Push Yourself- Weak connections with a strong effect.
Push Yourself is a social network website started by my soccer coach five years ago where people can post on a blog about the different types of pillar’s they’ve hit. There are four different “Pillars” that you can target, they are: Social, Physical, Intellectual, and Environmental. Hitting the pillars are about challenging yourself to, as the philosophy of the website states, ” Inspire, encourage and motivate people to make a difference.” The blog posts on Push Yourself are similar to the status’s you can make on Facebook, or Tweets on Twitter. Although on those social networking sites you can become “friends” or follow each other’s tweets where on Push Yourself is mainly all on-way communication.
In this situation, my coach could be considered as the origin node of the network. Five years ago, my soccer team only knew the site, which were approximately 22 players. As the years went on and we continued to post and told our friends about the site it continued to get more traffic and more posts were written daily. Members of Push Yourself are not forced to sign their posts or make their identities known, but that doesn’t mean that all members are not connected. By merely making an account on Push Yourself you connect yourself to every other member by being able to read their posts. Granted the connections made on the site are very weak, they create a strong effect. As an example, if one person posts some type of pillar they’ve hit that day, new members could read it and be inspired to challenge themselves and do something positive, whether it be a new workout, or simply recycling their trash.
Another element of Push Yourself is not the website itself, but what its message and what it stands for. If one member of the site has a close group of friends, they can bring its message to them and therefore all become part of the Push Yourself network, even though they’ve not seen the site. The network expands everyday as more and more people see the site and spread it’s message.
References:
http://www.pushyourself.com/Default.aspx
-Jayr19