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Let’s Get Connected
Feeling connected on social media consists of surrounding yourself around people who share the same ideas and humor as yourself. It is important to feel apart of a group. Somewhere a person can be themselves around others who would understand. Another factor is that there are two chemicals in our mind that are dopamine and oxytocin (Seiter, 2016). These two factors create the addiction of belonging become a very real thing. Dopamine roots the factors of desire, seek, and search (Seiter, 2016). Oxytocin releases the happy endorphins, same as when you kiss and hug someone (Seiter, 2016).
Homophily?
We already know the definition of homophily but what does that really mean in social media? Homophily is the action of receiving likes, comments and shares from peers who are into the same things that you are. It is the concept of the similarity on social media websites (Phua, Jin, Kim, 2017). Benefits of homophily on websites is connecting in a special way. Sharing the same ideas, concepts, and relatability is a strong stand point (Phua, et al., 2017).
Social Media Algorithms & Connection to Homophily
Platform such as Facebook and Instagram, tend to watch what the people are looking for and what they search for the most. The algorithm of it, is people part of the platforms have a system that runs constantly in the background. If you share, like, or shop from a website posted on Facebook you will begin to see more the same product or store in ads through your scroll feed. This is how the platform algorithms try to feed into what their users want.
Reference
Phua, J., Jin, S., & Kim, J. (2017). Gratifications of Using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Snapchat to Follow Brands: The Moderating Effect of Social Comparison, Trust, Tie Strength, and Network Homophily on Brand Commitment, and Membership Intention. Telematics and Informatics, 34(1), 412–424. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2016.06.004
Seiter, C. (2016). The Psychology of Social Media: Why We Like, Comment, and Share Online. Found Online at: https://blog.bufferapp.com/psychology-of-social-media
Grace Preuett