Social Networks Give Meaning in Life
There are four main motivators that drive all our actions: money, power, glory and love, see e.g. this previous post, and this post.
These motivations are all driven by social interaction in networks. So it does not come as a surprise that Social Network Analysis (SNA) has huge potential to measure and improve an individual’s and an organization’s money, power, glory, and love.
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Money – Through SNA, advertisers will find the prospective customers who are most willing to spend money to buy their product. Mining their social network data this way is how Facebook and Google make their billions.
Money – Using social media information and other traces of human interaction allows algorithmic traders to make a lot of money by predicting the stock market. Most Wallstreet quants today are using some sort of social media tracking to improve their automated trading algorithms.
Power –Twitter, Facebook and the other social media sites provide a perfect testing ground for politicians and election strategists to test campaigns to gain power by winning the next election. Cambridge Analytica popularized this type of SNA for the benefit of the Trump election campaign.
Glory – Social media is teeming with “influencers” who are doing all they can to increase their glory by increasing the number of their followers. Analyzing what people say on Twitter and other social media sites also allows statisticians to predict who will win the next Oscar, or any sort of online election or voting.
Love – Optimizing their organizational network enables companies and other organizations to improve their culture, collaboration, and creativity with the goal of creating an environment where people do not come to work because they are paid, but because they love working there. Optimizing their individual network behavior permits individuals to engage in more equal, respectful and rewarding relationships.
In this time of social distancing enforced by Covid-19, this means making the best use of social networking technology and online communication to increase personal happiness. To share my own example the picture below shows my happiness measured with our Happimeter since the enforced stay-home order in mid-March. My happiness has plateaued on the highest level since I had to stay teleworking at home, as I had much more time to pursue my research interests and hobbies, while still being able to communicate with my colleagues, friends, and customers using zoom and other videoconferencing tools.
My personal challenge will be to maintain this high level of happiness once we will be able to travel and fly again. I suspect, however, that there will be no way around experiencing some travel pain along the way – no pain no gain!
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These motivations are all driven by social interaction in networks. So it does not come as a surprise that Social Network Analysis (SNA) has huge potential to measure and improve an individual’s and an organization’s money, power, glory, and love.
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Motivation
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SNA application
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Our own research
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Covid19 use case
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Money
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Stock trend prediction
Marketing, finding customers
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· Selling toilet paper, hand sanitizer, face masks online
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Power
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Election prediction
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· Epidemiological modeling to successfully manage the outbreak
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Glory
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Oscar prediction
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· Predictions about how Covid19 will influence the way we live, even after it will disappear
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Love
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Improving organizational culture and creativity
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Developing Covid19 tests, drugs, and vaccine
· Develop a way to increase teleworking by better culture and communication
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Money – Through SNA, advertisers will find the prospective customers who are most willing to spend money to buy their product. Mining their social network data this way is how Facebook and Google make their billions.
Money – Using social media information and other traces of human interaction allows algorithmic traders to make a lot of money by predicting the stock market. Most Wallstreet quants today are using some sort of social media tracking to improve their automated trading algorithms.
Power –Twitter, Facebook and the other social media sites provide a perfect testing ground for politicians and election strategists to test campaigns to gain power by winning the next election. Cambridge Analytica popularized this type of SNA for the benefit of the Trump election campaign.
Glory – Social media is teeming with “influencers” who are doing all they can to increase their glory by increasing the number of their followers. Analyzing what people say on Twitter and other social media sites also allows statisticians to predict who will win the next Oscar, or any sort of online election or voting.
Love – Optimizing their organizational network enables companies and other organizations to improve their culture, collaboration, and creativity with the goal of creating an environment where people do not come to work because they are paid, but because they love working there. Optimizing their individual network behavior permits individuals to engage in more equal, respectful and rewarding relationships.
In this time of social distancing enforced by Covid-19, this means making the best use of social networking technology and online communication to increase personal happiness. To share my own example the picture below shows my happiness measured with our Happimeter since the enforced stay-home order in mid-March. My happiness has plateaued on the highest level since I had to stay teleworking at home, as I had much more time to pursue my research interests and hobbies, while still being able to communicate with my colleagues, friends, and customers using zoom and other videoconferencing tools.
My personal challenge will be to maintain this high level of happiness once we will be able to travel and fly again. I suspect, however, that there will be no way around experiencing some travel pain along the way – no pain no gain!
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