My friends are friends!
Social networks are everywhere. One of the easiest and most well-known is the network that encompasses celebrities. You can find information about famous people anywhere¾ in the news, in magazines, on tv, on the internet, people are always talking about who’s who and who is friends with who. This particular article discusses Zayn Malik and Taylor Swifts relationship with both each other and with the media. It mentions that the two are friendly because they were connected by Zayn’s girlfriend Gigi Hadid who is one of Taylor’s best friends. It also asks Zayn to comment on the media’s criticism on Taylor’s new music video in which he states that he doesn’t like to comment on peoples personal lives because he has also had experience being in the lime light in both positive and negative ways.
This is a clear example of the Strong Triadic Closure Property. This property states that if a person, A, has a strong tie to two others, B and C, then B and C must have an edge connecting them as well. In this case Gigi Hadid can be considered A. She clearly has a strong tie with both her boyfriend Zayn, B, and her best friend Taylor Swift, C. By Zayn and Taylor being friends, they satisfy the property. This article can also exemplify the Structural Balance Theory in several situations. The simple example is that Zayn, Taylor, and Gigi are all friends and all have positive edges creating a balanced network. There is another balanced network between Zayn, Taylor and the media. The article mentions the current negative relationship between Taylor and the media and also the negative relationship Zayn has had with the media in the past. In this case, because Taylor and Zayn have a positive relationship with each other and negative relationships with the media, the network is also balanced. If someone argued that Zayn has a positive relationship with the media because he agreed to do this interview, then the network would be unbalanced because there would be two positive relationships (Zayn-Taylor; Zayn-media) and one negative relationship (Taylor-media) which would cause tension.