Social Media: How absurd social influence can be?

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Social media disrupts societal norms. In the last few days, we saw Redditors disrupts the stock and crypto market through social betting. GameStop and Dogecoin (dub as a meme or a joke) pump their price to new highs. No one expects a Reddit discussion full of memes overturns the stock market. Bitcoin rose to 20% of its current value after Elon Musk put bitcoin in his Twitter bio. To date, Musk's statement still rally the bitcoin market. We experienced how social influence overturns the financial market.

Social influence helped people to win an election. In 2016, President Duterte of the Philippines won the presidency due to campaigns on social media platforms like Facebook. Social media was instrumental for Former President Trump of the US to win the 2016 election. In the recent US election, social media helped President Biden won the election. Social influence is so powerful that it can change a nation.

Greta Thunberg brought climate activism on social media, which lead her to gain more support across the globe. We saw and hear people on social media platforms standing up for what they believe. Women campaigned for their rights and gender equality. We witnessed people calling out unfair treatment and police brutality in George Floyd's case. Social media became a place to express ideas and to get support.

Social media can make or break violence. In George Floyd's case, a social media campaigned brought riots all over America. In early 2020, the world shut down due to the pandemic. The post and tweets about the COVID-19 are bloated on social media. Some people blamed China and WHO for downplaying the virus. Misleading news about the pandemic spread across social media. Some people downplayed the pandemic mainly due to the social media hoax. Over social media, we saw how people violate health protocols.

Social influence changes people's behavior unknowingly. Social media algorithms fed us with information that is consistent with our search history. The problem lies in what we search online and who we follow. If the personalities or pages that we follow spread wrong information, we are in deep trouble. A person who is falsely informed neglects the truth.

Social influence involves changing a person's beliefs, attitudes, or behavior. We tend to change our behaviors to fit social norms even against our preferences. We seek conformity to every action that we take. It is like we are always seeking approval. Most people fall to "what is the trend."

There are viral challenges in social media. TikTok's invisible challenge put a filter that somehow makes a person invisible while dancing naked. Many people joined the challenge. Some people did it while others danced naked. The sense of belonging to the trend puts someone in exposing their bodies on social media. It may result in sexual exploitation.

Youtube is also popular in terms of challenge content. Mukbang, a popular eating challenge, gives the audience a sense of ASMR while hearing the vlogger eating loudly. Also, Mukbang put vloggers to discomforts and some health risks. In Mukbang, vloggers feature the food and may help the food industry to prosper. A downside with Mukbang is it unknowingly promotes overeating and poor eating habits in the community.

There are challenges in social media that influenced death. People who took extreme selfies like on a cliff or at the edge of a building result in their deaths. Social media suicides are common. Some people kill themselves while streaming on social media. Luxon, June, and Fairall state that some people perform suicidal pact on social media. In their study, a Suicidal Pact is an agreement between people to die by suicide at a particular time and often by the same lethal means. They also revealed that, in some ways, it formed through social media (cybersuicide pact).

On the other hand, social influence is not always bad. As mentioned earlier, social media influences the financial market to blow up to new heights and win an election. Casual chatting on Reddit powered up the rise of price and trading volume of GameStop and Dogecoin. It shows how social influence overturn a meme stock or a coin.

In the Philippines, local brands leverage social media platforms to increase sales. Some CEO of local brands shares Tiktok and Youtube videos, which they join social media trends. We can hear on some TikTok videos that TikTok made him or her buy a product. People think it is due to effective marketing, but unknowingly it is social influence at work. People in social media influenced us to bought or join something.

The social influence works peculiarly. Stocks run wild in our financial market with social betting. Social media can promote a new culture through challenges, which are either healthy or unhealthy. We may unconsciously dictate the outcome of an election. We can use social influence to spark violence and protest.

The power of social influence is through the roof when paired with artificial intelligence. Social media platforms used an algorithm that gives us an illusion of choice. The illusion of choice influences us to act on it and feel that we are in control. Our decision is useless since a set of outcomes is ready. Above all else, social influence turns things upside down.