Wiki Page, Social Media: W2.3 Why do Social Networks fail?

Wiki Page
2013-05-15T09:38:39-06:00

Why do Social Networks Fail?

"So if a big fraction of people on a network have only two friends, it is highly vulnerable to collapse. That’s because when a single person exits, it leaves somebody with only one friend. This person is then likely exit leaving another with only one friend and so on. The result is a cascade of exists that sweeps through the network." - from "An Autopsy of a Dead Social Network" 2-27-13

NOTE: It's really simple to do data comparisons in Wolfram Alpha. Just use a comma between the items you want to compare. Try a search like "facebook, orkut" or "facebook, myspace" to generate tables like the one above. If you do a search on "facebook, myspace, orkut" you will get all three in a table.

There is some overlap in the two articles below. Note how the two articles are presented in a very different format. An important shift in social media happened in 2012. See if you can guess why the format of the 2012 article is significant.

Nine Examples of Social Media Sites that Failed Spectacularly, Zesty, Aug 2, 2011.

Top Ten Failed Social Media Networks, itbusiness.ca, Feb 26, 2012.

The Not-So-Hidden Politics of Class Online

Full text for "Not-So-Hidden Politics of Class Online"

How MySpace is AntiSocial, MIT Technology Review, by Wade Roush, MIT Technology Review, August 18, 2006

An Autopsy of a Dead Social Network, MIT Technology Review, Feb 27, 2013