Cascades in Social Media (Fashion)
Social media itself is a great platform for information cascades to take place within the 21st century. In a world of ever changing fashion and trends, it is hard to not find yourself “following the crowd” in some aspect. With social media and the large range of personalities and unique designs, there is more often than not something catered to everyone. Fashion companies capitalize on the fast and large spread of information to push their brand and designs.
The Fashion Cascade starts with an idea that is supported and/or worn by someone. Later effecting another persons decision on the same idea and the person after them. So on and so forth. In the world of Fashion, the speed or importance of the cascade is highly depended on the person who starts it. Those who are higher up in the social hierarchy of the world, gain access to newer and more expensive items. Their support for that specific item/brand is seen on a larger scale than usual. Their ability to influence the next person is solely based what the trend is. Some may argue that it is dependent on the amount of followers that one has, but there are many instances in which the followers do not support the ideas of the influencer. This is what causes a negative or positive response. If it is seem as a bad trend by many, then the cascade usually slows down and maybe even stops, causing the trend to die before it even starts. But if the trend is admired by the majority, they soon begin to wear similar thinks, expanding the cascade and influencing the people in their own networks. An article written by the New York Times highlights the speed at which fashion trends spread from country to country. I mainly dresses how cultural attire and patterns can be seem almost every nowadays.
Expanding on that, we later see the effects of the fashion trends on politics and the environment. As stated before, when a trend is seen by a company, it only makes sense for them to begin marketing items that are seen a desirable. For instance, in 2020, the band Shein was very popular because they catered toward the trends of the moment and made then cheep and accessible. The Buyer cascade was not very representative of the information cascades seen in class. One would normally see a bad review on an item or company and begin to question and research the opinion of others. They would base their purchase on that and most likely turn to a different brand with better reviews. That was not the case with Shein. It is safe to say that Shein has some of the worst quality and effect on the environment. But, due to it’s cheap prices and consistency, people would overlook everything else and continuously buy from them.
These two information cascades are a good example of how cascades can feed into on another with Social media at its center.
Articles:
https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/machine-vision-reveals-how-fashions-spread-around-the-world-and-the-cities
https://www.nytimes.com/1990/05/13/weekinreview/ideas-trends-how-fashion-spreads-around-the-world-at-the-speed-of-light.html