In my opinion yes social media is making us less individual....

My friend liked this picture and shared it with me so im also gonna like it........ (the same is the case with info toughts and posts etc......)

Interesting question. Most of the theories of deindividuation like SIDE (social identity model of deindividuation effects) deal with issues of mob mentality. However, it would be very interesting to look at the concept from the individual's perspective. Honestly speaking as a social media user, I would say that it is difficult to put forward a non conformist opinion on social media so we tend to adopt or atleast display very non-individualistic stances

When the people share their thoughts and also emotions via social media for example facebook in some case they contact with the other people and extend their relationships. But when they want to contact with the other people in the real world sometimes they have problems, because after using social media in the visual worlds they prefer to share their contents via social media. They use to sit and use less energy to argue with the other people in the visual world. I think the social media lead to more individualism and make them inactive in the real world.

Thank you both for the valuable contributions!

I agree with you, Quarratulann, that it's not so easy and common for many social media users to put forward non-conformist opinions. We have to distinguish different platforms and environments and their specific affordances, though. Facebook, for example, makes it difficult for users to differentiate their audience along social circles and people are nonymous (partly because of company politics; Mark Zuckerberg once said: "Having two identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity."). So, many users are careful about their posts and engage in self-censorship because they know that their comments could be harmful in some way or could upset some of their Facebook friends. Others use very strict privacy settings or have multiple profiles. Such aspects of self-censorship that ultimately lead to less individualized performances could be described with the spiral of silence theory (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_of_silence). I'm not very familiar with theories of deindividuation but it might be a promising avenue to look at social media effects from this angle, for example using SIDE. Does anyone have good references in that regard, i.e. studies on social media effects that use such theories?

Another theory that points to less individualism through social media - at least the nonymous versions like Facebook - is impression management. People tend to share their positive experiences only and portray themselves in an idealized way. This leads to more streamlined and less individualized personalities on social media.

@Zohreh: This is also a valid point. Certain social media users prefer computer-mediated communication over other forms. Some even become addicted. I think you are right that arguments in "real life" can be more spontaneous and are less subject to mistunderstandings. Could you maybe elaborate a little bit more on the connection of your comment to individualism? You say "I think the social media lead to more individualism"... How do you think the inactivity and individualism are connected?

Dear Christoph,

Individualism "promotes the exercise of one's goals and desires and so value independence and self-reliance". Accordingly if you analogize with social media effect, there is two dimensional impact on personal morals from this perspective. At first and according to valuable comments, we observe the independence of each individual for their interaction with social media and this could lead to a better moral raise. On the other hand it is a source of super-massive information cycle from all over the world without much restriction and validation that could result in a huge mental-biasing. If we compare these two arguments I would say neither the social media contributes to individualism based on this definition and nor reduces it.

I think thats not true. I usually turn to social media to connect with friends and its only connection NOT collective information sourcing.

The social media increase the individualism, every single person on social media has become a click away to find his or personal attributes, to me social media create the individualism, if there would not be the status update and personal information even the likes and dislikes disclosed to others then to some extent it would be the streamlined

As a reminder for those commentators who refuse the "Mental Biasing" I suggest to have a perusal on the impact of the social media on revolutions, reforms and restructuring of social structure that are undergoing even now. The second impact which is bulk-information-dispersion has an immense effect on people's mind and favorites and perusing them for following a certain goal. Either this goal could be economical or political.

In my opinion yes social media is making us less individual....

My friend liked this picture and shared it with me so im also gonna like it........ (the same is the case with info toughts and posts etc......)

I mean sometimes some persons in cyberspace say their words or opinions carelessly, because they can use unkown identity or contact with the unkown identity that they never meet. they don't think deeply about the thing that they do.

Also spending more time in the cyberspace get their time to be with their real family like their mother, father or husband. (the amount of core families are decreasing and some governments try to show its importance - for example focus on this problem in their movies-). Being interactive in the real world (I don't know the real world is a suitable word becuase some of our real things happen in the visual world) make the users more individual, they prefer to be alone and spend more times with the internet, sometimes they don't attention to their families and prefer to think about visual worlds relationship.

Positive things also happen in the social network (as a part of cyberspace), but I think we should manage our time to get its positive effects.

Thanks everybody for the great answers! This is a very interesting discussion.

@Ali: I agree with you on the two-dimensional impact of social media on morals. On the one hand, people can share individual thoughts and feelings, which could definitely lead to a more diverse and richer interaction. On the other hand, it's true that much of the content is biased or irrelevant for many other users. So, in the end it's an ambivalent process if I understand you correctly.

