Are social media platforms profiting by creating Homophily
How social media and their algorithms keep us in blinders
If you are like me, and almost every other person on earth, you use or have used a form of social media to connect with others for one reason or another. This is a concept known as homophily. Homophily is that push or that pull that makes us sign up for everything out there so we can find others who are like us, or to find others who we share a core belief with. Social media platforms utilize this concept in such a way to help their user numbers grow. It may sound like a great concept at first but there are also negative aspects this can cause and contribute too. If you’d like to know a more detailed description, please read (https://cneanover05.medium.com/social-medias-allure-c21fc82a5a52ad) my story where I go more in depth about homophily.
Algorithms are stalking me
On important tool that platforms use today are called algorithms. These watch your online interaction’s they watch not only what you like but they also pay attention to what you don’t like. These are used on Facebook, YouTube, even Instagram. When you are shown people you may know, new music video suggestions, these are chosen from determining what you do and do not like in the hopes to keep you there and using them. They can be great, but there is also a downside. If a person has an idea and then the only information shown to them is others with that idea, then there is no room for discovery. You are just reinforcing that idea and helping homophily grow into a negative situation. There is a reason why we have a saying called “The blind leading the blind”. Think of online bullying for example, if all your friends online are bullying some girl and you see everyone doing it then you may jump in too. This is where “if you saw everyone jumping off a bridge would you jump to?” comes into play. We seek acceptance and follow the popular, if we are only shown a horrible idea then we solidify that idea and assume there is no reason to search out any information everything I see says the same thing.
How can we avoid this
You have to search for the truth, even if its about something that isn’t a big deal. We need to be reminded that as much as we think we know, were not always right. Personally, I think the algorithms should be changed to add a 50/50 percent of information that is suggested to us. They should show us not only other posts or items that align with our own, but they should also show us results that are the opposite. This is a fair way to allow us to connect with others we may like and to also allow us to experience new things or points of view so we may have an opportunity to know if we have the right idea or belief.
In short algorithms are good but can also lead to bad results. We need to remember to have an open mind and the ability for sound reasoning. We must remember that even if what we see affirms our belief we still need to continue to look and search so we can be sure what we know is the truth.
