Homophily & Risks
Briefly Discuss Factors that Contribute to Feeling Connected in Social Media and the Development of Homophily
Social media is a tool that most of us use daily. For some it’s for staying in contact with family and friends, for some it’s to have a sense of self and to grow our self-esteem, for others, it’s used as a tool to expand our personal network and meet new people. No matter what your reasoning is, it all comes down to a sense of belonging as well as finding people that are like us. Connecting with people of like minds when it comes to politics, social controversy, the new hip trend, etc… Wanting to feel connected to people others who share the same perspective as we do allow us to not feel so alone in the world. This leads us to homophily. See the link for more information on homophily Homophily and Social Media. Discuss Factors that Contribute to… | by Kristy Ann Cooley | Apr, 2021 | Medium
Discuss how Algorithms and Cognitive Biases can Intensify Homophily and Contribute to Isolation.
Algorithms are commonly used in social media platforms. They are created to determine what shows up on a user’s news feed. For example, Facebook will suggest videos to watch and pages to follow based upon your past views and searches (Barnhart 2021) Algorithms also provide us with ads we are most likely to view based on where we check in, what we post about, and who we tag in our posts. This helps to increase homophily because we are likely to see posts from others that are searching and viewing for the same things. This in turn could spark up conversations and create connections with people who have the same interests.
Homophily, while has its pluses when it comes to being connected with others who have shared interests, it also has some negative effects. For example, minorities can become more isolated by the majority due to them being less recognized. According to an article on fastcompany.com, a study was completed by Fariba Karim. In this study, it was found that minorities can become more isolated by the majority (Byrne 2018). Karim stated that it takes longer for information to arrive to the minority from the majority, therefore lessening the chance to read about ideas as well as job offers.
Another drawback to homophily is the lack of knowledge fed to the people with different opinions. With this being the case, articles and posts that may encourage a person to see things from a different perspective don’t show up in news feeds. This can prevent someone from being exposed to a difference of opinion and what could possibly be valid points made from another perspective. Someone with a certain political affiliation may never be exposed to opposing affiliations, which could take away an opportunity to see things from a different view point.
Discuss Some Construction Steps People can take to Prevent these Potential Risks in their use of Social Media.
We can step away from the algorithms that lead to the homophily on social media. We can make a conscious effort to be more open minded, but also to step away from our devices and revert back creating more personal, one on one connections. This forces us to be confronted face to face with others, which causes us to be more apt to listen to someone with a different perspective.
References
Barnhart, B. (2021) Everything you need to know about social media algorithms Referenced from Everything You Need to Know About Social Media Algorithms | Sprout Social
Byrne, C. (2018) The basic fact about social networks disadvantages minorities Referenced from How homophily in social networks disadvantages minorities (fastcompany.com)