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Just Say “No” to Peer Pressure in Social Media

Feeling Connected

In my previous blog, we discussed homophily. You can find that HERE (https://skippy728.tumblr.com/post/190561871870/themore-we-get-togethertogether-the-more). In this blog, we will go into further detail regarding the factors that contribute to feeling connected and develop homophily in social media. Bailey, Cao, Kuchler, Stroebel, & Wong (2018) listed some of these possible factors as: race, gender, age, religious beliefs, education level, attitudes, and beliefs. This is not an all-inclusive list, but it does begin to give a mental picture of what could trigger homophily. Group members will have some type of relative similarity that will tie them to the other members in the group. This creates a sense of familiarity and

connectedness to the others in the group. These are some of the factors that give an individual the sense of “fitting in” in a group environment and will continue to draw that individual to that group since they share commonalities with others within the group.

Westerman, Spence, & Van Der Heide (2012) also reference additional factors that lead to homophily which is credibility and trustworthiness as well as the need for trusted news and content. This is directly related to the number of users that share certain content as well as the number of sources that endorse the content. This would suggest that groups subconsciously strive to grow in size in order to be perceived as a more reliable and trusted source for content, which is the “valued currency” of social media. The value of the content that you post and share, directly reflects your own value in terms of online presence. If you can enhance this value by sharing content in numbers as a group, you instantly increase the possibility for success of the content to “go viral” or become widespread over the network and be absorbed as reliable and trustworthy content.

Feeling Isolated

As tested and proven by Ahn (2013), social media is more directed at increasing connectedness, rather than minimizing social isolation. What this means, in more common terms, is that social media users are more prone to seek connectedness by adapting their beliefs and feelings to those of a larger group in order to feel connected, rather than seeking to validate their own feelings and beliefs by openly offering them to other users. This would, in turn, further isolate individuals that were previously feeling isolated by further concealing their own feelings and beliefs to create “alter egos” in order to fit it. This is motivated and driven by homophily as well. Users will choose to adapt to attain connectedness rather than exposing themselves to feel less isolated. The larger the group that has adapted to a centralized belief, the greater the need for isolated users to adapt as well to support the centralized belief and remain or become socially connected to the group.

This need to remain connected in spite of personal validation, can potentially lead to extreme views and actions that individuals would, otherwise, avoid. Due to the need for connectedness, individuals seeking self-value will submit themselves to self-guided peer-pressure to follow the actions and beliefs of the group in which they seek to belong. This can trigger sequences of cyber bullying and radicalization in order achieve this connectedness. Users will accept negative views or proceed with negatives actions as a sense of initiation into the groups that they crave connectedness to.

McCurry (2019) found that at least 31% of the subjects in here testing indicated that social media presents the need to strive for unrealistic beauty and unachievable satisfaction with life by increasing the need to achieve the standards and achievements of others. This is stated to cause increased levels of anxiety and stress in the test subjects. This supports the theory that social media users will forsake their individuality to seek approval of groups (other individuals) and will submit themselves to extreme measures at times to achieve this approval. [email protected] (2018) states that this need to fit in with these unrealistic expectations affect users' view of themselves mentally and emotionally and bring on depression and mental complexes when they cannot achieve the expectations that their group (or themselves) are seeking of them.

The peer pressure effect felt by users on social media was greatly demonstrated in a study conducted by Sherman, Payton, Hernandez, Greenfield, & Depretto (2016) where it was demonstrated that users will subconsciously fall victim to their own peer pressure and homophily by adapting their views according the status, or number of “likes”, of images shown online. The study proves that this need to fit in is physical as well as psychological and can be witnessed and proven in an individual's body language and even in their brain function.

Preventing Risks

In order to avoid or minimize the effects and risks of peer pressure in social media, there are steps and measures that users can take in order to create a safe social media environment. Rutledge (2016) goes over a few steps that can be taken in her article which consists of:

•  Determine your own goals in life and base your social media usage on these goals

•  Maintain a journal when using social media and log how the content makes you feel and why

•  Maintain moderation and control when using social media

  By following these three simple methods, users will pay close attention to how social media affects them mentally and emotionally as well as how it affects their goals and visions. This would incubate a more positive online presence and usage case than some users currently exercise.

