Social networks are meant to be full of ways to connect with
people to feel less alone. To find
people that you haven’t seen in years so you can reminisce about all the old
times you had together. You can also use
social media to keep track of the current people in your life. While there are other ways to do this is real
life that would definitely be more fulfilling, social media offers a faster way
to connect. One of the major things that
keeps social media so popular is homophily.
Homophily is the tendency humans have to more often seek out and bond
with people who have similar interests or are similar to themselves (Aral,
2012). Our whole lives we have heard the
saying, “birds of a feather flock together”, referring to how birds of the same
breed stay/fly together, and that humans do the same thing (McPherson,
2001). Homophily explains why a lot of
good and bad things have happened. Why
there are so many different types of clubs just for certain types of
people. And if this is so easy to
accomplish in the real world then it is a lot easier online. Most social media networks have it set up
where you can find special groups of people”.
This can range from everything from movies obsessions,
belief systems, and collectibles. Some
groups are even for giving support to other people going through hard
times. The range of these groups are so
far and wide that it is impossible to name them all!
Is this always a great thing? No, it isn’t. Sometimes people have a tendency to feed off
each other, so if you get two people who believe in things that are damaging to
others then their beliefs and/or actions may start escalating. But at the same time two people who have
beliefs that are good and beneficial for society may be able to encourage each
other to carry out some great things also.
So, in the end it really can’t be said that it is bad or good,
everything is always going to depend on the person who is wielding it. Every actions is as different as the person
who is carrying out the action, all the rest of society can do is hope for the
best.
Crystal Noe
References
McPherson, M., Smith-Lovin, L., & Cook, J. M. (2001).
Birds of a feather: Homophily in social networks. Annual review of sociology,
27(1), 415-444.
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