Putting a map together of my social network was eye-opening! I couldn't believe how many people there are (and how many didn't get mentioned or were forgotten)! After about 10 minutes, I realized this would be a daunting task and decided to blog first. (image of social networking map coming soon).
Because of the easy access given to my generation, there is no shortage of contacts in one's social network, however the relevancy of contacts can be debated. I can take all those 'people' in my email address book(s), my cell phone address book, my old wedding announcement mailing list (go figure and actual address book) and make a three page hierarchy right there! But keep in mind the difference between a strong tie and a weak tie. I can't say it any better than what was given to my COMM 332G online class in our week's reading:
One important idea that comes from social network theory is related to strong ties and weak ties (Barabassi, 2002). We all have random and informal ties. For example, you may generate a weak tie when you get on a plane or a bus and sit down next to someone who you do not know and generate a conversation. You may find them to be interesting, and intelligent, and a good business connection for the future. Strong ties, on the other hand, are relational and geographically defined. These are your friends who you know from school, your family, or your business associates. You know them because you live by them, you work by them, and you see them and talk to them every day.
Imagine sitting at a table with everyone else in the world. It would be a large round table, and those sitting next to you would be your strong ties. Your mother and father, your brothers and sisters, your friends and associates, would all be at the table near you. They are the ones who are most likely to share your cultural values. Now imagine that you look across the table and see someone from a different geography, a different work environment, perhaps a different religion, or set of social values. If you know that person then they would be a weak tie. Weak ties are the people we meet when we step outside our cultural comfort zone.
The part for me that gets hard is the 'stepping out of the comfort zone'. I seem to do all right until I have to leave the norm or my homeostasis (so to speak). Not saying I don't do it-especially when the gain far out-weigh my nervousness, but it is a hard thing for me to do.
The question for our weekly discussion was: After reading about the different types of social support, discuss in a paragraph the strengths and weaknesses of your social network. This is what I reflected: "...we learn about four types of social networking: emotional, informational, instrumental, and motivational/spiritual and looking at this from a not-job related point-of-view interests me. As a social network is my group of friends and contacts its easy to find and pick-out people who fill each of the areas. A strength is that I have many people in many different places. It goes with the idea of six degrees of separation, in that if I don't know what I need (or who I want) someone I know does. A weakness for me is I have a hard time going out of my comfort zone to meet new people (or even meet people that my contacts have suggested)."
To sum up, it is a fascinating thing to actually write down one's social network-to actually see who you know (because it is so often said it is who you know not what you know).
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