Are you smarter and more popular than your friends on social media? The answer could be an unflattering “no”, judging from new research which suggests that, on the likes of Facebook and Twitter, we actually tend to follow “up” – in other words, users more influential than ourselves.
This research was conducted by McGill University student Naghmeh Momeni Taramsari, who published her results in the journal PLOS ONE. She has reported her discovery that, on social media, our friends “have more friends than we do, on average”, not to mention “are more active (post more material), and are more influential (their posts are viewed and passed on more often).”
The study shows that 90% of social media users are subject to this, which is known as the Generalized Friendship Paradox. McGill teacher and the paper’s senior author, Professor Michael Rabbat, dubs Twitter “hierarchical”, its users having a tendency to follow others with a higher number of connections than themselves on the social media site.
