The Ultimate Social Networker
Facebook: The Ultimate Social Networker?
In a social network, there is a tendency for two people with a mutual friend to form some sort of link. This is known as triadic closure. The basic principle behind this idea is that new links are likely to form between people with one or more common friends due to a number of factors: proximity/opportunity or homophily (friends having similar attributes). Whatever the case may be, Facebook, in a nutshell, offers a quick and easy guide to who a person is and who they affiliate themselves with in the real world. Although Facebook is one of the most popular social networking techniques, there are two sides to this networking machine: building social ties in a positive or negative manner. According to the article attached by link, job candidates who maintain a profile on Facebook are beginning to understand that their personal images and descriptions of how they present themselves to their friends may hinder their chances at getting the job they desire.
The fact that Facebook offers an individual’s “personal” information to an array of different audiences has shown to create friends and enemies in a social network. The truths and details of personal information may begin to leak to people who were not meant to see them. In this particular article, many individuals who were well qualified for the jobs ended up not getting the positions based solely on the way they depicted themselves on Facebook. Many Facebook users “often don’t expect their personal information to be monitored by potential employers, and many consider their online profile information to be private.” It seems as though Facebook’s quick and easy approach (internet access) to making new ties and social networks with different people may in fact be its true downfall. Too much private information has the ability to fall into the wrong person’s lap at the wrong times.
Therefore, Facebook has the ability to form two different groups of friends that have opposing feelings towards one member of one of the groups. In this example, both groups of friends have complete graphs with balanced triangles. In the real world, one group would be the job hiring council and the other would be all of the friends of the Facebook user trying to get a job. Everyone in their particular group is friends with everyone else in their group. And the only way to balance the two groups would be for each member of one group to be enemies with each member of the other group. In turn, each member of the job hiring council is enemies with the Facebook user trying to get the job and any other friends of this particular individual who portray themselves the same way on their Facebook accounts (if they are also trying to get the job). If this scenario were to get even more extreme, the reputation of this individual may even linger with him to other job interviews. This would create more negative ties in the social networking scheme. In conclusion, Facebook is a great social networking tool but with its great power allows for social networking to get out of hand in some cases.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20202935/