Social media functions as primate-style social grooming, both bonding and competitive
Evidence
The sociologist Zeynep Tufekci argued that Facebook and other social media had formed a substitute for “gossip, people-curiosity and small talk,” which, she wrote, were “the human version of social grooming in primates: an activity that is essential to forging bonds, affirming relationships, displaying bonds, and asserting and learning about hierarchies and alliances.” Significantly, she wrote, “Social grooming should be seen as both a bonding activity and a competitive activity: it is a means to improve one’s reputation and status as well as access to resources and social and practical solidarity.” — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1005
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to the broader attention-harvesting thesis in Wu’s earlier chapters; the grooming framing parallels the trust/reputation economics literature in the reader’s notes on Milgrom and Bernhardt. — connects to: Social media is the first global experiment testing a human hive — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 72; Platforms exploit users’ natural empathy as a channel for behavioral tuning — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 946; Facebook exposure drives social comparison and envy on an unprecedented scale — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1476 (+2 more)
- DEFINE: Defines ‘social grooming’ as a dual bonding-and-competitive activity, transplanting a primatology concept onto platform sociology.
- SHARE: The specific line about social grooming being both bonding and competitive is a nice framing for a sociologist colleague studying social media.
Broader Connections
- Platforms exploit users’ natural empathy as a channel for behavioral tuning
#expands(0.82) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 946 - Social media’s engineered feedback loops convert normal social comparison into compulsive anxiety
#expands(0.78) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1485 - Facebook exposure drives social comparison and envy on an unprecedented scale
#exemplifies(0.75) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1476 - Social networks disguised attention capture beneath promises of connection.
#qualifies(0.72) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 973