The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell has come up a few times in our 506 course. When discussing social network, I mentioned that there was a chapter about it in the book, and sure enough it was referenced in one of our other readings. In every group of people, there are some who are better at making and maintaining social relationships. Gladwell calls those people connectors. In some of our discussions, both in class and elsewhere, classmates identified me as a connector, and I agreed. I take my socializing very seriously.
So I decided to find out if this is actually true. Am I a connector? Gladwell tests this by giving subjects a list of 250 surnames. Counting how many people you know with those surnames gives you an indication of how "connected" you are. The average for college students was 21. The average for professionals in their 20s and 30s was 39. My number was...
27.
Frankly, I was a little disappointed. I was hoping for a huge number, but alas, it was not to be. The list of names came from a Manhattan phone book. I genuinely believe that if the list had come from a Canadian phonebook the results would have been different. I'm just making excuses. I'd be interested in trying it with a few lists and comparing. Maybe there's a research project there... for another time.
The other thing that it could indicate is that being a social butterfly doesn't make you a connector. That could very well be the case here. There are a lot of things that could change the results, but for now, I'll just have to be content with being well below average.
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1 comment:
I'm glad you brought this up, Brian, because I don't understand really how the number of people a person knows makes them a social connector. I'm a relatively shy person, but I know a lot of people because I've worked at large organizations, gone to school with lots of people, and grew up in an ethnic community. I wouldn't call myself a connector.
You, on the other hand, seem to make strong relationships, regardless of the number of last names you can identify. I guess if this is all about weak ties, it makes sense, but frankly, it's Gladwell's argument that seems the most weak.
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