Santiago (2017) also adds that

•  we should ensure that we are aligning our goals to our own feelings and beliefs rather than seeking others' realities and/or directions to what they feel our goals and beliefs should consist of.

If we can keep these simple steps in mind when we are using social media in our day to day life, then social media can be a very powerful positive tool to increase our individuality and promote “our own brand” both personally and professionally. We can even utilize the peer pressure of social media to combat negative beliefs and actions and encourage others rather than discouraging them. McGarrity (2012) advocates that encouraging positive peer pressure in social media and reducing a user's exposure to the negative peer pressure found in social media can inspire users to reach their full potential and become a better person because of social media instead of attempting to achieve the views of others online.

References

Ahn, Dohyun (11/01/2013). "Is the social use of media for seeking connectedness or for avoiding social isolation? Mechanisms underlying media use and subjective well-being". Computers in human behavior (0747-5632), 29 (6), p. 2453.

Bailey, M., Cao, R., Kuchler, T., Stroebel, J., & Wong, A. (2018). Social connectedness: Measurement, determinants, and effects. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 32(3), 259-280. doi:10.1257/jep.32.3.259

[email protected]. (2018,). Peer pressure peaks higher on social media [bangalore times]: With the number of likes or views on your online post defining your popularity these days, bengaluru's youth are slogging towards achieving unrealistic, and probably unimportant, social media expectations. The Times of India (Online)

McCURRY, C. (2019, ). Phones signal peer pressure: 1-in-3 youths say social media makes life tough [eire region]. The Daily

Mirror

McGarrity, J. (2012, December 13). Social Media and Peer Pressure. Retrieved from https://fathergeek.com/social-media-andpeer-pressure/

Pace, J. (2020, January 30). Retrieved from https://skippy728.tumblr.com/post/190561871870/the-more-we-gettogethertogether-the-more

Rutledge, P. B. (2016, July 19). The Pressures of Social Media: Should I Disconnect? Retrieved from https:// www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/positively-media/201607/the-pressures-social-media-should-i-disconnect

Santiago, R. (2017, December 28). Peer Pressure and Social Media. Retrieved from http://cvdapc.org/peer-pressure-socialmedia/

Sherman, L. E., Payton, A. A., Hernandez, L. M., Greenfield, P. M., & Dapretto, M. (2016). The power of the like in adolescence: Effects of peer influence on neural and behavioral responses to social media. Psychological Science, 27(7), 1027-1035. doi:10.1177/0956797616645673

Westerman, D., Spence, P. R., & Van Der Heide, B. (2012). A social network as information: The effect of system generated reports of connectedness on credibility on twitter. Computers in Human Behavior, 28(1), 199-206. doi:10.1016/ j.chb.2011.09.001

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The more we get together...together… the more similar we’ll be?

Driving factors that contribute to connecting on social media, and why we do it

    The most common reason for people to interact on social media, is to seek out a group to connect with. Liao & Weng (2018)  explain that social connectedness (or being socially connected to a group) reinforces the positive way that a person feels about themselves in relation to the group, and this is not as vulnerable to change as the way a person feels regarding themselves in a relationship or family setting. In other words, if a person feels connected to a large group, they feel much more secure that they will remain connected to that group, where they may feel that a relationship or even family setting is much more temporary and dynamic in nature. It is human nature to seek belonging, and when feeling belongingness to a larger group promotes higher value and self reflection, it is natural to seek belonging in the larger scale rather than a smaller scale.

    Social connectedness has also been found by Faro, McKee, Garcia, and O’Leary (2019) to increase self esteem and lower thoughts and chances of suicide due to the greater sense of belonging and acceptance by a group. This produces a more comfortable view of one’s self by being accepted by a larger group and also increases and enhances the drive to build an individual’s identity and uniqueness. Ryan, Allen, Gray, and McInerney (2017) also insist that belonging to a group builds a person’s feelings that their needs are important and valued which further enhances the sense of self worth and validation.

    Finding a sense of belonging, according to Allen, Ryan, Gray, McInerney, and Waters (2014), will create a positive outlook on everything going on around a person while this sense of belonging is  perceived. This will, in turn, create a more positive outlook as a whole and of life in general. People become more accepting of their surroundings and trials when they feel as though they are supported and accepted by groups. This will trigger a more valuable and enjoyable lifestyle as well as increasing an individual’s optimistic thinking as a result.

