The Social Network Analysis (SNA) claims that the foundation of a community is not the geographic location, but rather the shared interactions between people. This redefinition of a community allows one to form communities’ offline, as well as online. Further, communities that use both FtF and CMC communication have stronger bonds than communities that use just one communication media (online/offline synergy). This is defiantly true in my community of friends. I communicate with my inner circle of four friends through all sorts of media (FtF, phone, AIM, facebook and e-mail). This multiple communication media approach allows my friends and I to communicate with each even during summer vacation when we are not in the same geographic location. This liberation from geographic constraints describes the utopic view of community. In contrast, I communicate with my outer circle of friends through a fewer number of media; and as predicted by the SNA I have weaker bonds with these outer circle of friends.
My relationship with my inner circle is strong because we tell each other everything. We always know what is going on in each others lives and are involved in many shared activities. We often sign up for the same volunteer activities such as Judy’s Day and Into the Streets (common ground). Further, we know many of the same people which helps us stay connected. We often engage in reciprocal self-disclosure and we know that what is said between us, stays between us. Trust is a major component of our relationship. My inner circle of friends would be considered a gemeinschaft community where the foundation lies in our strong interpersonal ties, and shared focus, language and identity. Our shared language can be seen in our ability to finish each other’s sentences and the fact that we have inside jokes that can not be understood by outsiders. Certain words have different meanings to us than they would have to others as a result of our shared experiences.
In contrast, I have weak ties with my outer circle of friends who I do not share my daily experiences with, yet they are useful for finding out new and different information that I would not know otherwise. For example, my weak tie Tiffany, knows a lot about the medical school application process since she is currently in the middle of it. However, my stronger tie friends know the same information as me (and thus not as much help) in regards to the med school process since we are all the same age. Consequently, when I have med school questions, Tiffany is the one that answers them for me.
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2 comments:
You do a great job explaining and giving examples of strong and weak ties within your circles of friends. You bring up a great point by bringing up the importance of trust in developing your strong ties and keeping those ties strong. I think this is something that many people often either overlook or take for granted. Also, I think your example of a benefit from a weak tie is really interesting because again, I think people often take this for granted and will rely heavily on their friends when they’re in the application process and try to figure everything out together rather than relying on a weak tie who has some more expertise in the area.
I like your examples a lot of the weak ties and tight ties. I think it is a good point that you think inner circle is strong because everyone knows everything about each other. I also think that understanding improves relationship. So as tight tie circle, you tell everythins of your life to your tight tie friends,including the mood and the real heart feeling. But to weak tie friends, we just talk about something about the study or jobs, just like you mentioned in the passagae of the med school application, but don't talk umch about our mood or real heart feeling. So I think you illustrate greatly about this point.
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