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Does status matter in a social network? I am almost zero social network status and I can: 1. Find people on LinkedIn and talk to them. 2. Have meaningful dis

Does status matter in a social network? I am almost zero social network status and I can: 1. Find people on LinkedIn and talk to them. 2. Have meaningful discussions on Reddit. 3. Talk to friends. 4. Chat to a random interesting person on Twitter. The only thing I can't do is make a million dollars from my audience. But surely most users don't need that. You can't get rid of status as long as you have people. People will prefer some people to other people. Some will be popular. So I think it is a bit of a non topic. Privacy, security and avoiding addiction and bias are the interesting topics of what we do with social networks.

insightcheck 4y ago
I can think of a few specific cases where social media status can have an effect for a regular person (more specifically, a non-influencer), though you're right that status typically doesn't block off main features. - For LinkedIn, there have been cases where certain job positions (typically sales, marketing, and social media management) actually prefer candidates to have a certain number of followers (500+) as evidence they are good at using social networks. - For Twitter, some people in certain social circles allegedly judge potential dates based on their number of Twitter followers. At a less extreme sense, some people judge others with wariness if they have no social media accounts. You can easily avoid having deep relationships with these people, but status can have real-life effects. Separately for Twitter, you may be more likely to get customer support by publicly mentioning a company, if you have more followers. - Lastly for Reddit, having less karma or a newer account raises suspicions you are a bot (some subreddits actually forbid newer accounts). In practice, none of these really matter if you don't work in sales, don't date or befriend people who care too much about social media, don't comment on more mainstream subreddits where there are karma thresholds, and can do without mentioning companies publicly on Twitter for support as a last resort. However, there can be real-life effects from internet points.

insightcheck 4y ago

I can think of a few specific cases where social media status can have an effect for a regular person (more specifically, a non-influencer), though you're right that status typically doesn't block off main features. - For LinkedIn, there have been cases where certain job positions (typically sales, marketing, and social media management) actually prefer candidates to have a certain number of followers (500+) as evidence they are good at using social networks. - For Twitter, some people in certain social circles allegedly judge potential dates based on their number of Twitter followers. At a less extreme sense, some people judge others with wariness if they have no social media accounts. You can easily avoid having deep relationships with these people, but status can have real-life effects. Separately for Twitter, you may be more likely to get customer support by publicly mentioning a company, if you have more followers. - Lastly for Reddit, having less karma or a newer account raises suspicions you are a bot (some subreddits actually forbid newer accounts). In practice, none of these really matter if you don't work in sales, don't date or befriend people who care too much about social media, don't comment on more mainstream subreddits where there are karma thresholds, and can do without mentioning companies publicly on Twitter for support as a last resort. However, there can be real-life effects from internet points.