Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives by Nicholas A. Christakis

May 25, 2010 Jason rated it 3 of 5 stars

The Superorganism. We've animated! We've vivified. Social Media, social networking, geolocation, Goodreads, bookmarking, news aggregators, RSS feeds, it goes on and on. We've layered ourselves in so many overlapping, four-dimensional, self-annealing, anfractuous networks that we exist as single honeycombs in a living hive of millions. There are invisible lines that leave your body and connect to other people in ways you can't even represent on paper, exploding outward in fractal, logarithmic ste...more The Superorganism. We've animated! We've vivified. Social Media, social networking, geolocation, Goodreads, bookmarking, news aggregators, RSS feeds, it goes on and on. We've layered ourselves in so many overlapping, four-dimensional, self-annealing, anfractuous networks that we exist as single honeycombs in a living hive of millions. There are invisible lines that leave your body and connect to other people in ways you can't even represent on paper, exploding outward in fractal, logarithmic steps to the rest of the world. These connections can be both perennial or ephemeral, durable or solvent, obvious or perplexing, and usually several types at once. But, they are as essential--though seemingly unrelated--to the same organism as kidneys and a hypothalamus.

We know what it means to have Six Degrees of Separation between us, ala Kevin Bacon. Connected now presents us the next maxim in the formula that defines the Superorganism. There are 'Three Degrees of Influence,' no more, and generally no less. In other words, you are influenced most by your first degree of friends; next by the second degree of friend's friends; and finally by a third degree of friend's friend's friends. You don't even know those people, and yet, using repeatable mathematical rigor, the experiments show that we are ultimately affected by Three Degrees of Influence. Sure, it's less influence at each degree, but the unknown people in your myriad networks yield a certain, empirical influence over your actions. I shit you not.

For my new friends on Goodreads, that means my buddy from high school has a new work co-worker that now, from Three Degrees of Separation, can influence your thoughts, decisions, and attitudes. It seems absolutely ridiculous, but the PhD authors have employed CRAY 1 supercomputers to cull trillions of nodes and billions of interactions, and have arrived at numbers that are amazingly replicable--and replicable over networks of different kind, shape and form.

In a network of thousands of people there are bizarre clumpings of obesity, depression, athleticism, obsessive-compulsion, white collar crime, hyperlipidemia, and political persuasion. Some of these seem intuitive, but how the heck can my high school buddy's new co-worker affect your triglycerides? Is it possible that your ex-lover's new partner should affect my diet! "No," you say. WRONG. And here's the book to prove it.

Connected presents more material than just a proof of Three Degrees of Influence. The book explains how and, more importantly, why humans live in these networks. This is not an anthropological study, but there are some interesting tidbits about where you should be in your network (central or peripheral) when there's an unexpected outbreak of genital warts, depression, or criminal activity. You also learn to what extent social media has complicated, extended, and entangled your lives with others. As sociologists begin to plumb the data of Web 3.0, a brave new world is coming into focus, and it's a world of helpful, intriguing, unbelievable connectedness.

Twopointsomething rounded up to 3 stars. The book is well-paced and revealing enough. Unfortunately the publisher restrained these PhDs, making the book more palatable to America's sixth grade reading level. I would have preferred a more academic and data-based presentation. Too bad they gloss over the real mechanics of networks and how they morph around like fresh water pseudopods.(less)

3 likes · like · see review

Jan 15, 2011 Trevor rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: behavioural-economics, education, social-theory, psychology

There are a number of things I’ve been thinking about lately and quite a few of those things are discussed here in this book. So, in a sense I should have found this much more interesting than I did. Overall, I was a little disappointed even though I think this book has an important message and has interesting things to say about a number of incredibly important issues.

If I had written this book…

It is hard to say just what the perfect society might be for humans, but what we have today seems pre...more

6 likes · like · see review

Jun 30, 2012 Donna rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book makes some interesting assertions based on a variety of creative data and it certainly is important to think of the connections we have in everday life and how those might affect our own behavior. Our lives are made up of relationships and those relationships certainly do impact our lives in meaningful ways. The authors explore how our health, politics and everyday decisions are influenced not only by our direct friends but by the friends of our friends and I am with them for the most...more

like · see review

May 30, 2012 Erika RS rated it 2 of 5 stars

This book had some great information packed inside of a repetitive package that wasn't very sticky.

Once you picked up the key ideas, most of the conclusions followed in a fairly obvious manner. The key ideas or, at least, the ones that I remember, were:
- Network influence tends to travel three degrees before shrinking to statistical insignificance. You influence your friends, friends' friends, and friends' friends' friends, and they influence you back. The strength of influence decreases with e...more This book had some great information packed inside of a repetitive package that wasn't very sticky.

Once you picked up the key ideas, most of the conclusions followed in a fairly obvious manner. The key ideas or, at least, the ones that I remember, were:
- Network influence tends to travel three degrees before shrinking to statistical insignificance. You influence your friends, friends' friends, and friends' friends' friends, and they influence you back. The strength of influence decreases with each separation, but the number of people influenced increases.
- Network effects are real. They persist even once researchers account for other sources of similarity in the network such as homophily (the tendency for like to be connected to like) and common external factors (people near each other in the network may share experiences).
Everything travels across the network -- ideas, emotional state, behavior, disease, etc. -- and because of the three degrees of influence rule, you only have limited control over what you are exposed to and who you can influence.
- Not all network ties are equal (weak ties and strong ties). The most important information tends to come from ties that are distant or weak. This is because you have a pretty good idea of the information held by those connected with close, strong ties. For example, people tend to find jobs and relationship opportunities through distant or weak ties because they have generally already evaluated the opportunities presented by their strong, close ties. Distance brings information that you have not already incorporated.

