropriate to share? How does the act of sharing contribute to your sense of belonging within those social networks? My research shows that among various information activities, information sharing is the most joyful activity because information sharing is one of the major manifestations of belongingness in the wide spectrum of information activities. People tend to share information with their family, friends and like-minded people. Also, they expect other members of the group share information with them.

Sometimes the manifestation of belongingness is obvious and explicit. However, most of the time it remains implicit. For example, people who suffer from the same chronic disease share information about their symptoms or treatment experiences with those who have the same condition. In these cases, the illness is like a social glue that keeps them connected in a group and they try to support each other through sharing information. Nonetheless, most of the time it is not that evident, and you should pay more attention to the underlying motives. For example, reflect on one of your recent information activities, whether is it information seeking, sharing, gathering, etc., and think about the embedding desire of belongingness in that scenario. Ask yourself how does this activity manifest your need or desire to have a sense of belonging?

This article a translation of: Mansourian, Y. (2023). Fostering belongingness through serious leisure: How hobbies create communities of interests. Presented at TEDx Wagga Wagga, Australia. https://youtu.be/-N2o-MeRH1w?si=JGkcvhfOUi1VU17X