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Connected

The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives

Nicholas A. Christakis and James H. Fowler

Little, Brown US, 2009

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Individuals derive their identities from their social networks. By forging dynamic connections, people accomplish innumerable worthwhile activities, such as giving to charity and sharing knowledge. Unfortunately, social networks also can bring great harm to their members. Panics may reverberate across financial networks, quickly sending stock markets into death spirals and shutting down credit for businesses and consumers. Pathogens like the AIDS virus can sweep across sexual and other networks. In this book, acclaimed scientists and academics Nicholas A. Christakis and James H. Fowler explore the properties and capacities of social networks. They present their findings about how and why people connect. getAbstract recommends their analysis to sociology and psychology buffs, as well as to managers and marketers who would like to develop more insight into how to take advantage of social networks.

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Only Connect

In 2002, a St. Louis exotic dancer named Kimmy asked a friend to guard her purse while she was busy. It contained $900. When Kimmy came back, both her friend and her pocketbook were gone. One week later, Kimmy’s cousin saw the purse-thief’s partner in a local store. The cousin phoned Kimmy, who immediately went to the shop and viciously beat the partner. Kimmy claimed that beating this person, who had done her no harm, gave her a chance to even the score with the purse thief.

Kimmy’s method of dealing with the theft – attacking someone with close ties to the thief – is an ancient response. The aggrieved person, or someone in his or her social network, harms the wrongdoer or someone in that person’s social network. Thus, social connections can have dangerous, even deadly, consequences. People also can derive great benefits from their social connections; for example, they might receive a needed organ from a donor they know – or don’t know. These are some defining characteristics of social networks:

People constantly shape and reshape their social networks.
In turn, social networks change their members: Someone with no friends lives differently...

About the Authors

Nicholas A. Christakis, M.D., Ph.D., is a professor at Harvard University. Time magazine named him one of 2009’s 100 most influential people in the world. James H. Fowler, Ph.D., is an associate professor at the University of California, San Diego.

Connected

The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives

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