The effects of network structure, competition and memory time on social spreading phenomena

Abstract

Online social media have greatly affected the way in which we communicate with each other. However, little is known about what are the fundamental mechanisms driving dynamical information flow in online social systems. Here, we introduce a generative model for online sharing behavior that is analytically tractable and which can reproduce several characteristics of empirical micro-blogging data on hashtag usage, such as (time-dependent) heavy-tailed distributions of meme popularity. The presented framework constitutes a null model for social spreading phenomena which, in contrast to purely empirical studies or simulation-based models, clearly distinguishes the roles of two distinct factors affecting meme popularity: the memory time of users and the connectivity structure of the social network.

This revised version accepted for publication in Physical Review X; note title has changed from the original "Determinants of Meme Popularity"

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• The 'who' and 'what' of #diabetes on Twitter
• Hipsters on Networks: How a Small Group of Individuals Can Lead to an Anti-Establishment Majority
• Critical mass effect in evolutionary games triggered by zealots
• Homophily on social networks changes evolutionary advantage in competitive information diffusion
• Spatial evolution of human dialects
• Spreading of Memes on Multiplex Networks
• A multi-type branching process method for modelling complex contagion on clustered networks
• Dynamic topologies of activity-driven temporal networks with memory
• Complex Contagions with Timers
• Aging in binary-state models: The Threshold model for Complex Contagion
• Simon's fundamental rich-get-richer model entails a dominant first-mover advantage
• A framework for cascade size calculations on random networks
• Rapid decay in the relative efficiency of quarantine to halt epidemics in networks
• Scaling laws and dynamics of hashtags on Twitter
• Pareto optimality in multilayer network growth
• Algorithmic complexity of multiplex networks
• Quantifying Uncertainty in a Predictive Model for Popularity Dynamics
• Neutral Theory for competing attention in social networks
• A model for meme popularity growth in social networking systems based on biological principle and human interest dynamics
• Modeling spatial social complex networks for dynamical processes
• Multiplex reconstruction with partial information
• Infrequent social interaction can accelerate the spread of a persuasive idea
• Theory of Critical Phenomena with Memory
• On the dual nature of adoption processes in complex networks
• Spreader events and the limitations of projected networks for capturing dynamics on multipartite networks
• Hierarchical Coarse-grained Approach to the Duration-dependent Spreading Dynamics in Complex Networks
• Memory-cognizant generalization to Simon's random-copying neutral model