The Strength of Weak Ties and Homophily in Social Networks
One of the most interesting parts of graph theory that we discussed was the strength of weak ties; the theory analyzed by Mark Granovetter was that “weak ties” or people that one considered acquaintances and not close friends were more likely to give people new information about job openings. This is because weak ties are a part of other social networks with information that may not be common in one’s own social network. People in your close-knit social network are likely to have access to the same information as you, and even though they are willing to help, you may already be aware of all the leads they have. I have personally experienced this phenomenon, and not just in the context of job seeking, but hearing about parties, potential subletters, events, and new products that I did not previously know of. I almost always hear about such things from people I’m not that close to. I may just mention a topic in passing during a quick conversation and this leads to them offering any helpful information they recall. This got me thinking about how the strength of weak ties influences the disadvantages of homophily in social networks.
In their paper, “Birds of a Feather: Homophily in Social Networks”, McPherson et al discuss how many social networks are homogenous based on certain sociodemographics, with ethnicity and race being the strongest dividers. People tend to gravitate toward others who are similar to them in some way. The authors also discuss how connections between dissimilar people dissolve at a higher rate. As undesirable as it is, social stratification is still very prevalent in society and according to the homophily of social networks, these strata are likely to be preserved since people tend to keep their social circles closed off from others who are not like them. Connecting this to the strength of weak ties and its advantages in job searching, I believe homophily in social networks might mean that most of the weak ties people have will be people who are different from them in one or more ways. This may then be advantageous for people with lower socioeconomic status since they may have the chance to hear of great job opportunities that they will not have heard of from their close-knit social network. However, on the other hand, are people with higher socioeconomic status willing to tell others about the connections they have to great job opportunities or are they more willing to keep it in their circles? The theory of the strength of weak ties implies that they are willing to share information with people they are not that close to, but I believe there are still caveats in this situation where people may be more willing to share this information with their weak ties whom they deem as being in the same “class” as them or just people who are more similar to them in general.
Journal:
McPherson, Miller, et al. “Birds of a Feather: Homophily in Social Networks.” Annual Review of Sociology, vol. 27, no. 1, 2001, pp. 415–444., https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.27.1.415.