Social Media and homophily
Factors that contribute to feeling connected in social media
Feeling of wanting to be validated. There was an explanation from a neurological perspective that stated the affects of social media on the brain would trigger many different combinations of stimuli.
This article also went further to state that positive attention on social media by accruing likes causes activation in brain circuity implicated in reward.
A sense of belonging. With the ability to like and share ideas globally finding groups of other individuals that share theses ideals makes the individual feel connected. A sense of belonging can be broken up into three areas: companionship, affiliation, and connectedness.
Concept of homophily and how this may result from social media use.
An old saying goes “birds of a feather flock together” this depicts how people of the same sort or with the same tastes and interests are more likely to feel comfortable together. As a gamer I see homophily all the time, I didn’t realize that it was going on, I use to play World of Warcraft and the other players that I tended to interact with were of similar age or someone who lived close to me. This feeling connected helped me when I was away from friends and family for extended times due to the military.
Contributions of platform algorithms to development of homophily.
Social media algorithms are what all social media platforms run on these days (Agrawal, 2016). Platforms create interaction, engagement, and performance to which all major contributions help influence the algorithm. Take TikTok for example-from the hashtags you use, to your location, music choice, and even the very first video you liked they all influence the algorithm. With these algorithms content creators or business can target individuals or groups for ideas or marketing.
References
Agrawal, A. (2016, April 21). What Do Social Media Algorithms Mean For You? Retrieved from
Liraz Margalit (Aug 29, 2014). The Psychology Behind Social Media Interactions. Retrieved from
Molly McGlew (June 18, 2020) This is How the TikTok Algorithm Works. Retrieved from
https://later.com/blog/tiktok-algorithm/
University of Southampton (2017) Homophily in social networks Retrieved from
https://www.futurelearn.com/info/courses/social-media/0/steps/16055
