Social Networks and Collaboration
Homework
- Base Statistics
- Social Collaboration
- Video: Institutions vs Collaboration (an oldie but a goodie)
- Article: Research Finds Tipping Point for Large-scale Social Change
- Network Effects
- Watch: The Zipf Mystery
- The Dark Side of Social
Morning reflection
Housekeeping
- 262 Assignment 5 marks returned
- DSGN 270 Assignment 3
- Due Friday @ 11:59pm
- 25% of Final Mark
1. Small World Theory of Networks
Learning Objectives
- Define homophily and its two types: induced and choice.
- Understand the concept of network effects.
- Define Dunbar’s number and relate it to the concept of social cognitive load.
Materials
Key Takeaways
- As a network grows, the connections between the nodes of that network grow exponentially.
- People only have the capacity for about 200 social relationships.
- The more social connections you create, the less you will know those people, on average.
2. Principls of Social Collaboration
Learning Objectives
- Define Social Capital and its two main types: bonding and bridging capital.
- Summarize the two main classifications of media sharing: broadcast and communication media.
- Define a community of practice.
- Define the three levels/phases of collective action.
Materials
Key Takeaways
- A small minority of users are responsible for the majority of the content.
- Social collaboration in software is very effective. See: Steve Bomber on Open Source
- Social tools are value agnostic. See Pro-Ana.
- The larger a social media following is, the less a creator can interactively communicate with that following and the more they will instead broadcast to the following.
3. The Dark Side of Social
Learning Objectives
- Understand and discuss the downsides of social media.
Materials
- 5 Crazy Ways Social Media Is Changing Your Brain Right Now
- You Will Wish You Watched This Before You Started Using Social Media
Key Takeaways
- 5-10% of individuals cannot control the amount of time they spend on social media.
- Social media creates many of the same effects on the brain as drugs. A reduction in the brain’s white matter reduces attention span, emotional processing and decision making.
- Heavy media users perform much worse at task-switching activities due to reduction in the ability to focus attention and commit information to memory.
- In face-to-face communication, 30-40% is sharing our own experiences but online, nearly 80% of the content is self-involved.
- Social media tools are designed to be addictive because the companies that build them are incentivized to optimize user screen time.
Breakout Activity
In groups of 4-5, analyze the effect of social tools on niche culture:
Cameras mandatory, comb your hair
- Share a niche community of your choice that you are a member of. We’ll define “niche” as one not shared by another member of your breakout group (two tops). Alternatively, you can choose a broad group that most of you are members of but focus on a niche sub-group within that broader catagory.
- Is this group created through Induced or Choice Homophily?
- Did this niche exist before 2005?
- What instituions related to that niche were disrupted by social tools? Did they adapt? If so, how? Was it effective?
- What are the top content creators in this niche that you follow? What platforms do they use? Do they have your trust?
- Are there opposing views in this niche? How are they handled by the community?
Link to your top niche content creators (with the niche) in the winter-2021 Slack Channel. Add a reaction to your faves.
After the session, Tony will pick volunteers for a Fishbowl discussion on the best and weirdest.
Cameras mandatory for active speakers
Open lab-time
- WP Groups: finish up CPNT 200 Final Project.
Dailies
- No Daily today