Networks in Small Towns
This article discusses the structure of networks in small town and rural sections of America. It focuses on the negative effects that these usually strong networks can have. These negative effects have recently manifested themselves in the form of posts on different types of social media websites. Often new technologies take a while to catch on in communities that are small or somewhat isolated from other towns or cities. Now that many rural areas have caught on to new social media, it has created unpleasant effects.
One social media website that has become popular in certain areas of the country, including Ozarks, Appalachia and the rural South is the website Topix. This website hosts forums about local topics based on where you live. Opening the website immediately brings up a home page specifying the area you are currently in and “Recent News & Discussions” in your hometown. This website has not gained popularity in large cities, but is instead well frequented in towns like Mountain Grove, MO, Maywood, IL, and Ravenswood,WV (these three cities were listed in the site’s home page “News Trends” section today). While many posts on the site are about local politics, education and other helpful topics, in smaller towns it is more likely to find threads centered on local gossip. In big cities gossip usually fades away as even if someone posts something harmful about someone else the vast majority of people who happen to see the post won’t know what or who the post’s author is referring to. However in small towns (such as one mentioned in the article with less than 400 people) everyone knows everyone else’s business, so even if no names are used, the likelihood of everyone in the town knowing what the author of the post is talking about is very high. As stated in the article these negative gossip threads have led to lawsuits, people having to move away from their towns and in the most severe cases, suicide.
This discussion on gossip and online forums relates very well to our in class discussion of networks of people. In small towns the network that includes the entire town is interwoven so much so that almost everyone knows everyone else. Even if you don’t know someone it is extremely likely that you will at least have a weak bond to that person through the concept of strong triadic closure. Throughout these towns there are also examples of many different types of balanced and unbalanced networks. For people to be hurt so easily on the social site Topix, it is likely that there are many relationships where two people are friends but then have a negative relationship with a third mutual enemy. There are also probably many examples of a relationship where one person a friend of two others who happen to dislike each other; this is an example of an unbalanced connection. Since these towns are often somewhat isolated from other places it is easy to see how one person saying something hurtful about someone else could soon be common knowledge to everyone in town and become a big problem for the person being gossiped about. Unfortunately for the victims it is also usually true that “ ‘In a small town, rumors stay forever’” as stated by a woman from Mountain Grove, MO.