Homophily and Social Media
Discuss Factors that Contribute to Feeling Connected in Social Media and why Social Media is Desirable
There are several factors that play into feeling connected on social media. Being connected with family and friends, information sharing, and sharing/receiving emotional support. In a study by Whon, Carr, and Hayes, it was found that PDA’s (paralinguistic digital affordances), such as Facebook ‘likes’ received are related to a person’s social support. Having that support, even if it isn’t a tangible thing, helps us to feel more secure about ourselves and inturn helps our self-esteem.
Discuss the Concept of Homophily
Homophily, according to Webster, means the tendency for people to seek out or be attracted to those who are similar to themselves.The concept of homophily is used in social media in various ways. Based on the passage written by Murkherjee, A., we are able to search out people who have similar likes and dislikes and even form friendships based on those likes or dislikes. Social media groups can be and are set up based on political views, views on world topics, music interest, etc… Friending those people with the same taste as we have allows us to connect to others on social media that we may not have connected with otherwise.
Discuss the Contribution of Platform Algorithms to the Development of Homophily
Algorithms allow social media networks a way to prioritize new feeds based upon the users search content and likes and dislikes. This gives users/consumers a way not only to see things they are interested in but also gives marketers the ability to market to consumers that share interest in their product. For example, I’ve been looking at new softball bats for my daughter, now everytime I get on Facebook, there is a new ad for bats as well as my news feed is full of posts about softball.
Close Scheinbaum, A. (Ed.). (2017). The dark side of social media: A consumer psychology perspective. New York, NY: Routledge.
Wohn, D. Y., Carr, C. T., & Hayes, R. A. (2016). How affective is a “like”?: The effect of paralinguistic digital affordances on perceived social support. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 19(9), 562–566.