How Information Cascades Cause Posts to Go Viral on the Internet
https://www.businessinsider.com/heres-why-some-things-go-viral-on-the-internet-2018-2
In the modern state of social interactions, social media is the main outlet of demonstrating social capital and becoming a social influencer. Social influence is determined by the ability to post viral posts on whatever the social media page may be. A viral post is one which many people have given it likes/retweets/views enabling it to be placed on a popular page or even more likely spread through people’s social networks.
This article that I have referenced is a Business Insider explanation of how a post goes viral. The article states that when you see a post accumulate many likes and specific likes from people that you know, you are more motivated to like it. For example, if I see a post that has 100 likes from a couple people I know and some random people I will not be as motivated to like it compared to the post with 1,000 likes that has many likes from people I know. Even more so, if I see that a post is on a ‘popular page’ or came from someone who is a known influencer I am again motivated to like it because I see that a bunch of other people have.
This idea of a post going viral based on an accumulation of likes is representative of an information cascade. An information cascade is a theory described as a number of people making similar decisions in a ‘cascading’ fashion (from one to the next). This is very clearly observed and applied to the ability of a post to go viral. When I see someone that I trust liking something I am very likely to follow suit. Additionally, that person that I trust has demonstrated a knowledge of a post being cool so I should trust them that the post is cool. This theory of virality can, interestingly enough, be applied to hubs and authorities. When a person has been able to accrue many likes they create a viral post, people then continue to go back to this person as they become an influencer and the cycle continues as they create more virality and more popularity as a result.