@Muhammad: But do you think people make use of this potential for individualism? I make the observation that a large part of users does not share personal opinions or thoughts because of the fear of isolation or the fear that other people in the (diverse) network won't like or understand it or take it as an offense. So, in my opinion, social media have increased the opportunities for expression and individualism, but a large part does not make use of these opportunities. Again, the net effect of social media on individualism might be ambivalent.

@Sana: Yes, the virality of social media leads to the tendency to imitate each other (e.g., by sharing and liking the same). This point would indicate that social media make us less individual.

@Zohreh: Yes, I agree. I think we need to distinguish platforms where people are anonymous (e.g., SecondLife, certain online communities or chats) from those that are non-anonymous (such as Facebook, LinkedIn or ResearchGate). Anonymous platforms offer more potential for identity expression and experimentation - and therefore more potential for individualism.

Continuing the discussion, I suggest we should have a clear(er) definition of "individual" or "individualism". I wasn't very specific what I meant with "individual" and "individualism" in the initial question (sorry for that). Unfortunately, it's quite a vague term that's difficult to grasp. Often we associate individualism with egoism or self-centeredness. That's not what I wanted to convey.

My understanding of individualism was referring more to the lifestyle and everyday-cultural aspect - and less to the philosophical or political dimension. So, an individualist in this understanding is someone with an independent, creative lifestyle that diverges from the norm. In this Wikipedia article my concept of individualism refers to chapter 7 ("Individualism as creative independent lifestyle): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Individualism

The contrary to this understanding of individualism is conformism. The original question - in a different and maybe more concise form - could thus be reformulated:

"Do social media make us more conformist? Do social media - especially Facebook - lead to conformism in our lifestyles and attitudes?"

From the perspective of political and philosophical arguments I think the analysis and synthesis of an issue is more justified, specially when connected to a social topic. More preferably I like to study based on philosophical description of a topic and try to avoid political ones in most cases. Since I have a descent from Germans, philosophy and philosophical arguments on every scientific arguments were my favorite ones. I am a fan of existentialism which emphasize on human being and its freedom to reach the highest level of intrinsic and extrinsic sublimity, although individualism which is the basis for western societies' constitution is less appealing and leads to the egoism and narcissistic social behavior definition.

Christoph, I see that now you are discerning the implication of "individualism" that is necessary for precise meaning in an accurate context. Based on this new horizons you will see the effect of social media is huge and nobody can deny it, and it is not only on the community level but also a universal evolution towards new values and structures. Thereby If you now ask me "Do social media make us less individual?", I would say yes.

I agree with the Godin's thesis, who says that the digital revolution, despite what critics say, intensified the organization of the individuals in groups, which shape their own culture and define its "normality". It contributed to the creation of millions, more or less closed, groups whose members respect, admire and support the decisions regarded by outsiders as odd, and by themselves for the proper.

Same conclusions come from Lievrouw's thesis - large Internet networks, based on weak interpersonal relationships and the availability of online interaction modes, conducive to collective action.

Thanks for your contributions and please excuse my late reply.

@Ali: I think you are right that individualism is a ambigous term and can have many negative facets (such as narcissism and egoism). Still, there are positive aspects as well. The discussion on individualism tends to become quite abstract very fast. So, I tried to "break it down" a little bit and provide a more accessible and empirical depiction. I agree with you that the implications of social media are huge (if you translate the time people spend on FB and Twitter into monetary equivalents you see that's an enormous sum), and go beyond the community to co(create) new values and structures. It's still very early to describe these values and structures accurately but we are already seeing some hints.

@Marta: That's a very inspiring and insightful post! I am not familiar with Godin. Do you have a particular text or source where I find this argument laid out? It contradicts Barry Wellman's (and Lee Rainie's) notion of networked individualism, which indicates that people don't organize so much in tightly-knit groups anymore but in sparsely-knit and flexible networks (http://networked.pewinternet.org/2012/05/24/networked-individualism-what-in-the-world-is-that-2/). This development towards networked individualism is fostered strongly by new ICTs, such as social media.

Maybe the divergence between the networked individualism and Godin's group-thesis is also due to different terminologies. So, I'd really like to check out the Godin reference.

I do see the point that "the digital revolution, despite what critics say, intensified the organization of the individuals in groups, which shape their own culture and define its 'normality'." (to a certain extent) This is well visible in online communities, where users can articulate special interests. As a matter of fact, though, only a minority participates actively in such communities. In the end, it's impossible to answer the question (whether social media lead to more and tighter-knit groups or more individualism) without specifying it and breaking it down to researchable units.

Lievrouw's work is very interesting. I read her overview article "The Next Decade in Internet Time" some time ago (attached and also availbable on SSRN: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1959086) and it's quite a good read.

Article The Next Decade in Internet Time: Ways Ahead for New Media Studies