The Negative To Social Media: Creating a Bias

There are plenty positive homophily resources on a variety of social media platforms, but this can also become a negative to many. You can see more about social media homophily at this link https://www.tumblr.com/blog/letscontemplate. When algorithms group people together, and they only see people with like morals, views, and opinions, it can allow users to not see the other side of the spectrum, thus reinforcing a cognitive bias. If you look at your social media feed/groups, and all you see are people that have the same outlook on things you do, and only a handful of people have opposing views, what happens? Generally, you think that you are right, and they must be wrong. Because these platforms are open for communication between different parties, it is very easy for those biases to be expressed in forms of bullying and hate speech. The perfect example of this is the ‘Make America Great Again’ campaign. When tensions were high, it became the norm for people who followed and believed in Donald Trump’s political and social views, to be called a racist via social media.

In order to stop these negative biases, it is best that social media users try to “beat the system”. Go against the algorithms, look up the other side to your views, find out what others are thinking and have an open mind. Fact check before you state an opinion based on something that you read online, as well as making sure that you read the article in its entirety and not just the bits and pieces that go with your own narrative.

 Close Scheinbaum, A. (Ed.). (2017). The dark side of social media: A consumer psychology perspective. New York, NY: Routledge.

Zheng, X., & Lee, M. K. O. (2016). Excessive use of mobile social networking sites: Negative consequences on individuals. Computers in Human Behavior, 65, 65–76.

Finding Common Ground

If you walk up to a stranger, the likelihood that you both have something in common is slim. However, when using social media platforms, people can find others with similar mindsets at the click of a button, no guess work involved. There are so many groups one can be involved with, for example, groups based off culture, religion, age, political affiliation, hobby, or even career choice (Cook, 2001). Meaningful conversations can take place, giving you and others the opportunity to collaborate and learn from one another.

Homophily in Social Media

Similarity to one another generates connections. It is more likely that people will connect with others that are like them because of the comfort aspect that is involved (Yuan, 2017). It can be easier to convey thought and feelings to other groups or individuals when they have more knowledge and understanding of where you are coming from. Moreover, it can offer for a more rewarding and intellectual conversation of new, fresh, ideas and concepts.

Platform Algorithms

Let us use Instagram as our example. I am sure we all have been in the situation where we look up one thing, and then the next thing we know we are drowning in like images on our feeds. That is because of an algorithm to show like things that we may have interest in. I have personally known a few people that have looked up a topic that they had limited knowledge about, and “fell down the rabbit hole” for hours looking at pictures and videos pertaining to the original topic. Hours later, groups, forums and instructional videos were uncovered, resulting in the cultivation of a new interest.

  Block, P., & Grund, T. (2014). Multidimensional Homophily in Friendship Networks. Network science (Cambridge University Press), 2(2), 189–212. https://doi.org/10.1017/nws.2014.17

Cook, J., McPherson, M., & Smith-Lovin, L. (2001). Birds of a feather: Homophily in social media. Retrieved April 30, 2020, from https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev.soc.27.1.415

Yuan, C., Gay, G., Homophily of Network Ties and Bonding and Bridging Social Capital in Computer-Mediated Distributed Teams, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Volume 11, Issue 4, 1 July 2006, Pages 1062–1084, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2006.00308.x

Can A Picture Really Speak 1000 Words?

Capturing Attention in Social Media

The average person spends less than two hours a day on social media. What is it was captures your attention when scrolling? Is it the colors of beautiful scenery or the maybe a funny meme? Or maybe you are drawn to read the detailed post a friend or college posted. Any way you choose, there is always going to be something that will capture your attention. Let’s take social media marketing for instance. Say you own a bakery, and you are looking to reach a wider consumer base, one of the first things that must be done is deciding on an attention grabber. Majority of the time this will be via picture. A picture can be processed in the brain way faster then words can be. Moreover, a picture can bring out thoughts and emotions. With that in mind, some may find it challenging to choose the perfect pictorial attention grabber. It is not an easy task to drag out a positive emotion or thought from a stranger. It can be something very innocent like a cupcake, most people love cupcakes and it would typically evoke a positive memory, but for some it can evoke a negative one.

Maintaining Engagement in Social Media

Define what securing engagement in social media means and why this is important.

Engagement in social media is pretty mush how well people respond. Positive and negative responses can vary from a YouTube subscription, an angry emoji face on Facebook, a double-tapped heart on Instagram, or a negative review. A few different ways one can maintain positive social media engagement are, responding to the reviews/comments showing you care what others opinions are, adding valuable content, as well as presenting enticements such as coupons or rebates (when talking about business marketing engagement).

References

O'BrienAs, T. (2018, August 16). Why Social Media Engagement is Important for Your Business. Retrieved April 20, 2020, from https://www.timetrade.com/blog/why-social-media-engagement-is-important-for-your-business/

Sheares, A. (2015, April 27). Global Cloud-Based Communications and PR Solutions Leader. Retrieved April 20, 2020, from https://www.cision.com/us/2015/04/3-social-media-tips-for-capturing-audience-attention/