Facebook Dating Launches in the U.S.
https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-dating-united-states-launch-2019-9 https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-dating-announces-secret-crush-2019-4 On September 5th, 2019, Facebook launched its own dating service in the U.S., its second largest user base. It is designed to rival dating apps such as Tinder, Bumble, and Hinge, where users swipe left or right to dislike or like and can start messaging if they match. The difference with Facebook, […]
Social Networks in Ancient Rome: Cicero’s Political Web
Article Link When one hears of networks, especially social networks, one usually thinks of it as a recently developed study, especially considering the rapid development of mass media in the past two centuries and that of social media in the past decade. However, the article above talks about a sophisticated information exchange-network developed by […]
Game Theory in Brexit
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/brexit-dominic-cummings-game-theory-boris-johnson-parliament-supreme-court-a9106926.html#comments Game Theory has an important role in the way humans interact and make decisions. Even on a daily basis, decisions are constantly made on the basis of evaluating outcomes and then choosing the best option depending on the possible outcomes. In politics, game theory can also be seen as a rationale of some […]
The Prisoner’s Dilemma of Online Content
https://medium.com/@MikeSturm/the-prisoners-dilemma-of-online-content-688cf65a2264 In the Medium article, “The Prisoner’s Dilemma of Online Content” Mike Sturm explains how the Prisoner’s Dilemma relates to online emails. His realization of this connection came when he signed up for the email list of a famous writer that he liked. Shortly after subscribing, Sturm was spammed with emails. As a result, he […]
YouTube’s Mysterious Algorithm
https://sites.temple.edu/tudsc/2019/03/26/network-analysis-on-youtube/ Ever wondered why you are watching some guy playing with slime the night before your prelim? This article explores how recommended videos are interconnected. So, if you watch a certain video, you can be lead to a certain group of recommended videos no matter what. For example, one video can be recommended from watching […]
Information Networks in Voting and Public Opinion
This article and paper discuss an effect known as “Information Gerrymandering” in the context of elections. This term refers to the phenomenon in which voters with variable access to information can be induced to change their vote if they perceive most others to be voting differently from them. Researchers studied this effect in the context […]
Game Theory in Blackjack
Source Blackjack is a commonly played game in the casino and gambling communities, well known for its easy to learn rules and low house edge, making it ideal to play for a long time while minimizing potential losses. However, playing the game at a high level and learning what has been dubbed the “basic strategy” […]
The Role of Competition and Cooperation in Evolutionary Game Theory
https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/game-theory-evolutionary-stable-strategies-and-the-25953132/ When analyzing the role Game Theory plays in nature, one might be led to believe that the dominant theory is always to follow the “survival of the fittest” individualistic strategy of putting one’s own needs above others. But in this article, we see through the lens of game theory that those who employ a […]
County Ties and Consequences
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/09/19/upshot/facebook-county-friendships.html This article describes social networks in state counties based on their facebook county friendships. The basis of the article’s research is analyzing how closely tied people are in their county in America through their Facebook friendships. By analyzing each county in this manner, scientists have noticed certain trends in the data that characterize […]