Social Networking

In my position as a Research Student in the MACS (Mathematics and Computer Sciences) department, I come across interesting information in my assignments. Last year, Tracy asked me to prepare a brief synopsis of social networking theory and networking websites. She wanted it for a proposal (that officially credits me as well!) for a project to be implemented at the next Grace Hopper Women in Computing Conference.

Social network analysis is the examination of patterns in human interaction. It focuses on uncovering these patterns and analyzing the formation of them. Social network theory is based on the intuitive belief that these patterns of human interaction are important features in the life of the individual and that an individual lives according to his or her relationship to a larger “web” of social interactions. Many network analysts believe that the success or failure of a society depends on the patterning of their internal structure.

Studies in social networking are not necessarily a new frontier. In practice, it is the application of network theory to the study of behavior. Because of this, it is guided by a formal theory, organized in mathematical terms, and grounded in a systematic analysis of empirical data. In the 1970’s, modern discrete combinatorics –particularly graph theory—was rapidly expanded, enabling the visualizations of social networks. This triggered the growth of social networking theory as an interdisciplinary specialty.

Network analysis views relationships in terms of nodes and ties. Nodes refer to the individuals within the network, and ties to their relationships. The types of ties are varied and somewhat underrepresented in visualizations. Some analytic tendencies distinguish social network analysis from network theory.

1. Groups are not assumed to be the building blocks of society. Studies include less-bounded social systems.
2. Individuals are not necessarily treated as discrete units of analysis and research focuses on how the structure of ties affects individuals and their relationships.
3. Examines the extent to which the patterning and quality of ties affects the norms. (Rather than how integration into norms affects behavior)
Additionally, this type of analysis assumes that the attributes of an individual affect their place in society less than their relationships and ties to other individuals.

The applications of this type of study are numerous. In the national bestseller “The Tipping Point,” by Malcolm Gladwell, the author uses the basic assumptions of social network analysis to help explain how trends are started and propagated. He cites a project completed by a student at the University of Virginia, who put together a list of the most well-connected actors in Hollywood. That is, who can be linked with any other actor in Hollywood via the fewest number of steps (a la “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon”). The resultant number one actor was Rod Steiger, not the man with the highest number of movies under his belt, but the most diverse. An additional conjecture of social network analysis is that a group with very close ties to each other may not fare as well as a group with many loose ties to the outside. Those loose ties to other groups and individuals allow the flow of ideas and experience throughout a society. Groups with ties only to each other share all the same ideas and experiences, and so become stagnant.

Fred Cuny, in his humanitarian engineering disaster relief, recognized the importance of social ties when he redesigned refugee camps. The grid pattern was replaced with concentric circles, fostering connectivity and community.

Online social networking is becoming more popular every day. MySpace and Facebook are both in the top ten most visited websites. MySpace has approximately 100 million members according to its founder and signs up to 230,000 new members a day. While not necessarily business oriented, these sites connect people that would not otherwise have any means of communication. On a personal side note, I am friends through Facebook with girls I knew well in elementary school and had not spoken with in at least a decade. In addition to the purely social sites, however, are business oriented networks such as LinkedIn and ZeroDegrees. These sites should be billed as an online rolodex, with the ease of internet communication.

These sites offer an amazing ease with which to find new ties and relationships. They do, however, have potential drawbacks. User behavior can decay into a “popularity contest” of sorts, where members simply try to make as many contacts as possible, devaluing the potential of all of them. For a social networking service, the quality of contact should be just as important as the number of connections. For some, this can be a user moderated behavior. However, as the number of users increase, the efficacy of the site itself increases, and the potential for this connection-collection behavior. Additionally, privacy issues make it difficult for users to feel comfortable sharing personal information with potential contacts. A valuation of the degree of contact or “friendship” is advised, though rarely implemented. This would allow a degree of privacy for those ties not truly friendship and evaluate the quality of contacts.