Hurricane Sandy Aid
While many anticipated damage from Hurricane Sandy, most did not realize the gravity of Hurricane Sandy until it actually hit. It has affected many students at Cornell because their homes were destroyed and family members were in need of desperate help. The effects of Hurricane Sandy embody many topics we have discussed in class thus far. For example, people found out about the hurricane through media and word of mouth. Many Cornellians found out about it when talking to friends, who found out from family members and so on. Therefore, it shows how quickly crucial information spreads around through social networks.
In the following article, it describes one man’s journey to go back to his hometown and help those in need. His actions relate closely to the idea of strong and weak ties as we discussed in the last lecture. While weak ties are very useful for creating awareness of new things, it usually does not guarantee that others will adopt them. As described by the article, many people helped Skip Cocci out by donating items for him to bring to the victims; however, they did not actually volunteer to travel with him and help out directly. This ties back into the idea of having a high threshold, which makes it very risky to participate. For those who have strong and direct ties and connections to those who were affected by Hurricane Sandy, they were willing to take the risk in order to help their friends and family. Skip Cocci was willing to drive 18 hours to reach his hometown along with going through all the trouble and paperwork of being approved to even enter the area. The graph of Skip Cocci’s social network with those in his hometown is also much more dense than those who donated goods, which is why he is greatly affected by the natural disaster and more willing to take a risk. There is a clear distinction between being aware of the situation versus actually participating to help, which is tied to weak versus strong ties within a social network. It’s interesting to see how great of an effect weak and strong ties play in the context of Hurricane Sandy.
-elkay