Faster is different by Zeynem Tufekci

Zeynep Tufekci, Ph.D. @techsoc www.technosociology.org NAFAC April 12th , 20 11

Faster is Different Social Media, Social Change and Causal Mechanisms

What Does Social Media Change?
Network effects
Shape/structure of the network
Speed of transmission
Field effects
Reshaping/recreating a public sphere
Revealing hidden preferences

Does social media give us the same results, just faster?
Or, does it qualitatively change the dynamics?

Social media alters the shape of the network
Existing:
One-to-Many (Broadcast)
Powerful to the powerless
One-to-one/few (Face-to-face, telephone, etc.)
Peer-to-peer
Addition:
Many-to-many
Peer-to-peer

One-to-Many Network (Broadcast)

First Target in a Coup!

One-to-One

Many-to-Many Networks

Lessons from Epidemiology
Speed of Transmission
Speed of Recovery
Shape of Network
Hubs and connectivity increases contagion
These factors determine
whether a quarantine will work

Altered Dynamics
State is a resource-constrained actor
Autocracies often have evolved to play “whack-a-protest”
Social media, by allowing mass coordination and rapid information diffusion, complicates “whack-a-protest”

Example: Tunisia
Gafsa: 2008.
Mining town, protests over corrupt hiring
Isolated, crushed (quarantined)
28,000 Facebook users in Tunisia
Sidi Bouzid: 2010
Mohamed Bouazizi ’s self-immolation
Protests spread (viral)
Almost 2,000,000 Facebook users in Tunisia

Thank you!
Zeynep Tufekci
[email_address]
@techsoc
www.technosociology.org

Faster is different by Zeynem Tufekci

by Daniel Verhoeven on Dec 01, 2011

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Faster is different by Zeynem Tufekci — Presentation Transcript