Social Media Content Epidemic
Social networks are generally structured in a way that allows users to build their own networks, whether of friends, acquaintances, followers, or a similar concept. A Lithuanian startup called Plag aims to redefine the way we spread and receive content online. When a user chooses to share a post on this app, which they call a “card,” the card will be spread to the four people who are closest to that user geographically. Those users can then choose whether or not to spread the card to four more people. The intent is to model the spread of content after the spread of a virus, where unsuccessful content will die at a certain level and popular content will reach users in epidemic proportions.
I found this interesting relative to our class discussion on the spread of contagious diseases through networks. In class, we said that the spread of disease is different from the spread of a new technology or behavior mostly because adoption is not the person’s decision. However, we also made assumptions by modelling the spread of disease as random even though it is really by complex mechanisms. In the comparison of the spread of content on Plag to the spread of a virus, the value of the content can be compared to the robustness and versatility of a virus. Although it is ultimately the user’s decision to share content or not, the appeal of content to a user is related to personal preferences developed innately or based on environmental factors, and is not up to their control. If a user did not find value in a piece of content, they would have no incentive to share it, as the friendship / follower aspect of the network along with the associated pressures to create a personal image are eliminated. Therefore the modelling of content spread as “random” and disease-like seems to be justified this context. If the expected number of new shares caused by any one share is greater than one, then the content will continue to spread.
I was intrigued by this concept when I came across this article and I would be interested to learn more about the vision of its creators. For example, I wonder how they chose to spread content to the nearest four users. Did they believe that three users would cause good content to die too quickly and five users would allow bad content to flourish for too long, and if so how did they arrive at this conclusion? I will be interested to watch whether this app continues to gain users.
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