Birds
of a feather flock together…
The Desire to feel connected – I heart social media!
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| Propinquity attraction, not fatal attraction! |
Social Media platforms
such as Facebook is found by most of its users as connecting with others and
feeling a sense of belonging that is bigger than themselves. One factor that is most common in social
media sites is to socially compare themselves with others. The impact of social comparison can be
negative or positive, that affect the individual’s emotional well-being. When individuals engage in upward social
comparison; feeling connected, there is a negative outcome for those
individuals with low self-esteem and can result in depression or increase
anxieties. Downward social comparison
describes individuals who compare themselves to others who are better than
them. Researchers suggest that social
media users believe that other users have better lives than themselves and
therefore seek to be accepted (Aalai, 2016).
Another factor with
regards to the desirability of being on social media show in research that
there are positive benefits in connecting with others. Such examples include “cultivating a positive
sense of self.” This is accomplished by
building one’s profile to be desirable, having an extensive social support,
following through networking, and continuing to connect with others at all
times. This reinforces similar likes and
confirms the sense of self (Aalai, 2016).
Digital narcissism is
igniting the world of social media. This does not mean that individuals are
narcissistic; rather, we all have this inherit quality. The more narcissistic a person is, the more a
person is apt to be on social media. Individuals are connected more than ever
before and are less interested in others unless the focus becomes what others
are thinking of the individual. Most
people are more concerned about what people are saying and thinking instead of
engaging in what individuals are willing to share about themselves; creating a
vicious cycle of yearning to be closer to others. This results in a morbid definition of
antisocialism (Chamorro-Premuzic, 2014).
The Concept and Benefit of Homophily in social media
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| Me & You |
Homophily is defined
as the desire and the tendency to bond or gravitate towards others with similar
or “like minded” individuals. This can
be in relation to coworker relationships, personal friendships and other
attractions to the same types of persons, place, or things. This can also emphasize the shared interest
(love) for experiences together, familiar connections that have meaningful
purpose, and beliefs and values that can be almost identical (Bauer, 2015)
In social media sites,
individuals have a great tendency to feel like they belong and tend to attract
or gravitate towards individuals who are similar to their personality, their
likes, dislikes and many of the personality traits that are most often someone
like themselves. In other words, a
person’s “personal network” is usually consistent or identical to those they
attract, thus a special bond (Retica, 2006).
Some of the benefits
and positive effects of homophily in social media include the natural
attraction to those that have shared interest, values and beliefs. Naturally the pull of similarities form
networks that create meaningful relationship that goes beyond a superficial
level. There is a deep connection that
connect persons who are similar in age, gender, or class. Because of these similarities, communication,
and the information of relationships between individuals come easier; natural
(Bisgin, Agarwal, & Xu, 2012).
Value homophily are
individuals who share many similar characteristics. This is based on what people think about
themselves and other subject matters.
These are also individuals who will still gravitate towards each other
regardless of their different social class status. Social media has become a phenomenon where
homophily is the basis of most networking rooms, blogs and websites such as
Pinterest, YouTube and Facebook. These
platforms are a compilation of individuals with shared likes, dislikes, and
opinions, where individuals can have positive experiences (Bisgin, Agarwal, & Xu, 2012).
Algorithms and Homophily -The Rhythm Nation
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| Turn that frown upside down! |
Social media, engage in homophily in an
effortless way. It is the attracting
individuals have with each other when factors so simple such as age, gender,
likes, values and beliefs are shared.
Social media algorithms are what run these platforms. Most platforms like Facebook use algorithms
to ensure that people receive content and information that he/she cares
about. In most cases, algorithm
platforms are constantly changing to keep up with the trends and market on the
internet (Agrawal, 2016).
There are several common factors in social
media that influence algorithms have.
This includes how often an individual interact with a post, how often
individuals hidden a type of post, what level of engagement a page and post has
gotten and what was the performance level of each post that was viewed. These factors are influenced by homophily and
the shared interest that each factor aids to determine engagement from a
particular group. Platform algorithms
analyze these types of connections so that these platforms are constantly
morphing into platforms that generate a common relation to each other (Agrawal,
2016).
Just
as Facebook, Twitter has faced the same conundrum with their algorithm platform
in relation to homophily. The attraction
of similarities in individuals along with the popularity of shared tweets has
twitter looking at reforming their algorithm platform to accommodate relevance
instead of chronology. Twitter decided
to focus on content to attract followers with shared opinions, rating and
interests to gain popularity (Agrawal, 2016).
References:
Aalai, A. (2016). The
Psychology of Social Media.
Agrawal, A. (2016). What Do Social Media Algorithms
Mean to You? Retrieved from: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/ajagrawal/2016/04/20/what-do-social-media-algorithms-mean-for-you/amp/
Bauer, T. (2015). Homophily and business. Retrieved from: http://thecontextofthings.com/2015/07/13/homophily-and-business/
Bisgin, H., Agarwal, N. & Xu, X. (2012). A
study of homophily on social media. World Wide Web, (15(2), 231-232, Retrieved
from: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11280- 011-0143-3
Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2014).
Sharing the (self) love: the rise of the selfie and digital narcissism.
Retrieved from: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2014/mar/13/selfie-social-media-love-digital-narcassism
Retica, A. (2016). Homophily. Retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/magazine/10Section2a.t-4.html
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