Information Spread in a Social Media Age

Preface

Approximately 3.5 billion people make use of social media worldwide, and usage is proliferating. That is nearly half of the entire global population. Social media is everywhere! From socially connecting on Facebook and Instagram to discussing news events with strangers on Reddit, it’s hard to envision our modern world without a strong social media presence. Topics such as fake or unverified news stories, targeted online ads, and political polarization techniques are becoming important areas of discussion, research, and concern. In this text, we seek to explore these issues, not only from a general and high-level perspective but in technical detail, as well. Our goal in writing was to create a text of varying complexity to be enjoyable ...