The Social Organism: A Radical Understanding of Social Media to Transform Your Business and Life

By Oliver Luckett, Michael J. Casey

Categories: Business & Money, Computers & Technology

Technology entrepreneur Oliver Luckett and former Wall Street Journal columnist Michael J. Casey argue that social media behaves like a living organism. They map the seven characteristics of biological life, from metabolism to reproduction and evolution, onto the way content spreads online. In their account, memes act like genes, replicating and mutating as users share them. The authors trace online communication from Friendster and MySpace to Instagram and Vine, and use cases such as #BlackLivesMatter to show how online crowds reward and punish behavior.

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