Electronic communication and

social networks

Changes in elite college tuition policy

Harvard, Yale Stanford, Brown, Dartmouth

Example: At Stanford: No tuition for students whose families

make <$100,000 No room and board for students whose

families make <$60,000

Experimental Study of Unpredictability in an

Artificial Cultural Market Salganik, Dodds, and Watts 2006

(Science)

Research question: How does social influence work?

14341 participants, recruited from a teen-website

Shown a list of songs by unknown bands Given a chance to listen, rate, download

Two conditions

Independent Condition Subjects given a list of songs in random

order Influence Condition

Subjects randomly assigned to one of 8 ‘worlds’

Subjects shown the ratings and # of downloads for each song by other members of their ‘world’

Experiment 1

Compared independent condition to influence condition

Influence treatment: songs presented in a grid, with download data (weak signal)

I Got You, The Rockers (50)

Bowl On, B’More (33)

The Pretty OneNew Girl Band (80)

On and On, Merchants of Venice(151)

Download Data updated constantly

Experiment 2

Compared independent condition to influence condition

Influence treatment: songs presented in order of download within ‘world’ (stronger signal)

1. On and On, Merchants of Venice (151)2. The Pretty One New Girl Band (80)3. I Got You, The Rockers (50)4. Bowl On, B’More (33)

Inequality in song popularity

Difference in popularity between most popular and least popular songs

Unpredictability of success

Summary of findings

Substantial impact of social influence on people’s rankings of songs

When influence is in play, hard to predict what songs will become popular

Implications for other behaviors? Voting?

FaceBook “Friends” and social connectiosn

Ellison, Steinfeld, and Lampe 2007 Surveyed 268 Students at Michigan

State university Measured

Intensity of Facebook usage Bridging, bonding, and maintained ties

Who are students targeting?

Who is looking?

Online to off, or offline to on?

Summary of Findings:

Intensive FaceBook Useage associated with: Maintenance of High School

Friendships Extensive bridges to college community

Much more evidence of offline->online friendships than the reverse

Our survey of ECT usage

N = 109 students No demographic data collected

We are very wired

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Computer Laptop Internet Cell-phone Landline Ipod non-UWemail

Per

cent

of

Res

pond

ents

You like cell phones/texting

Less IM Usage

Email usage

Less TV watching

Lots of web usage

Social Network Sites

MySpace v. Facebook

To stay in touch…

Not so much gaming

Or blogging

News consumption

Access to Music

Lots of school-related browsing

And video!

Less popular activities

Mostly offline to online

3 Questions:

Does the internet weaken community? Because people replace in-person relationship

with time spent online and out of the public realm?

Does the internet transform community? Is a new online ‘virtual community’ emerging

that allows people to participate in trans-local communities, freed of the bonds of geography?

Does the internet enhance community? By adding new forms of communication with

which to sustain relationships?