Social Status and its impact on Unbalanced Networks and Cyberbullying
The Strong, the Weak, and the Unbalanced: The Link Between Tie Strength and Cyberaggression on a Social Network Site — By: Denis Wegge1 , Heidi Vandebosch1 , Steven Eggermont2 , and Michel Walrave1
http://ssc.sagepub.com.proxy.library.cornell.edu/content/33/3/315.full.pdf+html
Social networks, such as Facebook, has allowed us to have numerous weak ties. Researchers have found that this phenomenon of having a disproportionate number of weak ties creates an unbalanced network. Along with social hierarchy, this then creates a setting that leads to online bullying. Imbalances in social ties are related to social status, and victims of cyberbullying are on the bottom of this hierarchy. People who are higher up tend to be aggressive towards their weaker ties in order to gain social status, because there is less risk and less chance of defense by the lower node’s peers.
In a sense, this means people can somewhat control the unbalance and size of their network. I wonder in the case of cyberbullying, how does the unbalance network usually balance themselves? The higher up node will continuously turn its weaker ties into negative edges. However the weak positive edges the victim (node) has may continually turn into negatives as well, as people jump on the bandwagon and display aggression to upgrade their social status. In this scenario, there are more negatives being formed, creating more unbalance. It seems in order to gain social status, people turn their weak ties into negative edges. Researchers suggest selectively choosing who to friend on social media, such as only friending close friends (strong ties), could be a solution to prevent cyber bullying.