Strong Ties or Weak Ties More Beneficial?
Strong Ties or Weak Ties More Beneficial?
https://www.livescience.com/25590-friends-social-network-science.html
Few Friends or Many: Which is Best?
Everyone thinks that having a small, close-knit group of friends is more beneficial. Small groups that you can trust makes you feel more at ease when drastic situations occur. This belief is true throughout the world. In Ghana, an individual who claimed to have more than 50 friends was considered “naïve” or “foolish.” This is understandable because trusting too many people ends up possibly hurting you negatively in the end. Hence the foolish trait automatically stamped on your head when you are friends with more than 50 people in Ghana.
However, having a small, close-knit group is not the ultimate key to friendship networks. A computer model simulated individuals who had different numbers and types of friends and the investment needed for each friend. The results ended up being that small social networks with deep ties were beneficial in less mobile societies and broad, shallower networks were advantageous in situations where friends were likely to move away. The shallow networks are more content with having a broad group of friends because it is less painful to lose someone that does not have a tight connection with you.
The conclusion previously stated came from a computer model. Using a real-life sample of 247 individuals, economic status came into play as well. Participants with less mobility and relatively low income were happier when they had fewer, yet
closer
friends. Participants with high mobility and rich, low mobility and rich, and high mobility and poor are more content with a broad and shallow network. The low mobility and rich go against the computer model and this may take into account many social factors. As a matter of fact, all rich people prefer broad networks and this may be due to lack of trust and the inability to let social interaction deeply interfere with their job.
Reading this article, I realized the power in weak ties. However, it seems like if the ties are weak, there must be more people in the network to counterweigh the weak ties. The smaller, close-knit groups may experience triadic closure, as the strong ties more likely lead to friend groups. So, using your socioeconomic conditions, which type of network is more beneficial for you?