- Jose Larr
Social Media and the Hundredth monkey effect
There is a hypothesis that claims that a new behavior or idea can quickly spread to other beings if there is a critical mass of recipients who have already captured or been exposed to such idea or type of behavior: the hundredth monkey effect.
Now, if we quote one of Mark Zuckerberg’s statements where he declares “Our mission is to give people the power to share and to make the world more open and connected. We exist to give you a voice to share what matters to you — from photos of your family to opinions about the world”, and if we couple it with another statement of his in regards to the authenticity of news content on Facebook “99% of posts are authentic”. there is at least an interesting scenario to study based on the amount of daily volume of content pieces posted/shared on Facebook and applying the fake rate that Mark Z. guarantees there is on his platform.
I am not a particularly strong guy when it comes to math, but for that task I truly thank Bill Gates and his Office suit especially Excel. All in all, the numbers show that there an almost 1,5 billion content pieces that are in the minds of Facebook users.
To put things in perspective it would like hitting into China’s whole population once a month every month.
Or if you want to feel more diversified, it would be like picking the population of Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Russia, Mexico, Japan and planting a seed once a month and every month.
Or perhaps if you want to feel reiterative, it would be like talking to the whole Spanish population once a day, every day, and every month.
My drift is clear and is going towards depicting a huge and relevant audience facing, whether they want it or not, a tremendous volume of un-authentic content that can modify, change, alter, or even create decisions in their minds that can take course of action in their daily lives.
Now if we go back to the famous hypothesis of the Hundredth Monkeys and if there is any truth in it, my question aims at understanding the tipping point at which the “critical mass” is understood as such trigger that can become a multiplier effect into the other minds that were not initially exposed to it and that regardless of that fact they can also be affected.