What is homophily and where does it come from?

   Homophily, as defined by Kossinets and Watts (2009), is “the tendency of similar individuals to associate with one another”, or the age old belief that “birds of a feather flock together”. This topic has been extensively researched in many different contexts. It is believed by researchers, such as Aiello, Barrat, Schifaneila, Cattuto, Markines, and Menczer (2012), that social media increases this psychological effect, and that members of groups will begin to post similarly based blogs or posts as the other members of their group to maintain their social status and sense of belonging to the group, this is known as in-group collectivism. These collective interests become the determining factors that define the group and set them apart from other groups. These defining characteristics, in a way, create a living identity for the group as a whole, and this is what fuels homophily.

    This phenomena is believed to be caused and promoted through individuals finding a greater sense of connectedness and belonging when others in their social group “understand” their feelings, beliefs, and interests. This has even been shown as evident in social dating sites, Huber and Malhotra (2017). When individuals find common ground, they feel more as if they belong together, and the inclusion of social media introduces even more possible like-minded individuals to connect with worldwide. This influences the growth of groups and creates an even greater sense of shared interests and commonality.

    McPherson, Smith-Lovin, and Cook (2001) made the point that by maintaining our groups to include others with common interests and beliefs, we are in turn reinforcing our own beliefs and social status. This reinforcement is made exponentially stronger when the groups are expanded to cross cities, states, regions, countries and oceans to expand the number of members of our groups from tens to hundreds or thousands.

Are platform algorithms to blame?

   Social media platform algorithms are the driving force behind the dynamic content that you see when interacting on a social network. These algorithms will keep track and log how often that you interact with a certain type of content or advertisement, and how often that you hide a certain type of content, Agrawal (2016). These algorithms are said to “personalize your online experience to fit your lifestyle”. In turn, when individuals share similar content or find interest in content that is shared by others, they feel motivated to add them to their group or social circle. This will give the impression that another person’s lifestyle is similar due to the fact that the content they choose to interact with and/or hide has led them to similar dynamic content. This will almost certainly influence others with similar interests to feel drawn together strictly on the fact that they share similar interests in dynamic content.

    This effect is amplified even more by the sharing of this dynamic content more than the creation of personalized and personally created content which is becoming more common in modern social media, Dooley (2017). When the majority of the content shared on social media today comes from the dynamic content provided by the platform algorithms, the growth of homophily is increased due to the fact that this mass media content becomes a user’s “calling card” to other users. First impressions are now being based on dynamic content that is re-posted, and this becomes the basis for who we follow, interact with, and identify with. This content becomes personal by creating our online identity. This is how social media comes full circle: “We use social media to validate our identity, and in turn, social media recreates our identity”.

References

Agrawal, A. J. (2016, April 21). What Do Social Media Algorithms Mean For You? Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/ajagrawal/2016/04/20/what-do-social-media-algorithms-mean-for-you/#1a3389b2a515

Aiello, L., Barrat, A., Schifanella, R., Cattuto, C., Markines, B., & Menczer, F. (2012). Friendship prediction and homophily in social media. ACM Transactions on the Web (TWEB), 6(2), 1-33. doi:10.1145/2180861.2180866

Allen, K. A., Ryan, T., Gray, D. L., McInerney, D. M., & Waters, L. (2014). Social media use and social connectedness in adolescents: The positives and the potential pitfalls. Australian Educational and Developmental Psychologist, 31(1), 18. doi:10.1017/edp.2014.2

Dooley, M. (2017, January 26). Retrieved from https://medium.com/@dooleymr/a-new-era-in-social-media-why-millennials-arent-sharing-anymore-15ffe99b9165

Faro, A. L., McKee, L. G., Garcia, R. L., & O'Leary, J. L. (2019). Emotion socialization, social connectedness and internalizing symptoms in emerging adults. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 64, 101051. doi:10.1016/j.appdev.2019.101051

Huber, G. A., & Malhotra, N. (2017). Political homophily in social relationships: Evidence from online dating behavior. The Journal of Politics, 79(1), 269-283. doi:10.1086/687533

Kossinets, G., & Watts, D. (2009). Origins of homophily in an evolving social network. American Journal of Sociology, 115(2), 405-450. doi:10.1086/599247

Liao, K. Y., & Weng, C. (2018). Gratefulness and subjective well-being: Social connectedness and presence of meaning as mediators. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 65(3), 383-393. doi:10.1037/cou0000271

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. doi:10.1146/annurev.soc.27.1.415

Ryan, T., Allen, K. A., Gray, D. L., & McInerney, D. M. (2017). How social are social media? A review of online social behaviour and connectedness. Journal of Relationships Research, 8 doi:10.1017/jrr.2017.13

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When it comes to social media, I know just what you’re looking for - here’s how...

