Psychology + Sociology & Social Media (Casual Talk for Meetup)

Fun with Psychology, Sociology + Social Media

We are strange 2

But often in the same ways 3

Social Media Has More Payoffs Than We Think 4

Luck = Outgoing = Connections 5 http://www.theluckfactor.com/make-your-luck/build-a-network.asp

Benefits Translate Into the Real World http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1398/internet-mobile-phones- impact-american-social-networks 6

Sharing the Special 7 Photo: “Sharing” by: ryancr on Flickr

“If I’ve just read this story that changes the way I understand the world and myself, I want to talk to others about what it means. I want to proselytize and share the feeling of awe. If you read the article and feel the same emotion, it will bring us closer together.” - Jonah Berger, Assistant Professor of Marketing, Wharton - http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/09/science/09tier.html 8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjTaV01eOeM 9

Awe makes you feel - and we all want to feel 10

Psychology shows us how we make mistakes... 11 Photo: “Hypnotised pumpkin” by minipixel on Flickr

Problem: The Curse of Knowledge 12

We are greatly limited by what we know. It corrupts how we convey things to others And our perception of how others see things. 13

Problem: Distinguishing Source 14

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/pedobear 15

http://pedobearpics.com/

Illustration by Angela Merick 17 http://mbarrick.livejournal.com/894999.html

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/pedobear 18

Pedobear added by artist Michael Barrick 19 http://mbarrick.livejournal.com/894999.html

[The Bad] Metronews, Vancouver 20

Problem: Rumors 21

Sure, death is easy to disprove. But what if the rumor isn’t as cut and dry. 30

Steve cheats on his wife. Carol’s an anti-Semite. How do you disprove that? 31

You can’t. And it spreads. And it doesn’t die. 32

“Here we are, quadrillions of bytes deep into the Information Age. And yet information, it seems, has never mattered less.” -Elizabeth Kolbert, “The Things People Say: Rumors in an age of unreason”, The New Yorker 33

“[P]eople usually do not moderate their position after hearing an opposing opinion, but rather become more extreme about their original view. And, as easy as it is to spread a rumor, it can be extremely difficult to squelch one. Attempts to correct a rumor often backfire and only cause people to believe it more deeply.” -Elizabeth Kolbert, “The Things People Say: Rumors in an age of unreason”, The New Yorker (interpreting Cass Sunstein’s theories) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/09/AR2009100901717.html

Problem: Lack of Context 35

"To an increasing degree, your silly, confused, flirtatious, angry and offensive moments, on Facebook and in email or in daily life, are subject to being recorded and stored (forever) and, potentially, mischaracterized" - Cass Sunstein 36

We don’t have full story in 54 seconds 37

Problem: We follow other people re: Popularity 38

39 http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/12/st_clive_thompson

Problem: Myopia 40

“I interviewed gay men who thought Friendster was a gay dating site because all they saw were other gay men...I interviewed teens who believed that everyone on MySpace was Christian because all of the profiles they saw contained biblical quotes. We all live in our own worlds with people who share our values and, with networked media, it's often hard to see beyond that.” - Danah Boyd, Social Media Researcher

Problem: We want it more if we think it’s scarce 42

Let’s pretend the supply here is limited 43

I’m going to assume they have plenty of these 44

Just an educated guess 45

More Insight 46

“The widespread availability of world wide fora does not create new social or moral standards, it merely gives people the opportunity to spread their immoral ideas more effectively. Instead of convicting sites like Facebook, researchers on human traits should praise them for easily and freely externalising what goes about in society. - Blogger, Fabrice Hofman http://fanemka.blogspot.com/2010/02/sociology-and-social-media-two-case.html 47

Who knew there was such demand? 49

We don’t always see what we think we do 50

Reference Articles, Experiments and Books See http://delicious.com/mhamburg/PsychSocialMedia 51

Find Articles, Notes & Resources You can find this presentation on: http://www.slideshare.net/mhamburg 52

Contact Me 53

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Psychology + Sociology & Social Media (Casual Talk for Meetup)

by Monica Hamburg

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