Connecting on Social Media: More of the Same
Feeling Connected
Purposely seeking to form close online relationships has been found to be associated with the specific personality traits extraversion and neuroticism, as well as psychiatric symptoms. For example, those who are younger and have a lot of upsets are more likely to seek out emotional support through online relationships than those with healthier psyches. In adults, a lack of contentment with life, financial issues, a desire for unprotected sex, and a wish for infidelity were all shown to accurately forecast the desire to form online relationships (Harris & Aboujaoude, 2016).
It’s been found that using Facebook normally increases an individual’s self esteem. This is especially true when the individual has been working on their own page. Other things that tend to raise the user’s self esteem include the acceptance of a friend request and positive feedback on their posts. Being deleted from someone’s friends list and receiving negative feedback on the other hand, can have the opposite affect (Greitmeyer, 2016).
Social comparison theory states that individuals judge themselves based on their how they compare to those around them. Those judgments then affect their emotional well-being. This holds true, at least to some extent, on social media. In one study, people who looked at the profile pictures of more attractive individuals reported more dissatisfaction with themselves. Studies have found though, that users attempt to shield themselves from such upward comparisons and instead, seek out downward comparisons that will help their self esteem (Greitmeyer, 2016). With so many people on social media, it’s not hard to imagine that finding numerous downward comparisons may be easier for some online, than in their everyday lives. It’s also easier to avoid upward comparisons online, where users can control who is on their friends lists, whose posts show, and so on.
Another reason for individuals to seek out connections online deals with homophily. People who feel isolated by their interests or beliefs, may seek out those with similar beliefs online. Homophily, or the love of the same, is a prominent theme on social media (Dehghani et al, 2016).
Homophily
People prefer to communicate with and live around others who share their values. One study found that moral purity is a strong determinant in the forming of connections on social networks. While there are several aspects of morality, moral purity deals with disgust of differences in morality dealing with things such as religion, sexuality, and more. It has played a large part in creating the huge divide between the political parties in the U.S. (Dehghani et al, 2016). With the invention of social media, it is easier for individuals to find others with the same values. They can join groups that then connect them with others with similar values, and even help them further develop those values and beliefs.
Users have been shown to have better well-being when they have more Facebook friends. So, finding those like minded individuals to connect with is helpful. Then, when the user’s new friends like and leave positive comments, which is more likely since the friends share the user’s values, the user’s self esteem grows (Greitmeyer, 2016).
Platform Algorithms
Platform algorithms can look at a user’s profile and activity, and use it to make suggestions. It can help to predict which like minded groups the user may want to join and which fellow users have the greatest relationship potential (Elkabani & Aboo Khachfeh, 2015). As an example, Facebook has an algorithm that determines what is displayed on a user’s newsfeed. It is designed to predict and display posts that the user will like, comment, or share (Oremus, 2016). By providing users with more of what they already like however, Facebook is effectively contributing to further homophily.
References:
Dehghani, M., Johnson, K., Hoover, J., Sagi, E., Garten, J., Parmar, N. J., & … Graham, J. (2016). Purity homophily in social networks. Journal Of Experimental Psychology: General, 145(3), 366–375. doi:10.1037/xge0000139
Elkabani, I., & Aboo Khachfeh, R.,A. (2015). Homophily-based link prediction in the facebook online social network: A rough sets approach. Journal of Intelligent Systems, 24(4), 491–503. doi:http://dx.doi.org.library.capella.edu/10.1515/jisys-2014-0031
Greitemeyer, T. (2016). Facebook and people’s self-esteem: The impact of the number of other users’ Facebook friends. Computer in Human Behavior, 59, 182–186.
Harris, K. M., & Aboujaoude, E. (2016). Online friendship, romance, and sex: Properties and associations of the Online Relationship Initiation Scale. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 19(8), 487–493.
Oremus, W. (2016, Jan 03). Who controls your facebook feed. Slate. Retrieved from http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/cover_story/2016/01/how_facebook_s_news_feed_algorithm_works.html
