CS 371 - Blog Post 4 - Carpino
Much of the content from Unit II of this course has focused on Robin Dunbar’s famous ‘Dunbar number’ and the social brain. The Dunbar number claims that humans can manage up to a maximum of 150 stable social networks, which is broken down into several categories based on the closeness of one’s relationships: acquaintances, friends, good friends, and close friends. In this quickly evolving digital age, the accuracy of the Dunbar number has been questioned due to the privileges of social media, which allows individuals to reach and befriend hundreds to thousands of other users on an app. Consider the article “What TikTok does to your mental health: It’s embarrassing we know so little”, which recognizes that “TikTok is uniquely performative” and “provides an endless stream of emotional nudges” to users (Paul, 2022). It is evident that TikTok can have such detrimental impacts on users due to its content being highly personalized, replacing face-to-face social interaction. Although the Dunbar does hold merit, as users do not know their hundreds of thousands of fellow online ‘friends’ on a personal level, it is concerning how TikTok is able to evoke the emotions and feelings of an intimate relationship online — even if the relationship is, in reality, one-sided. For those of you that use TikTok, have any of you ever found yourself personally invested in an online relationship with someone you do not know in real life? With an influencer or celebrity, for example?
References
Paul, K. (2022, October 30). What TikTok does to your mental health: 'it's embarrassing we know so little'. The Guardian. Retrieved November 21, 2022, from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/oct/30/tiktok-mental-health-social-media
ReplyDeleteHi Avery, I really enjoyed reading your post!
I think Dunbar’s theory is very accurate in this day and age, especially on Instagram. Even though my Instagram account is private I still find that I have so many followers I don't know at all and then I have many followers I know of but I have never talked to on a personal level. Only a select few of my Instagram followers are close friends who I speak with every day. I feel like so many people can relate to Dunbar's number because it is so normalized on social media to follow people you may not know but have friends in common with or influencers who you don't know but like. I also like your point on Tik Tok because I find that when I have the same influencers and celebrities that pop up on my For You page every day and they're sharing their life I do feel personally invested in their life and what goes on. It is weird considering I have never even met half the people I see on Tik Tok but I feel like you build online connections when someone you like shares their life publicly every day.
Hey,
ReplyDeleteGreat post. I am also a TikTok user and I find different couples or friendship dramas appearing on my For You page. I personally do not look into their drama or anything but it is often hard to ignore. This causes me to question it after the fact as I have now seen snippets or other stories regarding somebody's personal life. Even though we should not pry into others' lives, if they are to post everything publicly it can make it much harder to avoid. I feel that because people are posting their lives publicly in order to create a following, it definitely makes it less weird if someone is to create a connection with them.