stargazer365-blog

[stargazer365-blog]

STAYING CONNECTED AND INFORMED

We all want to feel love and wanted. What makes that attraction even greater, is when you are able to find that connection with someone who shares the same views and interest as you do.  How do we find these connections on social media? Through algorithm and homophily. Take a look at my previous post title “How We Stay Connected” at https://stargazer365.tumblr.com/.

DON’T RECOMMEND. NOT INTERESTED

One of the things that I like most about YouTube is ability to recommend content on my feed that I am most interested in. As stated in my previous blog, selection of contents is selected by algorithms, which is defined “as a set of rules used to rank, filter and organize the content for users within certain media platforms”, (What Is an Algorithm in Social Media?). Well, that does not always work how we would like.  Sometimes we get recommendation, that we are not interested in nor enjoy the content that is being presented. You not may have known that the video you watched regarding a political disagreement, actually was content with opinions that were opposite of yours. As you read the comments, you wonder should your response with how you feel on the issue? Or not weight in at all.  What if they a right? “Cognitive bias is a systematic bias error in thinking that affects the decisions and judgments that people make”, (What Is Cognitive Bias). These bias’, can often make you second guess what you know and believe to be true. When you are on the social media platform you can found yourself feeling trapped and lonely in your views. Now your social media connection is with people who don’t share your views and opinions. As noted from my previous blog, “How We Are Connected”, it discusses how homophily connects us to those that we do have something in common with, whether through content or people,

YouTube has a feature that allows you to “adjust” what is being recommended to you. If there is something you don’t like you can click on the settings of the video content and select Not Interest or Don’t Recommend. Eventually, you will see that unwanted content disappear from your feed. This feature highlights another cognitive bias, confirmation bias. “This is favoring information that conforms to your existing beliefs and discounting evidence that does not conform”, (What is Cognitive Bias).  We find comfort in knowing that what we believe is right, whether it is or not. But to make a sound decision, we need to ensure we know of all the options that available.

ALTERNATIVE PERSPECTIVES

You don’t know what you don’t know. Sometime is helpful to listen to the perspectives of others and to view topics and content that is opposite of what you normally view. Expressing your opinion respectively and openly is a way to ease out of feeling alone and helping in providing that content to help you make the right decisions. To help overcome cognitive bias, you first have to be willing to recognized that you have them.  The author of What is Cognitive Bias provided the following tips:

·         BE AWARE OF BIAS – What is influencing you?

·         CONSIDER THE FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE YOUR DECISIONS

·         CHALLENGE YOUR BIAS – What have you missed?

For further content in the article. Click on the link below.

 What Is an Algorithm in Social Media? Retrieved from the Internet at: https://promorepublic.com/en/blog/glossary/what-is-social-media-algorithm/

What Is Cognitive Bias? Retrieved from the Internet at: https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-a-cognitive-bias-2794963

[stargazer365-blog]

HOW ARE WE CONNECTED

HOW ARE WE CONNECTED?

Staying Plugged into Social Media

Do you find more enjoyment scrolling through your Facebook page and seeing faces of those you know and love? Research has shown that we feel a strong need to be connected to each other. For some, it’s a single connection with their partner and for others its their entire collective family and friends. Social media gives us this instant connection and since of satisfaction, even though we are not physically interacting with anyone. A quick click on an emoji can let them know how you feel about them at that moment and how you feel about topics and products they have shared. For many, especially now during these trying times, it is how we are staying connected to family and friends and how we are finding that common ground about things we like, share and find interest in.  

Homophily: Like Me Like You

I am certain that everyone has experienced what it has been like to be in a “clique” or selected group of people that like and share some of the same interest.  Homophily is described as our need to connect with other people who like and share the same interest. Research shows that “homophily tend to get stronger as more types of relationships exist between two people, (McPherson, Smith-Lovin & Cook, (2001). Before social media, you could visually see and know who was hanging out with who. So, how does social media now bring these individuals together you ask? Through algorithms.

How Do You Know I Like That? How Algorithms Contribute to Homophily

Remember when you were on your best-friend’s social media page and you liked and commented on the advertisement for some glittery red shoes she posted? Now, across your social media platforms, there are advertisements from the company appearing on your news feed, almost like magic. Algorithms are defined “as a set of rules used to rank, filter and organize the content for users within certain media platforms”, (What Is an Algorithm in Social Media?) Algorithms are used as a marketing tool for almost all business’ now that advertise on social media platforms. Algorithms are used for the purpose of making sure you stay plugged into the content you like, and that information can also transfer over to you through a shared interest.  Like those red shoes. It is a way for the company to try and build a relationship with you as a customer and with others that are also interested in the same thing. “By interacting only with others who are like ourselves anything that we experience as a result of our position gets reinforce”, (McPherson, Smith-Lovin & Cook, (2001).

Reference 

McPherson, M., Smith-Lovin, L., & Cook, J., (2001). Birds of a feather: Homophily in Social Networks. Retrieved from the Internet at: https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev.soc.27.1.415 

What Is an Algorithm In Social Media? Retrieved from the Internet at: https://promorepublic.com/en/blog/glossary/what-is-social-media-algorithm/