This week’s readings I found quite interesting, in particular the discussions surrounding the ‘small world problem’.
This being the idea that our world is one huge network where everyone is connected to each other. I had heard of the ‘6 degrees of separation’ before but never really knew what it meant. According to the reading it describes how if everyone in the world had 100 friends then it would only take 6 steps to connect any one person to anyone else on the planet. I thought this was really amazing… until the second reading began to dissect the issues with this idea.
According to Watts & Strogatz our world isn’t really one big network, but rather divided into smaller social clutters containing both weak and strong ties. The concept of the ‘clustering coefficient’ was interesting and confusing as it was used to determine how close knit a group of friends are. I am a little curious to know how they would rank my friendship group, is that strange? I’m pretty sure you’re thinking the same thing.
The idea of connectors was also something that stood out to me. Connectors according to the reading are people who have a predisposition to create trends and are the thread of society. How many ‘connectors’ do I know? Is it accurate to say that certain types of individuals dictate the networks we are a part of?
How does social media intertwine into all of this?
There are over 1 billion users of Facebook and there’s no way I’m connected to all of them. It’s very evident when a foreign 40 year old man from India requests you on Facebook with zero mutual friends. I definitley don’t know him and I can guarantee neither do my friends.
Mutual friends on Facebook are a simple way to determine how connected you are to a person. I remember thinking it was so crazy that my friend Jen who I met when I was 8 and lives nowhere near me was mutual friends with a girl that moved to my high school in year 10. Recently another one of my friends came back from backpacking around Europe for 2 months. She was completely taken aback the other day when seeing a photo on Facebook where two complete strangers she had met overseas were posing together. The girl was a south african she had met in Turkey and traveled with for a few weeks. The boy she met in Greece and was from Sydney. The two of them didn’t know each other previously but met and had their photo taken in Germany. I’m pretty sure her exact words were ‘ITS SUCH A SMALL WORLD’ and then something like ‘if I add him on Facebook will he think I’m a stalker?’.
– Caitlin
