How Facebook Is Like a Dark Chocolate Mocha Latte

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Writer’s Workshop C&C February 25, 2013 How Facebook is Like a Dark Chocolate Mocha Latte Freakonomics is a collaboration effort by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner that goes to all lengths to describe the world of economics we live in with examples in cleverly-titled chapters. According to these authors, “economics” is not about Wall Street, taxes, or numbers and figures, or at least, not entirely. Instead, “economics” as described by Freakonomics is how the world actually works. It is the similarities and differences between seemingly irrelevant topics. It’s patterns and incentives that govern the world, and it is human nature that helps answer obscure questions. Levitt and Dubner explain the causes and effects of human incentive and predictability through questions such as, “What Do Schoolteachers and Sumo Wrestlers have in common?” and “How is the Ku Klux Klan like a Group of Real-Estate Agents?” Inspired by the forced analogy theme of the chapters, I decided to look into a strange assessment of two topics of my own. At first glance, Facebook and a dark chocolate mocha latte might appear to be completely different, however, they are similar in that both have huge markets backing them, are parts of a social experience, and possess addictive properties. When discussing similarities, at first try, it might be difficult to think of many. But as Levitt and Dubner have proven, if you dig deeply enough, you are able to find unknown connections between seemingly unrelated topics. In order to compare Facebook and a dark chocolate mocha latte, I had to first decide how I wanted “dark chocolate mocha latte” to be defined. Should it be classified as a hot treat beverage, like hot cocoa? Or should I categorize it with the ancient beverage of coffee? In the end, I decided that since I see it as coffee, this is where it should go. Now I could effectively compare

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