Diffusion of Snapchat
Snapchat rose to popularity when I was in high school. I remember hearing about it and installing it because of my middle school friend, who lived in a different state (my family moved just as I started high school). But now that I think about it, after learning about diffusion in class, that friend was […]
The Emma Chamberlain Effect and Information Cascades
Emma Chamberlain is an American Youtuber, influencer, and fashion model that has skyrocketed in fame since her debut on Youtube in 2017. Emma started on youtube making videos about beauty and fashion, following the Youtube trends at the time. But what truly attributed to her rise in fame was her editing style, personality, and unique […]
Numerous pathologies: the fascinating dysfunction of the US electoral system.
Last spring, before the coronavirus and the general presidential election began to consume our lives, the Democratic party held a series of primaries to determine who would be their nominee for the general election. There was no real Republican primary this year, so I will focus on the Democratic primary. These primaries – and also […]
Why Are You Addicted to Social Media?
According to a BBC article written in 2018, three billion people, which is approximately 40% of the world, use social media. Even crazier, people spread an average of 2 hours a day on social media. Take into account that this article was written in 2018, so the number of people using social media and the […]
A Speculatory analysis of MLM diffusion in the context of COVID-19 Externalities
Multilevel Marketing Companies (MLM) are direct sales companies heavily structured around growing their network of distributors. Its premise is eerily similar to pyramid schemes: Distributers/recruiters are heavily encouraged to recruit new members via rewards based on commissions off of what their recruits buy and sell, in addition to retailing products to customers outside the […]
Why Keep QWERTY?
To some degree, we are all very comfortable using our the keyboards that come built into our devices. In fact, a great number of us have no trouble typing on them without looking. It is hard to imagine a world in which the one we see when we look just below our screens is not […]
Understanding the Polio Epidemic through the SIR Model
This is not the first time in recent history that Americans have dealt with a terrifying epidemic. Prior to the creation of a vaccine, Poliomyelitis or Polio was a very real threat to American Families given its infectious nature, especially among children. Referred to as a seasonal disease, polio outbreaks typically occurred during summer months […]
An Open Opportunity For a Diffusion of a New Behavior of Wearing Masks That Can Lead to Cultural Change.
Around late February and early March, many countries worldwide had their eyes on two countries: Italy and South Korea. The reason being that Italy and South Korea had roughly the same number of cases around the same time yet had contrasting approaches on handling and stopping the spread on some of their earliest Covid-19 cases. […]
Social Contagion of Corporate Co-opting of Pride Month for Profit
Since same-sex marriage became legally across the United States in 2015, the month of June has become noticeably more rainbow than before. Pride month, first originating as a time of protest against the violence perpetuated by the ruling class on to the queer community, has now become a corporate holiday. Many stores will put up […]
How COVID was modeled in Italy
In our discussions of the role of networks in the past semester, we’ve been exploring how the structure and makeup of networks can influence the way that information spreads through them. These networks can also be used to model the spread of infectious diseases, whose behavior is not unlike semantic information, and our ability to […]
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