Transcending Isolation: Harnessing Our Social Networks

What did Emerson, Thoreau, Coleridge, and Salinger do that we in the 21st century absolutely cannot (besides that whole “literary masterpieces” thing)? They all had a distinct willingness to disconnect from the people around them, a readiness to discard their social networks in order to attain some higher purpose. For those that get on their soapboxes about people being glued to their iPods, iPads, iPhones these days, it seems ironic that it never is just “i”–we feel the need to be connected to someone or something almost all the time. We find cutting ourselves off from the rest of the world is akin to a limb amputation. Not all solitude is good, however. Solitary confinement is for the criminally insane, for example. And it’s not called “being really good at solitaire;” it’s called “demonstrating antisocial tendencies.” Human beings are social creatures, and it’s not our fault that technology has just made it easier to behave as such.

In this day and age, too, our social networks may be our most important resource. Discarding them is almost foolish and short-sighted. As a college senior who will soon be vying for jobs along with the rest of the class of 2011, you can bet your bottom dollar that I will harness my human capital so that the sun may come out tomorrow. Companies hold networking events purely to expand a professional’s social network. Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn were all created for the expressed purpose of keeping in touch, both actively and subversively. Being connected is not only comforting, it’s helpful. As enlightening as transcendentalism may appear, trading social media for social isolation doesn’t have the same appeal as it did some 150 odd years ago.

The question is–why are our social networks so important, and how does social media help us realize the full potential of our networks?

The reason why social media is so important to our social networks is because it allows us to foster our weak ties. Weak ties within our social networks are those people that perhaps we’ve met once or twice but don’t keep in regular contact with. They can be someone that perhaps we were close with before they moved, or someone we at one time worked with until they–or we–switched jobs. While we do have a social connection with them, they are not as strong as the connections we hold with people we see or talk to on a regular basis. Hence, “weak.” Before sites like Facebook, once these people relocated, we would have no way of keeping in touch with them save calling (GASP) or even scarier…WRITING A LETTER. Even that could be thwarted if they move again and fail to update contact information. Ultimately, though, we wouldn’t expend that kind of energy trying to contact someone we’d only met once.

But what happens when you move from Chicago to New York and all of your strong ties are from the same place you are? What happens when you want to get a new job but all of your closest connections are in the same industry? Enter Mark Granovetter and his theory of the strength of weak ties. Our weak ties tend to give us better access to novel information. Friends within your social network tend to be friends with other people in your network, and so if you were to turn to them for connections, they are likely to refer you to someone you already know. Weak ties, in contrast, link you to new people. They may know of someone in New York looking for a sublettor. They may know of someone to contact career-wise that you could not have contacted on your own.

Social media sites allow you to keep abreast of the information on your weak ties, and, if need be, convert them to strong ones. To refer back to that hypothetical time you were about to New York, your college roommate–the one you didn’t keep in close touch with–just so happens to live in the Big Apple. How do you know this? Facebook. How do you contact him about your impending move? Facebook. Guess what? You find out he needs a roommate through his posting on the Facebook Marketplace. Even better–his best friend ends up being the most stunning, fantastic human being on the planet, and she gets you a stellar job. You instantly fall in love, get married. Through a guy you hadn’t actively spoken to for the past two years, you now have a place to live, East-coast contacts, a job, and a spouse. This is not a dramatization. It could happen. And Facebook can make it happen. Invite Mark Zuckerberg to your wedding.

All jesting aside, our social networks are of paramount importance. By using those people that perhaps aren’t closest to us, we can harness the true potential of the connections we hold. Social media allows weak ties to keep from slipping into oblivion and forcing us to make an uncomfortable phone call asking for help or advice from someone we’ve only met once. Transcendentalists may have had a point in the 1800s, but they also only had the telegraph. So the times have a’changed.

I’m willing to admit that I may be a bit short-sighted…maybe the transcendentalists knew something about the relative merit of befriending squirrels that we have yet to understand.

To our readers: what do you think are the benefits of social media? How do you use your social networks to attain your personal and professional goals?