In the world of Facebook, users of this social networking resource are either trendsetters or followers. Recently, Sinan Aral and Dylan Walker (economists at New York University's Stern School of Business) used Facebook to study peer influence. The group examined the trends exhibited by more than 40 000 notifications sent by more than 8000 users to 1.3 million friends over a 44-day period.
The economists wanted to determine if the "influential hypothesis," as presented by Malcolm Gladwell in the influential book, The Tipping Point, held true for social media. Gladwell, among others, determined that a small number of people in a given society determine whether ideas, opinions, or behaviors spread. For the Facebook study, users were sent an application (app) that allowed them to rate and recommend movies (similar to Flixster).
As users interacted with the app, the app sent notifications to a random selection of Facebook friends of the users rating the app and providing a link to the app. Influence was determined by tracking the number of friends who adopted the app after receiving notification from any one individual.
Results did not support the influential hypothesis. Personal traits determined if a person was influential or susceptible. People older than 30 years had more influence than those younger than 30 years. People of a specific age group had greater influence on each other than on persons outside their age group. Women influenced men more than men influenced each other. Ultimately, results showed that, at least on Facebook, people are consistently either trendsetters or followers.
As nursing faculty, we certainly know our students use Facebook. Can we disseminate information, announcements, or strategies to those who are "influencers" and communicate more effectively with our students? This is certainly something to think about, but the writer is not certain of her influence.
Source: Bohannon J. Who controls social networks? Science Now. Up to the Minute News From Science. June 21, 2012. Available at http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/06/who-controls-social-networks.html?. Accessed June 26, 2012.
Submitted by: Robin E. Pattillo, PhD, RN, CNL, News Editor at [email protected].