Imitation and ReTweets

Frank mentioned a great Eric Hoffer quote a few days ago:

"When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other."

Dan Zarella, who has been doing some research around ReTweeting, said the following in a post yesterday on Copyblogger:

"Nearly every form of viral sharing that I’ve looked into includes some form of social proof. Humans have a natural tendency toward imitation, especially of those who they assume have more or better information than themselves. The likelihood of a tweet being ReTweeted increases dramatically each time it is ReTweeted."

While I'd like to know more about the "especially of those who they assume have more or better information than themselves" part (it seems to be heading down that influencer road again that Mark has warned us about), it's the last line that sums it up so well. Essentially, ReTweets beget further ReTweets.

In addition to making stuff easier to share, the social web allows each of us to keep loosely connected to a greater number of people than would otherwise be possible. And, in the process, we're finding new ways to copy each other. That's just how us super-social apes work...

Comments

[Ben]

Check out my new post: Imitation and retweets!

Wait. I'm doing it wrong, aren't I?

[Eden Spodek]

Ben, thanks for making me laugh. I needed that today.

Carman, sorry for not moving this conversation forward but I couldn't resist. Besides, I'm not that into imitation even if some consider if the sincerest form of flattery.

[Frank Ricketts]

Carman: Another thought occurs to me. It has always been humans' practice to imitate - our fathers, sports heroes, teachers, people we know or know about that we want in some way to be like. What seems to be happening today is that we have no problem imitating complete strangers via the social milieu.

Frank

[cpirie]

@Eden - Interestingly, you don't have the choice as to whether or not you're into imitation. By virtue of being human, the fact is that you are into imitation. It's actually our core survival mechanism in many ways. The simple fact is that we do what we do because of others.

@Frank - Of course, we always have imitated complete strangers. But, perhaps, we're just exposed to more of them now... which may well change the nature of the copying.