The Chameleon Effect: Social Media and its Influence on Our Behavior

Have you ever noticed that your behavior changes slightly when you’re around different groups of people? You might be quiet and introspective around your family, but turn into a gregarious jokester when you’re at the bar with your friends.

Science has a name for this phenomena. They call it the Chameleon Effect. In a subconscious effort to fit in with the group, different aspects of our personality are often drawn out around some people more than others.

Author and motivational speaker, Jim Rohn, put it another way when he said:

You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.

Certainly the people we surround ourselves with matters. They will influence our attitude, thoughts and behaviors.

Community can be a powerful catalyst for change in our lives – both positive and negative.

Your Network is Your Net Worth

We advance through our careers learning new tools and frameworks that help us navigate and tackle new challenges. But how much thought have you given to the sphere of your social influence?

Arguably more important than any degree you earn or skill you acquire, it’s your network – the people you choose to surround yourself with – that will dictate who you become and what opportunities you are given.

So goes the popular maxim, “your network is your net worth.” The people you surround yourself with will have a greater impact on your career trajectory than anything else.

Here’s the good news… You don’t get assigned to a network.

You get to pick.

Assembling Your Team

Think about the people in your network as a team of influencers. They should be people in your life who bring out your best qualities and challenge you to become an even better version of you.

There are a lot of different ways we can be intentional about curating our environment and choosing who we surround ourselves with. We can join different social groups, eat at a new lunch table, or volunteer and get involved in the community.

Some are easier to do than others.

But one of the simplest and perhaps most influential ways we can assemble our team is to first examine who is on our phone.

Building A Better Social Network

The amount of time we spend buried in our phones is staggering. 61% of us check our phone within 5 minutes of waking up. And by the time we go to bed, we’ve spent 3 hours on average looking at our phone.

And where do you think all that time is spent?

Facebook. Instagram. Twitter.

The Chameleon Effect isn’t absent from these online communities. Our network online can have equally positive or negative influences on us.

Who Do You Follow?

What network have you chosen for yourself online? Who have you drafted to be on your team?

Are you being subtly motivated to be a better version of yourself each time you scroll? Or are you content with consuming mindless entertainment?

Small messages reinforce themselves over time. They can be either positive or negative. Encouraging or degrading. Motivating or depressing.

We have the power to choose.

Choosing Leaders

I want to challenge you to view social media as a platform to assemble your dream team of inspiring leaders. People who you aspire to be like someday.

Some of my personal favorites include:

• Tim Ferriss
• Mark Cuban
• Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
• Craig Groeschel

I promise that you’ll be amazed at how much easier it is to get your butt to the gym after watching one of The Rock’s 5AM workout videos on Instagram.

Don’t waste the power of social media on consuming mindless entertainment. Rather, see it as an incredible opportunity to hand-pick a team of inspirational leaders.