It is hard to overstate the inherent importance of networks in digital communications.  There are the benefits that we use and benefit from in everyday life. messaging apps, GPS programs, online media consumption, social media participation, and much more would be made either impossible or difficult without network theory. the complex processes of information transference that we call networking is what keeps all these services afloat and are what allows us to keep using them on a daily basis, providing user data to the companies that own them. A corporations number one goal is to generate profits and while the creations made possible by networking to serve practical and sometimes utilitarian purposes, our use of them provide the corporations that created them either direct payment or unlimited access to your data, which they can then sell or use to make future decisions. Duncan Watts and Jonah Peretti discuss how corporations try to generate viral marketing campaigns and say ” Companies, unlike diseases, can use standard advertising methods to create potentially enormous seeds. If the initial seed is big enough…the burnout process will persist for multiple generations, thereby reaching many additional people.” Networking doesn’t just have massive influence on digital communications, it is essential to the communications industry as a whole.

“Taming Complexity” by Albert Laszlo Barabasi takes great effort and puch much detail into the describing the earlier mentioned complexities behind how networking actually functions and how the science behind it is growing. And as networking grows it will undoubtedly be used to expand on the corporate networks already in place to generate profits. Albert says in his writing “Network science has shown immediate  economic benefits as well. # e poster child of early network thinking is Google, whose phenomenal success is rooted in its algorithm that uses the topology of the Web to rank the search results. Today, more than twenty new companies exploit the increasing knowledge of social networks”

Omar Mourssi

“Viral marketing has generated a lot of excitement recently, pick some small number of people to seed your idea, product, or message; get it to go viral; and then watch while it spreads effortlessly to reach millions”, says Duncan Watts and Jonah Albert, publishers of Viral Marketing of the Real World. To increase or maintain success many businesses, websites, and companies, network and market their products and content through creators, influencers, and celebrities. It ensures that their components are being seen, and are reaching several audiences, across several platforms. With that, they are creating and preserving any potential or past relationships with clients and consumers. They are expanding not only their audience, but their audience’s connection to their supply and demand. If done successfully, such exposure can have a massive impact on said businesses and companies. Over the years, many existing businesses and companies have relied on reaching out to popular and successful people on and around social media to gather their supporters and followers to check out and purchase what those companies and business want to sell and bring recognition to.

Albert-Laslo Barabasi, author of Taming Complexity expresses, “The science of networks is experiencing a boom.” For many sites, companies, and businesses, a “boom”, is a spike in sales, viewers, and acknowledgement. On the other side of things, such understandings and advancements are used to familiarize analysts and other professionals with trends, patterns, and commonalities. These data sets assist in future developments and success. For instance, a company gathering data that tells them that 50% of their consumers are 18 and under. With that information, that company might choose to contact popular influencers with audiences in that age range to promote their merchandise, resulting in the company reaching their target audience and potentially increasing productivity. Knowledge of networks, the data they produce, and their impact on digital media as well as the many components that relate to digital media, guarantees a better look inside technology and it’s consumers. This in the end, aids in numerous communities responding to the data in a way that benefits them in the long run.

Since the early 2000s, technology has taken the world by storm from our everyday habits to our emotional states. Today, as it advances, we use technology to connect and learn with each other, ourselves, and our surroundings. Through social media or through personal networks. According to the article, “Taming Complexity”, Barabási mentioned “We can already design topologies that are far more tolerant of attack and error than those seen today in nature and technology. But who can force the cell or the World Wide Web to follow them? Humility must win over hubris: we must first observe and understand, in order to improve and design. ” (Barabási 70). This symbolizes that we must understand each other as humans and as communities through super networks to improve biologically.  In Anna Nagurney’s “Networks The Science Spanning Disciplines”, she applies different applications of the network to different disciplines. She decomposes the decision-making criteria of profits, risk, and relationships with other networks.  In the presentation, she explains how the super network interconnects with social networks.  Based on the strategies she presented, many companies are using social media to connect and network with their audiences. Let’s take McDonald’s as an example. McDonald’s is known to occasionally have limited edition menus and a staple menu. As of recently, they brought back the infamous “Snack McWrap”, a staple classic; after outraged consumers have expressed their concerns on social media. McDonald’s used a super network to connect with their audience/consumers and brought back the Snack McWrap by popular demand. They used the strategy of maximizing profit, minimizing risk, and maximizing the value of the relationship with their consumers. Since then, McDonald’s has increased in sales and made a few headlines due to this action. McDonald’s proved that connecting and understanding their demographic by using technology to minimize the risk of sales and overall image.

Citations:

(Barabási, A.-L. (2005) ‘Taming complexity’, Nature Physics, 1(2), pp. 70. doi: 10.1038/nphys162.)

Networks are important elements of digital media because they help expand the basic level of communication. They have many different uses such as collaborating on projects large and small as well used for branding and marketing.

As the years have passed we have seen technology grow and evolve into new and innovated inventions. Networks are an important elements of digital media because it helps coordinate, communicate, and collaborate. Digital media can be used in a way to create, view, modified and listen on any digital technology. Digital media is used all around the world because it is easily accessible from an on hand item like a smartphone. Digital media can not be fully developed with the systems of networks because they both work hand in hand. In the article “Taming Complexity“, it states, “Today, more than twenty new companies exploit the increasing knowledge of social networks, with applications from discovering business contacts to dating services.” Network is an important element that digital media needs because it can lead to many different outcomes and inventions. Digital media can be used as a great marketing tool for any company or small business. As stated in the article “Viral Marketing for the Real World” many people used the viral marketing tactic to go viral, whether it’s a product or person, digital media and networks are used during this process. In my opinion one doesn’t do great work without the other.