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Makeup: A Prisoner’s Façade?

“You don’t need all that makeup! You’re covering up a beautiful, natural face!” Sounds like a compliment, right? But, if you happen to heed this advice and go out in public with your face au naturel, chances are you’re bound to hear, “Are you okay today? You look a little sick.” This dilemma has been […]

The Networks of Networking

https://slate.com/technology/2018/07/on-demand-education-needs-to-focus-on-lower-skilled-workers-too.html The world has turned into a place where people go to college merely to get a job. As we navigate through our undergraduate years, we are constantly bombarded with the likes of career fairs, networking events, resume checks and more daily. Majors are becoming more catered towards highly specific jobs, and students are constantly […]

Gender and Structural Balance

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0272431603262666 This article tracks friendships of 7th grade students over a year, collecting data on reciprocation of the friendship, the methods friends use to cope with problems, and how many remain friends at the end of the year. Although this article discusses pairs of friends instead of triads, groups, and entire networks, the results can […]

Fake News and Game Theory

The topic of “Fake News” has been relevant as well as prominent in recent news ever since the 2016 election. In this article, Jeff Ely, a professor of Economics at Northwestern University uses the Fake News phenomena as an example of Game Theory. Specifically, he analyzes Facebook’s role in displaying pieces of news on someone’s […]

Strong tie, weak tie, and the strength of K-Pop fandom

https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilyblake1/2018/04/04/k-pop-numbers/#6deb225e48ab In this article, Emily Blake, a music data journalist and charts manager at Pandora, analyzes why K-Pop boy bands are becoming the top social artists. Blake takes K-Pop boy band BTS who won the Top Social Artist Award at the 2017 Billboard Music Awards as an example, and claims that K-Pop boy bands are […]

Network Effects in the Tech Industry

https://www.nfx.com/post/70-percent-value-network-effects?__hstc=37863228.50dfd135168b5a65ba204b9a084830d5.1535396524503.1535396524503.1535396524503.1&__hssc=37863228.1.1535396524503&__hsfp=1438573455 Technology giants are hitting all-time high valuations. With today’s ever-changing environment, success in the tech industry has been increasingly driven by network effects. According to a study, over the past 23 years, network effects have accounted for approximately 70% of the value creation in tech. As stated in the article, companies that leverage network […]

How Real Are Facebook Friendships?

In an article for The Atlantic (https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/02/how-real-are-facebook-friendships/384780/), Jacoba Urist writes about the importance of weak ties in one’s Facebook network. She discusses the structure of Facebook friendships and talks about how most of our Facebook friends are what Granovetter would describe as weak ties. To do this, she narrates a personal project by photographer Tanja […]

How Structural Balance and Triadic Closure Might Cause International Chaos

The U.S.-Turkey Relationship Is Worse Off Than You Think In recent news, US and Turkey relations have been strained, mainly due to the fact that the US supported the PKK – Kurdistan’s Worker Party which has a reputation for being Turkey’s enemy – in Syria and that NATO defense companies such as Raytheon have been […]

Power and the Triadic Closure Principle

https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Culture/power-star-naturi-naughton-relationships-torn-season/story?id=54956713   The hit Starz series, Power, is a story about a man who lets his past get in the way of a promising future with his loved ones. The protagonist, “Ghost,” lives a double life as the leader of the drug Empire in NYC and the owner of a not-so innocent club called Truth. […]

Degrees of Separation from 9/11

http://www.slate.com/articles/briefing/articles/2001/10/lifes_odds_and_sept_11.html Disclaimer: This post may be upsetting to some, as it refers to the events of 9/11, though it intends neither harm nor disrespect. If anything, I believe it helps explain why 9/11 had the societal impact it did by looking at how easily it affected all of us.   Given the timing of this […]

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