How Facebook Exploits Human Psychology
Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/11/09/facebooks-first-president-on-facebook-god-only-knows-what-its-doing-to-our-childrens-brains/?utm_term=.6311a2cff6b7 Recently, former Facebook president Sean Parker made new by claiming that Facebook is negatively changing the way people interact with each other. Due to its vast network of users, Parker states that Facebook “’literally changes your relationship with society, with each other.’” Like many other large social media platforms, Facebook creates an environment […]
Increasing Popularity of Cryptocurrencies
http://mashable.com/2017/05/22/bitcoin-price-surge/#ccukywg2lmqh Cryptocurrency has been becoming very popular recently with soaring prices for Bitcoin and Ethereum. In this Mashable article published in May 2017, the price of Bitcoin was approximately $2,200 USD. Bitcoin currently is valued at approximately $8,000 USD. This immense growth is because of network effects. As discussed in class, information cascades are when […]
Faith in the ‘coin
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-29/bitcoin-leaves-skeptics-behind-while-blasting-to-record-10-000 Over the past few weeks Bitcoin has hit an all-time, record high valuation of $10,000 taking this year’s surge to almost 12-fold. Known as a “cryptocurrency,” Bitcoin is an alternative monetary system popular amongst libertarians and computer developers – an effort to move away from our primary bank-controlled monetary system in modern society. Bitcoin […]
Information Cascades and Refugee Crises
In recent times, it is not uncommon to hear about yet another refugee crisis. Wars such as ones affecting Bosnia, Rwanda, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, and South Sudan cause civilians to make life-or-death situations of staying in their home country or leaving everything behind and fleeing to other neighboring countries. Benjamin Laughlin investigates a theory using […]
Trophic Cascades as a Network Cascade
According to an article about keystone species and trophic cascades, a species is considered “strongly interactive” when its absence leads large changes in the ecosystem. This type of connection can be compared to a strong tie in a network or ecosystem. The presence or absence of a “strongly interactive” species would mimic the effects that […]
Predicting Popularity of Facebook Posts
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/525821/the-curious-nature-of-sharing-cascades-on-facebook/ Social networks have always been especially insightful for gaining data about networks because you can observe and analyze networks principles in action, such as information cascades. This article from Technology Review, which includes research from Cornell University, discusses information cascades in the context of post sharing on Facebook. More specifically, the article asserts that […]
Information Cascades and “Fake News”
The concept of “fake news” and it’s potential influence on the 2016 US Presidential Election is highly debated. “Fake news” is false or biased information that is presented as legitimate by the media. Throughout the election, media outlets were filled with “fake news” with the intention of gathering support for their side and launching polemics […]
Information Cascades and Virality on Facebook
Since the dawn of the Internet and especially popular forms of social media such as Facebook and Twitter, the term “viral” has entered colloquial language in a new context. When a video goes “viral,” we know that it means that something went from having a couple hundred views to having several million. What determines whether […]
Amazon’s Network Effect
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazons-network-effect-strengthens-shares-013500336.html Amazon had a huge increase in 3rd quarter earnings. After buying Whole Foods in June of 2017 for 13.4 billion dollars, Amazon was projected to do well, and it did. Their revenue increase came mainly from 3 different sources: the shift from Prime acquisition to engagement via new products and services in the US; […]
Snapchat’s Journey to its Tipping Point
With teenagers being one of the most profitable, and therefore sought-after, demographics for social media platforms, it’s no wonder that so many companies compete to stay in their good graces. Evan Spiegel’s app, Snapchat, has been able to do so unlike any other social media site today. With more American teenage users than both Facebook […]
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