Weak and Strong Ties; How They Impact Health
Most people would consider the basis of a healthy lifestyle to rely strongly upon the close relationships that people have. It would be easy to dismiss acquaintances and “facebook friends” as having no real value, and in fact, might even be detrimental to one’s health. However, this article from the Washington Post is suggesting otherwise. The article describes how in fact, maintaining a mix of weak and strong ties is correlated to better long term health. Now of course, this does not mean causation, and there are a number of other factors than can play into this long term health benefit. It is believed that being in a wide network allows people to encourage each other to follow healthier habits and make better decisions.
We’ve discussed strong and weak ties extensively in class, and specifically how they relate to principles like strong triadic closure. Having strong ties can facilitate the creation of more weak ties between the people you are close with. Specifically, the strong triadic closure property states that two nodes that share a strong tie will share at least a weak tie with each other. By sharing strong ties with others, you are indirectly helping them by facilitating the creation of the weak ties that correlate to better long term health.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/how-casual-daily-interactions-protect-your-health/2018/07/06/fc62a468-4e33-11e8-84a0-458a1aa9ac0a_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.dde8a5dd2ce7