Through technology, we choose who we associate ourselves with. The association with someone would create an edge between nodes. The edge forms a network that connects two nodes together where the nodes of family, friends, and associates are now connected to both nodes. For example, Facebook is a digital network where two people can become friends on Facebook. Now, the friends of these two individuals are connected through a path that are formed by two individuals, unless the friends already have mutual friends. Ulises Ali Mejias states in Off the Network how “to ‘Friend’ in a social network that establishes a correspondence between two records of data (47). Every day, Facebook users are being connected together as one can find Facebook to consist of a giant component that encompasses every Facebook user being connected through edges. Even if one creates a new Facebook account, then they will soon friend someone else that will tie them into the giant component. Yet, the downfalls behind the giant component of Facebook include disruptive forces like a person impersonating a real-world friend that could disrupt the connection between you and your friends.
Furthermore, through Facebook, we witness various Facebook users discover their friends to have hidden mutual friends that may have not been discovered through technology. David Easley and Jon Kleinberg states this idea, small-world phenomenon, where the world looks “small” when you think of how short a path of friends it takes to get from you to almost anyone else (35). The downside from this phenomenon is it doesn’t mean you’re socially close to them.
David Easley and Jon Kleinberg, “Graphs” from Networks, Crowds, and Markets: Reasoning about a Highly Connected World (2010)
Ulises Ali Mejias, “Computers as Socializing Tools” from Off the Network: Disrupting the Digital World (2013)
rakim
You bring up a very good point about how easily Facebook allows a user to connect with another user when you said “even if one creates a new Facebook account, then they will soon friend someone else that will tie them into the giant component.” I believe this is the main reason why Facebook has expanded into such a widespread phenomena and been incorporated into most people’s everyday life. Because it is natural for people to keep increasing the number of friends he/she has, Facebook kind of suckers you into keep logging on and trying to make more connections. However, I think it is rather rare and out of the ordinary for that specific downfall you mentioned of the disruptive force of “person impersonating a real-world friend that could disrupt the connection between you and your friends.” Not only are those kinds of incidents rare, but I think it is very easily noticeable when people make fake accounts trying to impersonate someone else nowadays. Additionally, the mutual friends that Facebook displays between two users is genius because it allows two strangers to possible strike up a conversation and make a connection simply by saying “oh you know [this person]? I’m so close with her/him”. Lastly, I completely agree with your concluding statement of how closely everyone is connected to everyone else through the power of technology but how it doesn’t mean they are “socially close to them”