Smartphones, Social Networks, and Fake News: Institutional Economics Approach to Decision Making in the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

Institutional Economics relies on a practical understanding of decision making. Institutions, habits, and cumulative causation introduce not only information, but also how to make decisions. Today’s world offers new challenges for the practical comprehension of decisions. Since the end of the twentieth century, the internet has drastically increased the quantity of information available to a decision-maker. Furthermore, the beginning of the twenty-first century brought a boom in social networking, which changed interactions, habits building, institutional spreading, and emulative logic. This study thus aims to approach the twenty-first century information technology to Institutional Economics’ reading of decision making.

Keywords:

• social networks
• smartphones
• fake news
• Institutional Economics

JEL Classification Codes:

• B52

Notes

1 We use the term “barbaric times” as in Veblen (1899).

2 Lee McIntyre (2018, 94) pointed out that: “[i]n a recent Pew poll, 62 percent of US adults reported getting their news from social media, and 71 percent of that was from Facebook. This means that 44 percent of the total adult US population now gets its news from Facebook. This reflects a sea change in the source (and composition) of our news content.”

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Felipe Almeida

Felipe Almeida is a professor of economics and Valéria Mortari is a Ph.D. candidate, both authors are at the Federal University of Paraná. The authors want to thank Susan Evans and William Waller for their suggestions. Thanks as well to Fernando Krauzer and Manuel Ramon Souza Luz for debating the paper's theme with the authors—which took place in a Brazilian podcast about Institutional Economics (Economia Underground Podcast). This research has been supported by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) in Brazil.

Valéria Mortari

Felipe Almeida is a professor of economics and Valéria Mortari is a Ph.D. candidate, both authors are at the Federal University of Paraná. The authors want to thank Susan Evans and William Waller for their suggestions. Thanks as well to Fernando Krauzer and Manuel Ramon Souza Luz for debating the paper's theme with the authors—which took place in a Brazilian podcast about Institutional Economics (Economia Underground Podcast). This research has been supported by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) in Brazil.