Youtube and Information Cascade
Recall this: you’ve just arrived home after a long day of studying in Duffield Hall. You throw your bag on the floor and plop onto your bed. The Networks assignment due tomorrow at 11 AM lingers in your mind, yet, instead of opening gradescope, your fingers somehow has opened Youtube to watch your favorite creators. An endless cycle of advertisement, advertisement, video- yet, you don’t click off. You see your favorite content creator advertise a new beauty product or a longboard you’ve been meaning to buy.
Click, cart, buy, confirm.
With the target audience of Youtube being 35 and younger, advertisers are learning how to control the market and are changing their tactics from television to modern technology, like Youtube. Through word of mouth communication, the information from content creators create a “convergent behavior, where sequential patrons defer to the choices made by preceding others.” By allowing users to feel a connection with the content creator, they are more likely to feel inclined and open to the advertisement. Humans tend to use and be influenced the decisions of others referred to as “herding behavior,” resulting in information cascade.
https://www.business.uzh.ch/dam/jcr:00000000-3b90-3c8e-ffff-ffffb495a753/fu.pdf