Family Relations and Network Structure
The Huffington Post recently came out with an article describing the trending topic of Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony’s reunion onstage at a Radio City Music Hall concert. As background information, Lopez and Anthony were married and had two kids before divorcing and moving on to new relationships with different partners. However, the pair recently came together to sing “No Mes Ames,” which ironically translates to “Don’t Love Me.” The Huffington Post writes that Lopez stated that she stays close with Anthony in order to bring peace and happiness to her two daughters. The article mentioned that despite Lopez and Anthony’s past altercations, there are apparent network mechanisms drawing the pair back together. The desire to establish positive and healthy relations within the family’s network led the pair back together.
Lopez and Anthony’s relationship creates an interesting and complex network within their family. Before the breakup, Lopez, Anthony and their daughters all had strong ties and positive relations with each other—their network was balanced. After the divorce, the network structure changed. Lopez and Anthony maintained the strong ties and positive relations with their daughters, but the relation between Lopez and Anthony became negative. The network became unbalanced. The divorce changed the network and led to a state of tension because the structural balance property was no longer satisfied. The network became unbalanced because Lopez and Anthony maintained positive relations to their daughter, but had a negative relation with each other.
According to David Easley in Networks, Crowds and Markets, individuals attempt to attain structural balance in their relationships and networks. This desire to reduce tension and maintain balance is especially prominent in family networks because one’s immediate family typically includes strong ties that are densely and intricately linked. The dynamic nature of networks and the human desire to attain a balanced network may be a key factor that drove Lopez and Anthony back together. In order to make the network balanced once again, Lopez and Anthony would need to change their relation from negative back to positive. Time will tell if the couple will form a more positive relation and re-create balance in the family’s network.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jennifer-lopez-marc-anthony-and-i-still-care-about-each-other_us_57c9ad37e4b0e60d31deecbf