Who really benefits from a digitally networked society? Big business or individuals? Refer to ‘loop theory’ and the ‘Dunbar number’

Both businesses and individuals benefit from a digitally networked society to some extent. Norbet Wiener’s loop theory suggests that successes and problems can be determined through the observation of repeated movements, eg once you see a pattern in something you can then predict how and when that thing is likely to occur again and you can prepare for it. Robin Dunbar’s theory about the dunbar number suggests that us as humans have a limit to how many stable social relationships we can maintain, the limit to this is 150 people, however on average people only connect with about 5-10 people per day.

Big businesses benefit from a digitally networked society by using loop theory because they can analyse data on their websites from customers buying habits, this could be what they buy and how often they buy that item, businesses can spot trends in this and tailor the website to their specific interests and can predict when they may need to increase their production in order to meet demand. Big businesses connect with millions of customers every day so have many more relationships than individuals.

How does big business benefit? What commodity do they trade in? Answer: predictive human behaviour. Write out an answer in your own words.