Capturing Attention in Social Media

   While some studies state that getting a reader’s attention in social media is a marathon rather than a sprint such as Davis, G. (02/23/18). Others will agree that the truth is right the opposite. It is important to understand that there are two major steps in attracting readers: Capturing attention and Maintaining engagement. While the two sound dangerously similar, they are quite different.

   Capturing attention is only the first step. This is the part that draws the audience to your post using means specific to the target audience that you intend to inform. This must happen immediately upon the reader seeing your post. According to Tan, D. (07/11/2012), if you do not capture the reader’s attention in the first few seconds, you message will be “drowned in the sea of updates”. This is the exact opposite of what you want to happen if you want the reader to continue reading and interacting with you and your post.

   The time that you have to create this first impression with the reader is slowly dropping as well. At the beginning of the millennium, a study was conducted that discovered that the average attention span of a human was around 12 seconds and only 15 years later the same attention span was a mere 8 seconds as stated by Medenall, N. (07/10/2016). Microsoft believes that the Internet itself is to blame for the lowered attention span, however, this is the battle that we face if we want to be heard on social media. To combat this issue, we can take some steps to get the reader’s attention quickly:

   1. Try to catch the reader’s attention with some sort of graphic that relates to the social group that you are targeting. For instance, since this blog would most likely appeal to individuals that are interested in research and studies, I used a graphic depicting none other than Sherlock Holmes. This will automatically target readers that are looking for study proven reasoning rather than readers that would be more interested in other types of information.

  2.  Use a catchy title to your post that introduces your post in a playful but “cliff hanging” way. This will let the reader know instantly what the post is regarding but will not give them the “punchline” without reading the post itself. This will draw the reader in so that the post can do the heavy lifting of keeping the reader interested.

   3. Use colors and font appropriate for your targeted readers. If you are attempting to draw in a more artistic crowd, use technical imagery with alternative layouts. If you are looking to draw in a more playful crowd, use bright colors and graphical fonts. If you are looking to draw a more research driven crowd, such as this article, use a more hierarchal layout with modern business class fonts to give a sort of “no nonsense” feel to the article subconsciously.

You will notice that you can target and attract your targeted reader groups automatically with a little bit of research and customization, but this is only the first step. Now comes the fun part…

Maintaining Engagement in Social Media

   Capturing the reader’s attention is the key to pulling them into your post, but maintaining this attention is where the author’s work must shine. This is where the author must get the reader engaged and looking for what comes next as stated by Merkel (01/15/2015). If you aren’t maintaining the interest of the reader, then your efforts are made in vain due to the fact that someone else’s post WILL gain their interest and they will continue to “flip by”, (Cramer, J.; 04/20/2017).

   Therefore, reader engagement is so important. You must keep and build onto the attention that you get from the reader. Keep them wanting more and looking for the next step. As Fraso, S. (08/22/2019) declares, content is the basis of online sharing and if you aren’t doing this regularly then your online presence dissipates, and your readers feel that you have nothing to give that interests them. While this seems harsh, it is exactly how our minds process online content. There is an overwhelming amount of content online, and if the information that we are currently reading doesn’t speak to us or “offer” us something then we lose interest and seek similar content from additional sources. Readers need to be engaged and become part of the content to find value in the content, this is what is meant by “maintaining engagement”. Desreumaux, G. (03/23/2016) outlines 7 triggers that can help us achieve and maintain this engagement of our readers:

1. Automaticity – This is the “automatic” and immediate response that our subconscious minds have to the content. This is our instinct, so to speak. This is the effect of screeching brakes causing us to look for danger, our favorite song causing us to sing along, etc. This is used to engage the reader’s immediate response, so using known impacting elements to your targeted reader base creates an instant interest in the content that follows.

