psychofsocmedia - Tumblr blog

[psychofsocmedia]

Who would even say such a thing?

The more post to see you on your algorithm that has something to do with one of your hobbies, the more people you’ll relate to that also share those interests, therefore developing a connection with others and this is how social media directly relates to the theory of homophily. You can read more about it here!

You can’t sit with us.

Cognitive biases can cause information overload in the brain due to the organ only being able to process so much information. To help becoming so overwhelmed people turn to social media, creating different algorithms. Algorithms can be changed constantly due to what you look up, who you follow, what you yourself post and what you share from other people’s accounts. To help adjust what is shown on your feed you can always block people on that social media sight to no longer see their posts.

Everyone in their life has lost friends due to maltreatment, as sad as it is, its apart of growing up. “The tendency to evaluate information more favorably if it comes from within their own social circles creates “echo chambers” that are ripe for manipulation, either consciously or unintentionally” (Ciampaglia & Menczer, 2018). With this it is easy to just have mean posts shared between a group of people on social media because they’re friends. With this kind of cyberbullying the block button can be the best outcome.

Boop, blocked!

Protecting you and your energy on social media is super important to maintain a healthy social media lifestyle. With so many controversial topics constantly being talked about by ignorant people, instead of attacking that person you don’t agree with on social media, block them. There is no reason to make a scene publicly and waste your time and energy trying to get through to them. Another thing that can help is by checking your resources, fact-checking and educating yourself on topics you’re not all to knowledgeable on could be key to keeping a healthy online environment.

Resources

Ciampaglia, G. F. & L. Menczer (2018, June 21). Biases Make People Vulnerable to Misinformation Spread by Social Media. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/biases-make-people-vulnerable-to-misinformation-spread-by-social-media/

[psychofsocmedia]

My kind of people

Get connected

In the world we live in today, it’s not hard to feel involved or liked by others. I have about 2,000 people on Instagram that think my life is awesome enough that they subscribe to my page, they like my posts and sometimes even leave comments on my pictures! They’re jealous of my trips to foreign places and cheer me on in my everyday endeavors. They listen to what I have to say, and they always provide an alternate thinking strategy. I have people who I have a strong social connection with. Right?

This feeling of involvement, even if it’s not in person, is desirable. It feels like a happy high when I get a like on my post or a direct message from a stranger. But where does this happiness come from and why do I- and most people now a days- feel more connected to others when we receive praise on the internet than from our fellow peers in person? I started doing some research on social connection in general after asking this hose questions. I wanted to know why we needed social connection as humans in the first place. I found this article stating, “studies show they also have higher self-esteem, are more empathic to others, more trusting and cooperative and, consequently, others are more open to trusting and cooperating with them. Social connectedness therefore generates a positive feedback loop of social, emotional and physical well-being” (Emma Seppaia). The desire for social connection relates back to our health. We feel better when we are involved, it helps us keep up with a routine and keeps us healthy. Social connections are not just for mental health, but for physical too. Studies show that if someone doesn’t have good social connections, they tend to be overweight, they don’t eat well, and they use drugs more often. So how does this relate to social media connections? Well, a study done by Deters and Mehl showed that connections on social media provide similar positive reactions- possible better reactions- than in person connections. “It appears that simply sharing experiences via status updates helped to reduce the sensation of loneliness and improved social functioning. Direct feedback (i.e. likes and comments) was not a necessary condition. The simple act of posting status updates provided the person with a sense of being connected to others, assuming they would read about their lives” (Deters and Mehl). Therefore, we feel the need to use social media, it’s a way for us to feel loved and involved with our peers and tends to be more accessible than in person connections.

We're like... twins!!

