Hit Makers: Why Things Become Popular

by Derek Thompson

Stanford’s Leskovec says there are two basic feedback loops in every social circle. First, people seek out others who are like them. Sociologists call this “sorting.” Second, individuals change to become more like the group around them. This is called “socializing.” These sorting and socializing effects are most commonly studied in cities. But the Internet, too, is a universal metropolis, a mosaic of neighborhoods, many of which are deeply segregated or, at least, trafficked by like-minded users. There are corners of the Internet visited almost entirely by white people or black people, white nationalists or feminists, bicoastal media gabbers or Wisconsin Packers fans. Here’s a brief explanation of how sorting and socializing might work on the social network Twitter. Let’s say I post an article on Twitter about Chinese history. Thousands of people see it. Some of them aren’t interested in Chinese history, and they might leave my network by “unfollowing” me. But some of them enjoy Chinese history and pass the article through their networks by “retweeting” it. Occasionally, people who see this retweet—the audience of my audience—might join my network. This is a very simple model of information traveling around the Internet, but it has two important implications. First, social networks often sort themselves by bringing like-minded people together. They evolve toward homophily. Second, growing my popularity on a social network like Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram is about appea...