The Reversal of Network Effects on Large-Scale Social Media Platforms
From a more traditional perspective, network effects hugely impact social media platforms and their users. In an article on WIRED, Sangeet Paul Choudary describes the network effects phenomenon through the three Cs: connection, content, and clout. Connection describes how users are able to interact with other users, which becomes more possible (and valuable) as a network expands. Content is able to expand as more users utilize a given network and therefore put more content on it, of benefit to the entire user base. Clout describes the phenomenon of “power users,” where certain users are able to garner more influence than others through various means (followers, interactions, etc.). The combination of the three Cs give users greater value of usage through three main components: more potential connections, more “potentially relevant” content, and more potential followers. Network effects can visibly have significant impacts on social media platforms that expand to certain scales.
When we look at larger scale social media networks, however, it’s entirely possible to see the opposite effects play out. We can look at this, again, from the perspective of the three Cs, as Choudary outlines in WIRED:
- Connection:
- An abundance of new users can result in more low-quality interactions and more “noise/spam”
- “Unsolicited connection requests” can devalue that social media network, particularly in certain social networks (like online dating networks)
- Content:
- It is challenging to manage massive amounts of content
- The more content to sort through, the potentially less personalization is available
- Clout:
- Older users may experience more benefits (in terms of the benefits of being a power user) than newer users
This is particularly interesting because, as described by Choudary, it counteracts the traditional “rich-get-richer” model (that we parallel to social media networks in terms of their scale by popularity) where the opposite ends up happening. As the value decreases and less users want to use it, we know that the value of the social media platform itself will decrease (a phenomenon described in Networks, Crowds, and Markets: Reasoning about a Highly Connected World), because the properties in which network effects occur (resulting in the adoption of technology, where user interactions fuel adoption) are not fulfilled.
There are, however, ways to combat some of the negative impacts of reversed network effects. Choudary describes one of them related to the “level of friction” necessary to uphold non-reversed network effects. In the instance of community growth resulting in online stalking or unsolicited connections, for example, LinkedIn has restricted communications and connections based on the degree of connections users have with one another, exhibiting an increased “friction” level. This, however, can impact users’ ability to see content faster. This can be counteracted by strengthening content curation proportional to platform growth in order to maximize user experience (which will therefore help maximize network growth). The third C, clout, also can have reversed benefits when networks get large enough. This typically manifests itself as biases in favor of older users who have had more chances to take advantage of opportunities that garner greater followings (posting content earlier, developing a following earlier that can snowball as the platform grows, etc). This can discourage new users who may struggle to gather similar followings and therefore might not want to use the network at all, a phenomenon pointed out by Choudary. A combination of factors evidently go into a social media network being able to utilize network effects in a positive manner, and when these factors aren’t properly fulfilled, we observe a reversal of network effects that can actually negatively impact these platforms.
Referenced Article:
Other Sources:
https://www.cs.cornell.edu/home/kleinber/networks-book/networks-book-ch17.pdf
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