http://kin.naver.com/detail/detail.php?

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This link leads to a page that talks about what an information cascade is, and how the Internet is related to the phenomenon.

An information cascade occurs when there so much information that you cannot make a decision just by the signal you get. Instead, you have to look at the signals that others have received before you did and decide based upon their choices. For instance, let there be two bags: one has two black stones and a white stone, and the other has two white stones and a black stone. After taking out a stone from either bag, you have to decide which bag has two black stones and which bag has two white stones. If you were the only one to try this, then you would decide based on which stone color you get. However, if there were many people who have tried this before you did and many of them have taken out a black stone, then even if you get a white stone from the same bag, you would decide that the bag has two black stones.

Although an information cascade occurs due to logical thinking, it can lead to false results. The Internet has been there to prevent us from making bad decisions. For example, by searching through the Internet, we can find authoritative information about certain topics, objects, and ideas and make decisions of our own based on the signals we get.

However, as time passes, the information we can get from the Internet increases, and the number of Internet users increases. As a result, the Internet is increasingly becoming a source of information cascade nowadays. For instance, on youtubes or other sites, users can leave comments, vote on comments, and rate videoclips. Although you cannot get the definite number of total users or the order of usage, you can practically get the information on what previous users have decided on the information. As a result, if a videoclip has a high rating, and a pro-comment has many votes, even if you don’t like the videoclip, you would decide that perhaps it is a good one.