The Strengths of Weak Ties vs. Stranger Danger
In class, we discussed the famous “strength of weak ties” hypothesis proposed by the sociologist Mark Granovetter in 1973. By interviewing people how they discovered their new jobs, he surprisingly found that many people collected employment information which leaded to their current jobs from “acquaintances” instead of close friends. The word “acquaintances” represents the concept of weak ties, which has been highly regarded in today’s job hunt and networking careers. This striking finding implies that it is those people with whom we are less connected who offer us true opportunities. He then claimed that these weak ties provide us with new information and resources that are crucial to our success.
The article I read recently admits that while LinkedIn explicitly recommends us to accept invitations only from people we know, it also encourages casual networking by showing us people up to THREE “degrees of separation”. In this way, it becomes much easier to know the friends of your friends (Triadic Closure property), people who come from the same educational institutions or had interned in the same company. People with personal contacts of 500+ appear to be an asset itself. However, the author also manages to explain this hypothesis in an interesting new way by pointing out the risks of connecting strangers on social media. The author presents the data form a resent survey of 2000 UK-based respondents (June, 2016), revealing that one in five workers admitted to accepting LinkedIn connection requests from people they never know. At the same time, experts in Intel Security observe an increase in fake LinkedIn accounts (February, 2016), which adds up the possibility of insecurity of unlocking the power of weak ties. Those fraudsters may predict who trust whom in an organization or a corporation, identify people in power, and phish for further access to prime information.
I think the article objectively reveals the potential danger of accepting a connection request from strangers on social media like LinkedIn. It reminds us that we should be wise to connect strangers on social media. Be careful when accepting connection requests. Take a look at their profile and if you cannot decide, you had better send a personalized note to ask for more detailed information. Likewise, when you are going to connect strangers or friends of friends of friends, you should include a note to introduce yourself, clarify who you are and how you know each other. Furthermore, it is wise to connect with your good friends of good friends (Strong Triadic Closure property) if you rarely have chance to meet them in person, because it is more likely for you two to have common interests. The recommended connection on LinkedIn can also be an opportunity to get to know each other. With the incentive of your good friend, it might be easier to further invest time and effort to maintain the connection.
After all, it is your personal decision to accept, decline, or take initiative to let others step into your network. Be sure to be discriminate and keep a clear-eye about benefits and risks when connecting others!
References:
http://www.comstocksmag.com/web-only/why-connecting-strangers-social-media-may-not-be-smart
http://www.csoonline.com/article/3036072/social-networking/the-rise-of-linkedin-fraud.html