Zeynep Tufekci, Ph.D.
@techsoc
www.technosociology.org
NAFAC
April 12th, 2011
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)
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 protected]
@techsoc
www.technosociology.org