Social Media Influences and Risks
By: Ron Cummins
Tags: Homophily, Risk, Algorithms, Social Media, Influence

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Factors that contribute to feeling connected in social media and the development of homophily.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

It’s amazing the number of people that show up on my LinkedIn profile in the area of ‘People that you may know’ or ‘People you may have worked with’. I work in the IT field and after setting up my profile in LinkedIn, people in the same field as myself start to show up as people with similarities as myself. On my Facebook page, I connect to other social media users that are interested in college football and hiking as we would have the same similarities in life and we are familiar with the same things. We all comment and ‘like’ each other’s posts and sometimes chat online about a football game or a hike that we just completed, in which this connection is know as homophily. Homophily is when people associated with others that have the same similarities, just as I shared in my last post, ‘Let’s Connect & Follow Each Other, Homophily!!’ https://medium.com/@rcummins3/lets-connect-follow-each-other-homophily-d3462b975276, which talks about homophily and how individuals associate with others that are similar to them.

We all want to be connected to someone in life, don’t we? If it’s a friend, family member, or someone we just met online, we want the feeling of being validated and appreciated. While individuals go online to social media networks, they are seeking a connection with people and they seek approval of their profile and posts. Individuals create a stronger connection to social media when other users like and comment on their posts and chat with them. The activities, thoughts and feelings of others on a person’s social media website enables a constant sense of being connected (McNamee 2014).

How algorithms and cognitive biases can intensify homophily and contribute to isolation.

Social Media Can Cause Isolation? Really?

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Algorithms is used everywhere in social media and it dominates these platforms. Every social media website that a person is engaged in, algorithms are being used in learning and data sorting to decide what it is you see. The algorithms that are used track the behavior of users and use the information to self-promote and determine what content should be suggested or not suggested to each user. When these algorithms are used on social media sites, they can provide a better experience for the users and provide the content that they are more likely to engage with (Barnhart 2019).

Cognitive biases are filtering that people use when perceiving information, their environment and making decisions. When socializing on the social media platforms with friends and family, we filter or perceive information based on our own past experiences. When we construct our own subjective social reality based on our past perceptions and not on objective input, we classify this behavior as being cognitively biased (Galowich 2018). We are all susceptible to cognitive biases as narrow thinking about things such as the future, objectives, and options are told to be “motivating” when driven by a need, such as a strong emotional attachment (Soll 2015).

Caution!!!

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It’s hard to believe that both social media algorithms and cognitive biases can lead to isolation, as social media algorithms and cognitive biases play to peoples need for a stimulus, on their worries, fears and hates in which keeps users clicking so they can show them ads and other information (Lilly 2018). As individuals continue to view all these interactions around them on social media where their friends and family are connecting and sharing their perfect vacations, homes, lives, even if they are not representing true reality, can make a person feel like they are missing out and isolated (Hobson 2017).

From the Streets to Social Media.

Hate speech is not only something that is heard in public places or during protests, hate speech is a continued topic in the social media platforms. When people read posts about hate speech, they can become depressed and isolated as they don’t want to continue to socialize due to being afraid of the hatred. People still argue that taking down their posts on social media that involves hate speech is violating their first amendment rights of freedom of speech in America. These thoughts and views can lead to difficult situations and conditions and can become contagious. The more hate speech users view on social media sites, the more likely they will become upset, angry and become engaged in an online war with these individuals and use hate words towards them (Mahoney 2019). This can lead to bullying as hate speech and bullying are used to threatened and belittle someone in which can lead to violence or suicide as we have all seen in the news.

Constructive Steps People Can Take To Prevent These Potential Risks

When users are on social media to connect with friends, family and other people, they have to realize that they need to be ethical and understanding of other people’s thoughts and views. There are also influences that can be avoided as algorithms and cognitive biases can lead to isolation from postings of hatred words or from comparing lives to others. As algorithms are used to bring people into homophily, it increases the number of people and groups that they are connected to, therefore, not all posts are viewed as being similar to themselves and can cause issues. The reason people go to social media is their curiosity of wanting to know what everyone is doing or the latest blog or post. Curiosity keeps people coming back to their social media page whether there is a new post, a news feed or maybe just no updates, because they know they might learn something new (Hill 2011). What individuals need to do when viewing information on social media, is to have an open mind, be able to understand that their lives cannot be like everyone else’s and to respond to posts with a positive attitude. Individuals need to be able to step away from social media for awhile and clear their mind and take a break from all the information on social media. By taking a break from social media can diffuse any issues and the need to retaliate to certain posts.

References

Barnhart. B. (2019). Everything you need to know about social media algorithms. Retrieved from https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-algorithms/

Galowich. D. (2018). Understanding Biases And Their Impact On Our Perceptions. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2018/09/19/understanding-biases-and-their-impact-on-our-perceptions/#37dcac0e7859

Hill. A. (2011). Curiosity: The Secret Weapon for Social Networking Content. Retrieved from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/curiosity-the-secret-weap_b_618382

Hobson. K. (2017). Feeling Lonely? Too Much Time On Social Media May Be Why. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/03/06/518362255/feeling-lonely-too-much-time-on-social-media-may-be-why

Jack B. Soll, K. L. (2015, May). Outsmart Your Own Biases. Retrieved from Harvard Business Review: https://hbr.org/2015/05/outsmart-your-own-biases

Lilly. D. (2018). Social media’s algorithms lead us down dark, divisive rabbit holes. Retrieved from https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/social-medias-algorithms-lead-us-down-dark-divisive-rabbit-holes/

Mahoney. E. (2019). The Danger of Hate Speech on Social Media. Rertrieved form https://www.standleague.org/blog/the-danger-of-hate-speech-on-social-media.html

McNamee. D. (2014). How does Facebook affect our sense of belonging? Retrieved from https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/276656.php