The power of weak ties

Where I work there is a lot of chatter about Facebook. Some people love it, some people think it wastes time, some see its PR potential and then there are some people that consider the network as the freaky residence of ex-partners and old friends best left well alone.

The justification for the last group's opinion rests on the argument that they already have enough real friends and don't need to make online acquaintances in the online world, or rekindle past relationships that expired due to a very just reason.

This last week with the announcement that Facebook would be opening up its profiles to the all powerful, and in my opinion not so un evil, Google there was again outcry that even more undesirables would be able to remind you that you were the unpopular kid with disagreeable hair at school. I wasn't too concerned with the whole Google search development. I studiously removed my birth date from my profile as directed by Metro, but otherwise I saw it as a positive move that could see me grow my friends network further.

Having been on the book for what is nearing six months my number of friends is 257. I know of people that have more friends, but by general accounts this is a large number and much more than the average 53 that MTV and Microsoft identified as the average in a study of the social networking site. Of course the vast majority of the people on my friend's list I don't see regularly anymore, some I haven't seen since I left school ten years ago. 

The simple motivation behind my procurement was curiosity. Curiosity to see what my old acquaintances were now up to, who was living where, who was married, who had kids, who had become successes and who hadn't.

Now until this weekend I didn't have a reasonable argument as to why my widespread friendship procurement was not right and why I shouldn't be concerned that a large number of people could now see what I was up to and readily get in touch with me. I am happy with myself, am pleased with the life I lead, so why wouldn't I be happy to share a few words via my wall or receive a poke from some people I hadn't seen for ten years or so. But thanks to James Harkin's article in this weekend's FT's weekend magazine, I have learned about Mark Granovetter's theory on The Power of Weak Ties and now have a compelling and academically supported argument to strengthen my acitons.

You see in a nut shell the Theory on The Power of Weak Ties suggests that it is weak ties that open up a world of new opportunities to individuals simply because the people that are our weak ties inhabit different worlds and social circles that are unconnected and foreign to our standard sets of friends and relationships. Makes sense - right?

Anyways, reading Harkin's article got me to thinking. Had it not been for weak ties I would not have been able to secure this video for my client Xbox - thanks David. I would not have drunk stupid amounts of bad gin and not been able to remember Bjork's set at Glastonbury - thanks (I think) Drew. Further, it isn't my strong ties that will potentially grow my salary with spotters fees weak acquaintances with employment - jobs aren't secured yet, so for the sake of existing jobs I will leave names out here :-).

So, thanks Harkin to alerting me to Granovetter's theory. Bring on the next Facebook argument - I have a new point to argue, and it is a powerful one.

Best be off to continue to strengthen, or rather weaken my ties.