social scoring

The act of rating a person's level of influence based on evaluating one's followers, friends, and postings on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook.

Companies now have the capability to score millions, eventually billions, of people on their level of influence. They look at the number of followers or friends you’ve amassed, and they measure influence in more nuanced ways, and then post their judgments in the form of an online score, thereby making social scoring subjective and imperfect. Most analytic companies rely heavily on a user’s Twitter and Facebook profiles, leaving out other online activities, like blogging or posting YouTube videos.

Historical perspecitve: By 2013 the adoption of social scoring in mainstream culture helped build personal brands that generated millions of dollars in branded content revenue for the influencer, often a celebrity. The thinking  became that your rating could help determine how well you are treated by everyone with whom you interact. Critics are increasingly concerned that we are moving closer to creating social media caste systems, where people with high scores get preferential treatment by retailers, prospective employers, even prospective dates.

Social scoring is also influencing life in the offline world. As of 2018, companies began tracking online behavior to gauge whether a person will pay his or her debts. One study found Android users and nighttime shoppers and people who typed their name in all lowercase were the most prone to default on a loan. As of 2018, China has also instigated a social scoring system. MWBRL.