Rest assured, this is an illusion.
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Editor’s note: Do you sometimes feel that people in your circle of friends have done better than you? They are all on vacation by the sea, eat at Michelin-starred restaurants, babies, cats, dogs Yes … as if everyone is a winner in life. This is actually an illusion. This illusion originates from the “friendship paradox”, which is not the case in reality. This article is translated from Medium, author KRISTINA LERMAN, the original title was “This is why it seems like your friends have better lives than you do”, I hope to inspire you.
Do you think people in your circle of friends have done better than you? The restaurants where they eat seem to be very high-level. From time to time, they enjoy exotic holidays. The children are amazing, and even their pets are more cute!
Please rest assured, this is an illusion. It is a feature rooted in social networks, the so-called “friendship paradox.” Sociologist Scott Feld first proposed this paradox: “On average, your friends will be more popular than you.” This feature is combined with other features of social networks Together, it creates an illusion.
The meaning of the friendship paradox is that you will find your friends’ social networks are stronger than you. Of course, if you are a very gregarious person, this paradox does not apply to you. But for most people, this situation applies.
Although this contradiction can occur in any social network, it is more common online. A study found that 98% of Twitter users subscribe to an account with more followers than their own followers.
Math calculation problems in social networks
The above sounds a little weird. In fact, the friendship paradox has a simple mathematical explanation.
Everyone has a different social circle. Most of us have some friends and some of them are connectionsMany people, such as David Rockefeller, former CEO of Chase Manhattan Bank, have more than 100,000 people in his address book!
On social media, celebrities like Justin Bieber have more than 100 million followers . It’s this small group of people with strong connections that increases the average popularity of your friends. Very popular people like Justin Bieber not only affect the average popularity of the circle of friends, but although people like him are rare, they are very likely to appear in someone’s social circle.
The friendship paradox is more than a mathematical problem. It also has practical value in predicting trends and monitoring diseases. Researchers can use the friendship paradox to predict hot topics, detect flu outbreaks early, and design effective strategies to control the disease.
For example, if you arrive in an African village with 5 doses of Ebola vaccine, you are going to vaccinate the locals. The best strategy is not to randomly vaccinate five people, but to ask their friends who are then vaccinated. If you know their social network, you may choose to have those with a wider social circle. Because once the epidemic breaks out, they will infect more people. In stopping the spread of Ebola, vaccinating a wide range of people is more effective than random vaccination. People who are randomly vaccinated may be on the brink of social networking, with fewer people associated with it.
Are you a popular person?
There is a stronger version of the friendship paradox: most of your friends have more friends than yours. I won’t talk about average here, because a particularly popular friend may affect the average popularity of your friends.
This means that most of your friends have better social connections than you do. Do not believe you can try it. Click the names of some friends on Weibo to see how many followers they have. I bet most people have more fans than you.
Strangely, this paradox applies not only to popularity, but also to other characteristics, such as people in a circle of friends who are more likely to dine in high-end restaurants or go on holiday abroad.
Another specific example is someone postingFrequency of circle of friends. Most people you follow make friends more often than you do. And, most people you follow are more informed than you are.
What you think may not be true
This enhanced paradox of friendship leads to a “majority illusion”, a trait that is rare across social networks and seems to be common in many social circles. Imagine that, in general, there are a few people with red hair, but to many people, they seem to have many friends with red hair. The illusion of “red hair is common” requires only a few super influential people to dye their hair red.
The more connected “net celebrities” will disproportionately affect what we see and learn on social media. This helps explain why teens overestimate the prevalence of alcoholism on college campuses and why some topics seem to be more popular on Weibo than they actually are.
Most illusions will distort your view of others’ lives. Those with better social connections than us are also more likely to do something more noteworthy, such as dining in a Michelin-starred restaurant or vacationing in Bora Bora. They are also more active on social media and are more likely to share their lives in the circle of friends, which actually distorts our perception of the reality. In fact, eating in high-end restaurants and vacationing overseas is not as common as imagined. A good way to alleviate this illusion is: don’t compare with friends, be grateful for what you have.
Translator: Jane
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