Birds of a Feather: Bringing Like-Minded Groups Together on Social Media

Sometimes the internet can feel a lot like the first day of school. You’ve done up your hair and dressed nicely with the equivalent of choosing a profile pic that is the most flattering. Your bio and page are filled in with the most relevant facts about yourself and…now you wait.

Tierney Westbrooks
Sep 3, 2018 · 5 min read
“person holding stainless steel spoon filled with letter m” by rawpixel on Unsplash

That fear and nervousness are kicking in again; maybe you’re wondering if you’ll have a new friend for lunch or if you ARE the lunch. Now you’ve put yourself out there and are hoping for the best. Wouldn’t this be a gazillion times easier if you just. Had. One. Friend.

When we first join social media, not all of our friends and family are on the same sites. Different hobbies and interests will usually lead us to pages where we can mingle with other people, but then you have to start fresh with new faces to connect with. Never mind posting content, what if you just want to find a community that fits what you’re into?


The Psychology of Social Connectivity

Now why is it so important that people join groups or communities with the same interests? The short answer: we don’t want to be alone. In theory, no one actually wants to be alone, but it can be difficult to filter through dozens of people with the chance they just suck. Humans are social creatures, and it’s theorized we learn from one another in a number of social learning theories from childhood through adulthood. Self-determination theory is one, and it suggests roughly that if it looks like others are having a good time, we might be afraid of missing out on whatever high they are getting. (Beyens, I., Frison, E., & Eggermont, S., 2016) The self-gratification that comes from a quick response on messenger apps or built-in web messaging is validating, as it seems that someone is always listening. The internet provides near instant feedback, and this can be especially important to teenagers that are still developing a sense of self or adults struggling with self-esteem. In fact, self-esteem is one of the major motivations for why we use social media. (Cramer, E., Song, H., & Drent, A., 2016) Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, etc. all allow users to post and edit content that flatters the user by removing or improving photos and deleting posts that make the user look bad. We can remake the first impression others perceive and find others to compare ourselves against.

“two person holding each other's hands” by Joe Yates on Unsplash

What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies. — Aristotle


Homophily in Social Media

Thankfully, with the plethora of words we have at our disposal in the English dictionary, there is one that describes the desire to be a part of any group that likes the same things we do: homophily. Better yet, social media has made it faster and easier than ever to find those people so that we don’t have to be that kid at the empty lunch table (unless you want to be.) Presenting: the hashtag. Twitter, patron saint of social media tags, gave us a method to categorize posts and search for people and things that used similar identifiers. It has been suggested that people are more likely to friend request a person met at a social event, as this meeting is proof these two individuals have interests in common. (Yuan, G., 2016) Geo-tagging, as seen in features used by Facebook and Twitter, allow users to broadcast their interest in an event and find others who are also interested. Profiles take time to read and may not have enough word characters to aptly describe what a person likes, which can make it harder for a person that receives a friend request to determine if they want to accept or not. Hashtags and geo-tagging have circumvented this problem by introducing users to one another through filters. When a social media user has enough information to determine if an unknown person has the same or enough interests, they are more willing to accept a friend request. (Tavana, M., Santos-Arteaga, F., & Di Caprio, D., 2017)


“person holding space gray iPhone 6” by Jakob Owens on Unsplash

Social Media Algorithms

As mentioned above, Facebook and Twitter use hashtags to help users find one another. One other tool many are familiar with is the ‘featured’ section. It may go by many names, by essentially, it showcases posts friends, family, or other people are interested in. These are catered to the individual user by measuring how much interest they have in a subject. (Butcher, T., 2012) Read a lot of articles from Better Homes and Gardens? BOOM! Featured. Right in front of your face, you’re now scrolling down your Facebook feed and there’s an ad for lampshades. This is all a part of the algorithms that social media sites use. Over time, you, the user, establish your interests by reading articles, clicking ads, and checking out profiles. The more you click, the more you must like something, right? However, what you see can also be affected by what everyone else thinks is cool. There is a hierarchy to how Facebook’s algorithm works, and it starts at the top with your selections, then it trickles down to what is the most popular, and then what happens to be the newest. (Butcher, T., 2012)

These algorithms exist because social media platforms want consumers to find one another. Users with similar interests are unintentional marketers for businesses and it keeps sales going. Once we’ve met people we connect with, we start to see events they go to, things they buy, and we want to have them too because we like them as well. When we have the things other people have, it connects us and makes us a part of larger group. Everyone wants to belong, and the internet is a great tool for bringing us together and hosting a virtual marketplace.


References

Beyens, I., Frison, E., & Eggermont, S. (2016). “I don’t want to miss a thing”: Adolescents fear of missing out and its relationship to adolescents’ social media needs, Facebook use, and Facebook related stress. Computers in Human Behavior, 64, 1–8. doi:https://doi-org.library.capella.edu/10.1016/j.chb.2016.05.083

Butcher, T. (2012). Want to be on top? Algorithmic power and the threat of invisibility on Facebook. New Media & Society,14(7), 1164–1180. doi:https://doi-org.library.capella.edu/10.1177%2F1461444812440159

Cramer, E., Song, H., & Drent, A. (2016). Social Comparison on Facebook: Motivation, affective consequences, self-esteem, and Facebook fatigue. Computers in Human Behavior, 64, 739–746. doi:https://doi-org.library.capella.edu/10.1016/j.chb.2016.07.049

Tavana, M., Santos-Arteaga, F., & Di Caprio, D. (2017). The effect of preference similarity on the formation of clusters and the connectivity of social networks. Computers in Human Behavior, 72, 208–221. doi:https://doi-org.library.capella.edu/10.1016/j.chb.2017.02.049

Yuan, G. (2016). Investigating sentiment, homophily, and location for understanding user interactions in social media (Order №10585486). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (1883339543). Retrieved from http://library.capella.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fsearch.proquest.com%2Fdocview%2F1883339543%3Faccountid%3D27965

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