MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Can We Amplify the Good and Contain the Bad of Social Media?

If there is a path for tilting social platforms toward a force for positive outcomes, it begins by understanding the phenomena that drive “the hype machine.”

MIT Sloan professor Sinan Aral takes on the greatest communications force of our lifetime: social media. Aral, who directs the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy, provides an insightful and level-headed analysis of the power, peril, and potential of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and other social platforms for both organizations and society. The work is the result of some two decades of research he has dedicated to social media. He spoke with MIT Sloan Management Review’s editor in chief, Paul Michelman, about the dual-edge sword of what he terms “the hype machine.” What follows is an edited version of their conversation.