This paper investigates the structural flexibility of online communication systems using an ecological approach. The authors demonstrate that despite the complexity of actor-meme interactions and environmental changes, the underlying architecture of these systems evolves into recurring patterns. They propose a model that predicts, and data confirms, that the competition for visibility among users leads to a re-equilibration of the network's mesoscale towards self-similar nested arrangements. However, this structural flexibility is not mirrored at the dynamical level, with environmental shocks leaving lasting traces on the system's node dynamics.

María J. Palazzi, Albert Solé-Ribalta, Violeta Calleja-Solanas, Sandro Meloni, Carlos A. Plata, Samir Suweis, Javier Borge-Holthoefer