2. Framing – This is the next step in engagement. This is a conscious trigger that the reader chooses to follow. The content must immediately lead into some sort of attention-grabbing information that causes the reader to decide that they will gain something from the content, and they decide that the post is worth their time.

3. Disruption – This is how we break up the reader engagement in the content. If we use some sort of trigger to catch the reader off guard so that they “have” to look at what has disrupted them, then we have effectively gained their attention. This shouldn’t be an entirely new adventure for the reader to the extent that the reader forgets where they were in the content, but more of a “halftime show” type of aspect to the content to the reader’s interest piqued and their expectations in pursuit.

4. Reward – As stated multiple times in this article, it is our nature to expect some sort of value or payoff for giving our attention. This is no different for social media posts. We can maintain the reader’s engagement by offering them some sort of value for their attention, such as “follow me and I will follow you” type of payoff or even physical rewards such as “follow me for a discount on your next purchase” type of value. This is a sure-fire way to keep the user interested, by letting them know that they will be getting something in return for their efforts.

5. Reputation – This is one of the ultimate triggers that are used to keep readers engaged in social media. Since reputation and sense of purpose or belonging is one of the main reasons for online social media, what better way to interest readers than to give the sense that their reputation will increase by interacting with your content. This can be done by listing some role models or celebrities that have also interacted with your content or stating that others will gain an improved view of the reader in some way if they know that they have interacted with your content.

6. Mystery – This is another element that will keep your readers following along almost involuntarily. It is human nature to seek completeness in things that we do, and most people will get an instant uneasy feeling if they feel that they have not completed what they set out to do, or if they were not allowed to finish for some reason. Creating your content is some sort of order that is not complete until the end of the content will continue to “string the reader along” to the end. This keeps the reader from getting all that they want out of the content in the first few lines, so they must continue to interact with the content in order to get the full value.

7. Acknowledgement – And finally… acknowledgement. This trigger can be used to ensure that the reader will be acknowledged in some sort of way, that they are not “just another number” and their interaction with your content is valued by you, the author. You should find some way to recognize your readers and let them know that you know that they exist as humans. This is commonly done by way of automated response posts “Thank you reader’s name for reading my post. I would love your feedback!” These types of triggers will keep the reader returning for additional content due to the fact that they are being acknowledged and achieving some sort of validation from the author.

   If we use these triggers along with the appropriate steps to capturing the attention of our readers, then our posts move from plain and ordinary to extraordinary. Otherwise, our online presence may suffer and diminish along with our reader base.

   I hope you enjoyed this article, feel free to email me and let me know what you think and don’t forget to follow.

References

Cramer, J. (2017, April 20). ATTENTION PLEASE!!! Capturing attention in Social Media. Retrieved from https://medium.com/

@joecramer_34698/attention-please-capturing-attention-in-social-media-708a8957fa9f

Davis, G. (2018, February 23). How to capture attention in a world overflowing with content . Retrieved from https://

www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/how-to/marketing/2018/02/how-to-capture-attention-in-a-world-overflowing.html

Desreumaux, G. (2016, March 23). 7 Triggers To Capture Attention On Social Media And In Everyday Life. Retrieved from

https://wersm.com/7-triggers-to-capture-attention-on-social-media-and-in-everyday-life/

Frasco, S. (2019, August 22). 3 Ways To Make Your Social Media Posts Attract The Right Attention. Retrieved from https://

convertwithcontent.com/3-ways-to-make-your-social-media-posts-attract-the-right-attention/

Mendenhall, N. (2016, July 10). 4 Ways to Capture and Keep Your Target Audience's Attention. Retrieved from https://

www.socialmediatoday.com/marketing/4-ways-capture-and-keep-your-target-audiences-attention

Merkel. (2018, January 15). HERE IT IS!! Capturing Attention in Social Media. Retrieved from https://medium.com/

@camerkel19/here-it-is-capturing-attention-in-social-media-b4cb10043d9c

Tan, D. (2012, July 11). 25 Tweaks To Capture Attention In Social Networks. Retrieved from http://socialmetricspro.com/socialmedia/

25-tweaks-to-capture-attention-in-social-networks-often-forgotten-tweaks/965/