Homophily is this concept that people who love the same things, will be more connected with one another. Ever head the expression “Birds of a feather, flock together”? Well, that’s exactly what homophily is. We like to be around people that have similar interests as us. For example, someone who likes the New York Giants, will feel more connected with another fan. But how does homophily tie into social media? Whether it’s Barstool Sports covering how the Giants won the big game, or some stranger on Instagram explaining how the one pass that was made in the final quarter of the game was the one to win it all for the Giants, these things will catch your attention. Homophily is so common in social media, and it may contribute directly from social media use. A study conducted by Julien Figeac shows how the two are connected. They state, “social media leads them to feel closer to their “friends” whom they think of as exhibiting online behaviors similar to their own. This behavioral homophily mainly stems from frequent reactions between friends, when they like or comment upon each other’s posts” (Figeac, 2021). This is a benefit because it allows others to explore their interests more thoroughly and helps them connect to others who might be able to provide new information on their interest. Homophily in social media is beneficial for adults to find similar interests, like their love for the New York Giants. Sometimes, they can come across a post that is related to football in general and discover a whole new interest, thanks to someone else’s interest that they found while scrolling on their social platform. This is just another example on how homophily can result directly from social media use.

I already saw that

Homophily is no secret- and the big platform companies like Facebook know it. This concept of homophily seems to be more prevalent now a days than ever before. This is because these platforms have found a way to work their algorithms to present information to you that you would like, based on your previous liked posts. Tik Tok is a great example platform for this topic. Tik Tok has a thing called a “For You Page” where videos pop up in specific order, or category depending on what you have previously liked in the past, what you didn’t like, and it even goes as far as where you live in the world. This has contributed to the development of homophily because it is specialized to what you like and can get you connected to others around the world that share similar interests as you. Homophily directly relates to Tik Tok and other social platforms. Andre Zugay goes on to say, “The more social media platforms and websites can use the data they are collecting the more they can provide posts or links to content that are similar or the same in content, beliefs or interests. This is where social media create homophily”. Social media creates this need, this want to be around people that love what you love. Social media directly relates to homophily.

Refrences

Figeac, J., & Favre, G. (2021). How behavioral homophily on social media influences the perception of tie-strengthening within young adults’ personal networks. New Media & Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448211020691

[psychofsocmedia]

How To: A guide to social media ads

Capturing Attention in Social Media

With consumers uploading 48 hours of video, creating 25,000 posts, texting more than 100,000 messages and sharing upward of 600,000 content pieces every sixty seconds it is important that what you're trying to share catches their attention. With coming into contact with all that content, consumers have to sort, filter and identify multitudes of information and choose, consciously or sub-consciously, what they will pay attention to or ignore (Daugherty & Hoffman, 2014).

Here is a couple of ways to grad viewers attention:

1. Using compelling visuals- the brain can process an image 60,000 times faster than it can process text. Don't leave videos out either, throwing in a product video/tutorial raises the chance of consumers buying your product by 85% (Mendenhall, 2016).

2. Color, Color, Color!- Using corresponding colors from your brand into your advertisement (Harman, 2015).

3. On the move- Now that social media can be accessed almost anywhere, being mobile and user friendly is key. With 52% of shares on social media being done on smartphones and spending 80% of their time using social medias from their phones the logical move here would be to optimize mobile efforts (Mendenhall, 2016).

4. Time is of the essence- Loading times, we all hate them. Most people are so impatient that even a one second delay will deter them from your website (Mendenhall, 2016).

Maintaining Engagement in Social Media

To make sure your viewers keep coming back to your page you need to make sure you continuously post, interact, do Q&A's, promote others to show content diversity, visuals are key, stay up to date on trending and relevant hashtags (Rose, 2017). These repeating behaviors will have your viewers coming back daily.

References

Daugherty, T., & Hoffman, E. (2014). eWOM and the importance of capturing consumer attention within social media. Journal of Marketing Communications, 20(1/2), 82–102. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527266.2013.797764

Harman, W. (2015). 5 psychology tips to improve your social media posts: Social Media Examiner. Social Media Examiner | Social Media Marketing. https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/5-psychology-tips-to-improve-your-social-media-posts/

Mendenhall, N. (2016, July 10). 4 Ways to Capture and Keep Your Target Audience’s Attention. Social Media Today. https://www.socialmediatoday.com/marketing/4-ways-capture-and-keep-your-target-audiences-attention

Rose, K. (2020, September 15). 10 Tips For Increasing Your Social Media Engagement. Social Media Week. https://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2017/10/10-tips-increasing-social-media-engagement/