Homophily; The new community you have and don’t even know it!
Social media has taken the world by storm. It crept in and before we knew it our parents, grandparents, teachers were all over it! But, why? When the era of MySpace was around our elders weren’t making accounts and answering surveys about “When was the last time you painted your toe nails?”.
The answer is simple…
Facebook, Instagram and Snap Chat all bring us closer together. Whether we use social media to share with family or friends, keep in contact with those who are far away or even to meet someone and fall in love; it brings us together (Vorderer, Kromer & Schneider, 2016). There isn’t any one person who has social media just because, they look and like and poke and double tap like little doses of acceptance. With the sort of access social media gives to everyone we can feel like we are apart of people’s days without actually having to spend the day with them. But why does it matter what everyone is doing?
Imagine you are a 18 year old fresh from high school. You recently moved 800 miles away from home, which you have lived your whole life and now you find yourself in a city all alone. A benefit to social media is that through posts you are able to remain in contact with those from your security network while making strides to create new relationships with those in your new city. While social media is a way to connect it allows for it to be a simpler process to making new friends with a simple follow. Before you know it you have not only a new network of friends but you are also able to show friends and family the life you have created on your own.
Homophily and how YOU have it
Homophily is described as the tendency of individuals to associate and bond with others whom are similar (Liu, 2013). When we think of this for social media we can see where it plays a role. While people follow celebrities, friends, family, colleagues and sometimes complete stranger but the common factor is that you like (no pun intended….maybe?) the same things. When it comes to celebrities, you (the follower) tend to follow those whose music you like, or the image they portray aligns with likes of your own. Friends are part of your social group when we look at actual interactions, which can be said for family as well. While the accounts you follow promote a message or idea that you supported creates your own community and continues to encourage the idea’s that you agree with (Liu, 2013).
This can be of utter importance to those who live with families that differ from the individuals. Imagine a young teen realizing they are homosexual when their community among their friends and family have strong religious opinions on homosexuality and feel as though there must be something wrong with them. Through social media and the ability to reach out they may find that there are people who are accepting and share the same feelings they do, this would create a whole new homophily for the individual. This is just one example of how social media homophily can benefit someone who finds themselves surrounded by those who do not share the same views, feelings or thoughts.
While exposure to new topics can change someone’s entire view point on life, along with social media accounts there are algorithms that are used to help one develop homophily. These algorithms, or commonly guised as “suggested posts/followers/accounts”, but are strategically place so that people are able to surround themselves with the information, opinions and community in which they feel the most homophily, or belonging.
Do you follow who you want?
Think about your very own personal social media accounts. There are things that you like, maybe have interest in but don’t partake in or even just that kid that you had 4th period science with. If we look at our followers we will see these people; through hashtags and other social media tweaks and ideas are we exposed to more account that are of similar content. I recently decided to give bullet journaling a try, to help me better organize and stay on top of things. I followed a primary account that was literally titled “Bullet Journal”, after following the account I begin to see posts and within my suggested followers are “influencers” who promote bullet journaling and other organizational skills and tactics. What algorithms have you noticed based on your searches, followings and other activity on social media?
References
Liu, D. (2013). Wired friendship among the “digital natives”: Social media use and friendship homophily selection in early adolescence
Vorderer, P., Krömer, N., & Schneider, F. M. (2016). Permanently online — permanently connected: Explorations into university students’ use of social media and mobile smart devices. Computers in Human Behavior, 63, 694–703. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2016.05.085