Social Media Puts The HOME In Homophily
Connection
We have all had that feeling of not fitting in in social situations, whether it was at school as we grew up, maybe a new job and you haven’t had time to get to know anyone, it can even be the feeling of living in a neighborhood that you just don’t connect with. These feelings are very normal. It is human nature to want to connect with people that understand and have things in common with us, this is called homophily (Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 2016}. In years past the feelings of not fitting in were something that you learned to deal with or to push through. With the advent of social media, a door opened that allowed a new way to connect. So long as you knew where to look you could now find like-minded people to interact with just by checking a few boxes in your preferences.
So why do we search out people that are similar to ourselves to engage with? I liken it to an emotional home or place to live. In the day-to-day real-world very few people feel more comfortable than when they are snuggled up in bed in a place that’s familiar and safe and away from the drama of the day, like their home. Homophily in regards to social media, in my opinion, acts similarly. There is just something more comfortable about interacting with people that we are familiar with and less likely to have conflict or drama online. Do we sometimes dabble in things that are different from us? Is it possible that something outside of our norms can be interesting? Absolutely, but we always seem to come back home to where we feel more like the people around us.
The need to gravitate towards similar or like-minded people seems more important and necessary online than in years past. We spend so much time on our computers on our cell phones, a lot of this time alone. It’s not uncommon now for careers to allow you to work from home, no longer interacting and discussing things with people at the water cooler. We have to replace those missing interactions in our lives somehow. Social media platforms make that process so much easier. All the while having even more control with less social risk. We can connect with people in very precise ways: age, ethnicity, gender, hobbies, medical diagnosis’, and just about any way you can think of. It is in these basic desires and emotions that drive the popularity of social media as it is today.
Positives
Besides the obvious human need to connect with like individuals being fulfilled, there are a lot of other positives with the concepts of homophily online. Being familiar with a particular group generally makes it much easier to communicate with that group. Ideas and goals of these groups will go further and show a larger impact because of the group’s synergy.
Groups that once had no voice can come together in numbers and have themselves heard. It’s hard to believe for example that the LPTGQ community would have come this far, so fast, without the help of social media and its ability to bring that group together on a much larger scale. The daily struggles of people of color in low-income areas would be easier to ignore. When groups want to shed light on their disadvantages and educate others, they need only look online to find individuals living those same lives with the same intention to expose issues regularly not seen. They are not alone.
It’s pretty apparent to anyone living today that technology is progressing faster and faster. Right at the center of this is the opportunity for exceptional minded people to put those minds together and see the solutions to problems we normally wouldn’t be able to. Research can now be shared so much easier. The ability to look at data that has already been researched and not have to go into redundant testing to check a theory. This results in much faster development for us as a human race.
Grow
With all these amazing benefits and progression in many different areas, none of it would be possible without the data. Every time we log on and set up a profile or check preferences and click boxes that explain our likes and dislikes we are labeling ourselves and becoming that data. It would be much harder to bring these groups together if that information wasn’t there.
Social media platforms use this data for many different purposes. Facebook, for example, was the first to introduce an algorithm feed (Social Media Today 2018). This allowed actions that you made while interacting online to be used to introduce content and information more likely to connect with you. As time went on these algorithms were improved to better find patterns. Now they didn’t just sort through your actions, now friends and family’s actions while interacting with you are being used to predict things you might connect with. Twitter in the last year took heat for implementing an algorithm (Social Media Today 2018). Twitter in the past had been looked at positively for having a more organic information flow design. Their algorithm which is not nearly as complex or powerful as Facebook’s is simply attempting to sort what you view to being things that are more likely for you to enjoy. With the vast amount of content that is tweeted daily it really must be a challenge to put this in front of a reader’s eyes in an organized and efficient way.
It really is an amazing time to be alive, to be able to connect with people like you from all over the world with just a few clicks of a keyboard. Algorithms and some of the changes made with online platforms are making it easier and easier to connect with things we like, enjoy, and are familiar with. There’s nothing wrong with that. I challenge you, however, to now and then step outside your comfort zone and look into someone else’s. We’ve had so much growth in the technology we use, maybe we can use this to grow as people using these tools. Learn about things you don’t know about. Ask someone different than you their opinion. Try interacting with something online that you normally wouldn’t. Because whenever you would like or need to, you can always come back home to the people and groups that make you feel safe and comfortable.
Billy Terwey
Reference
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 2016, Vol. 145, №3, 366 –375 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xge0000139
Keeping Up with the Algorithms: What You Need to Know About Each Platform’s Sorting System | Social Media Today 2018. Retrieved December 14, 2019, from https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/keeping-up-with-the-algorithms-what-you-need-to-know-about-each-platforms/520012/
