1. Electronic communication and social networks

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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’

5. 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 One New Girl Band (80) On and On, Merchants of Venice (151) Download Data updated constantly

6. Experiment 2 Compared independent condition to influence condition Influence treatment: songs presented in order of download within ‘world’ (stronger signal) 1. 1. On and On, Merchants of Venice (151) 2. 2. The Pretty One New Girl Band (80) 3. 3. I Got You, The Rockers (50) 4. 4. Bowl On, B’More (33)

7. Inequality in song popularity Difference in popularity between most popular and least popular songs

8. Unpredictability of success

9. 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?

10. 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

11. Who are students targeting?

12. Who is looking?

13. Online to off, or offline to on?

14. 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

15. Our survey of ECT usage N = 109 students No demographic data collected

16. We are very wired

17. You like cell phones/texting

18. Less IM Usage

19. Email usage

20. Less TV watching

21. Lots of web usage

22. Social Network Sites

23. MySpace v. Facebook

24. To stay in touch…

25. Not so much gaming

26. Or blogging

27. News consumption

28. Access to Music

29. Lots of school-related browsing

30. And video!

31. Less popular activities

33. Mostly offline to online

34. 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?