Information Cascade and Low-Fat diets
Over the last few weeks, we have discussed topics from aggregate behavior to the branching process. One topic that seems pretty important, especially in the modern age since information is able to travel so quickly, is information cascades. Essentially, an information cascade occurs when a person observes or listens to another person or their actions […]
The Sneaker Industry and the Desirability of the TPP
Following the election, the new president elect has promised a lot of changes ranging from taxes to foreign policy, that drastically differ from prior policies. One of his more senior positions is removing the US from trade deals in hopes of bringing back manufacturing jobs. One interesting development is the reactions by the sneaker industry […]
0 to $1 Billion in Two Years
From 0 To $1 Billion In Two Years: Instagram’s Rose-Tinted Ride To Glory It is a known fact that Instagram is one of the most successful stories of Silicon Valley in an age where startups come and go in the blink of an eye. Back before Instagram was founded, another app called Foursquare had launched and […]
The strength of connectivity
Throughout this class, we have repeatedly talked about the strength of weak ties, specifically relating to the sharing of information across social media. However, it turns out there are two hypothesis’ that speculate about the spread of information about networks. One of which is one we are already fairly acquainted with: the strength of weak […]
Fake News, Lemons, and Tipping Points
Amid a veritable cascade (har har) of blog posts on Facebook’s fake news problem, I was tickled by Forbes’ take on the matter. To recap: ever since Facebook switched to an automated news-selecting algorithm, fake news stories have been doing a good job of crowding out real ones. One million people shared the (fake) story about […]
How technology disrupted the truth
There are many cases of current event stories not having a proper source. A key example of this was a scandal involving then UK Prime Minister David Cameron and a pig’s head. This entire scandal unsurprisingly turned out to be entirely false. It did however spread across many forms of social media extremely quickly before […]
Information Cascade Caused by Social Media: Good or Bad?
As quick, trendy, and eye-catching media outlets such as Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook are now the norm among millennials, these platforms are starting to shift how people gather, view, and rely on information. This entails a dramatic change in advertising, terror response, and many more. Through how branded contents are produced and how social […]
Epidemic: ZIKA
I’m sure most of you reading this are familiar with the Zika virus that dominated a significant portion of the news this past summer. Originally, officials believed Florida was the only state in the United States where Zika was spread from person to person by mosquitoes. As of November 28, 2016, however, there is a […]
The electric car’s struggle to get to tipping point in auto market
http://www.businessinsider.com/automakers-charging-problem-electric-cars-2016-11 While electric cars may one day rivalise with their gas-powered counterparts, they presently suffer from a lack of charging stations. Indeed, to reach the tipping point (about 10-20% of the total car market), manufacturers like Tesla have to patch up their sparse charging network. In Europe, Ford, Volkswagen, Mercedes, and BMW have partnered up to build […]
Cascades and False News
In class we spoke a lot about cascades and how people are easily influenced by the decisions of others. Most of the cascades we spoke about seem to have positive influence, but there has been a recent trend of false news on social media. News spreads quickly, but why even when ideas are “biased unfavorably”, […]
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