Once you know these principles, much of the rest of the book becomes fairly straightforward.

The authors did present some compelling information in their discussion of the internet. Based on studies that they and others have done, they concluded that relationships on the internet tend to be largely the same as traditional relationships. The mix may have changed (more weak ties, perhaps) and the means of network maintenance have certainly changed, but, for better and worse, people are still largely the same creatures.

Overall, I am glad that I read this book. The information was interesting even if the presentation was less than gripping. The information in the book consisted almost exclusively of real studies, so the conclusions seem well founded, even if not surprising.(less)

1 like · like · see review

Jun 12, 2011 Bojan Tunguz rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The raise of the internet has precipitated the increase of public's interest in networks and many books have come out in recent years that explore this new fascination. Most of these books, however, focus on some very trite and visible aspect of the web networks, and don't delve deeper into the more subtle and nonobvious properties of networks. In the light of that the strength of "Connected" is that it heavily relies on well established scientific research and presents it in an accessible fashi...more The raise of the internet has precipitated the increase of public's interest in networks and many books have come out in recent years that explore this new fascination. Most of these books, however, focus on some very trite and visible aspect of the web networks, and don't delve deeper into the more subtle and nonobvious properties of networks. In the light of that the strength of "Connected" is that it heavily relies on well established scientific research and presents it in an accessible fashion that still does full justice to the topic. Both authors are themselves prominent researchers in the field, and this fact helps with the choice and presentation of topics. The particular focus on social networks is very timely in the light of recent explosion of online social networks. However, social networks have been around for a very long time. In fact, there have been some evolutionary theories that suggest that our rise as a species has been to a large extent spurred by the need to manage large social networks.

The book provides many interesting and nontrivial insights into what sorts of social networks are most beneficial in certain circumstances, and which ones on the other hand can have the most deleterious effects, such as in cases of spreading of diseases. One of the more pleasant aspects of this book has been the more positive attitude towards the role of religion in society that is not simplistic and provides us with some useful new insights and ways of looking at religion. For instance, from the purely social-networking point of view God can be viewed as a node in a network that is equally distant from all other nodes - individual believers in this case. This provides us with a useful new paradigm, and it would be interesting to see if other social researchers would employ it in their investigations and analyses of religion in the upcoming years.

If you are looking for a well-researched and accessible book on social networks, this is probably the best one that has been on the market thus far.(less)

like · see review

Nov 28, 2010 Richard Conlin rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book summarizes the research about social connections that changes the way we can think about social change and other phenomena. The authors suggest that social networking is so important in human activity that they even propose (almost seriously...) remonikering us "homo dictyous" (network man). A fun example, dear to my heart, about door-to-door voter turnout operations. A study they cite indicates that contacting a person and urging them to vote leads to a 10% higher chance that person w...more

like · see review

Jul 21, 2010 Andrew rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Excellent book by Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler that describe how social networks can explain many social phenomena from voting patterns to the spread of food allergies to the epidemic of diabetes and depression.

Though most books in the social sciences are interesting, but light on evidence, the authors give due diligence to describing experiments and providing relatively robust analyses to support their claims.

Here is a list of high yield facts/experiments/insights in the book (spoiler a...more Excellent book by Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler that describe how social networks can explain many social phenomena from voting patterns to the spread of food allergies to the epidemic of diabetes and depression.

Though most books in the social sciences are interesting, but light on evidence, the authors give due diligence to describing experiments and providing relatively robust analyses to support their claims.

Here is a list of high yield facts/experiments/insights in the book (spoiler alert!):

- 3.3 million Americans are supposedly allergic to nuts and 6.9 million are to seafood. But serious allergic reactions lead to only 2,000 hospitalizations per year (out of 30 million total hospitalizations) and at most only 150 Americans die each year from food allergies (compared to 50 for bee stings, 100 from lightning strikes, 45,000 from motor vehicle accidents, 2,000 who drown, 13,000 who die from gun accidents. The authors argue that these reports of allergies have spread like wild-fire through social networks due to anxiety and hysteria fromseeing others having allergies.
- A person is 15% more likely to be happy if a directly connected person is happy. (10% more likely if someone two degrees separated is happy. 6% more likely if someone three degress separated is happy.)
Compare this to the 2% bump when one gets $10,000.
- When the subway in Vienna, Austria was finished in 1978, suicides soared. When psychiatrists and journalists worked together to temper the detail in the coverage of the suicides, suicides dropped from 40/yr to 6/yr.
- Typical immunization campaigns require a 80-100% vaccination rate. However, if adopting a strategy to only vaccinate the well-connected acquaintances of randomly selected individuals, equivalent protection can be seen with ~30% vaccination.
- Election markets predict outcomes better than polls.
- There were two cool psychology experiments/games that were described:
1) Ultimatum game - two players, $10, player 1 decides how much of the $10 to give player 2. If player 2 accepts, the prize is split as proposed. If player 2 refuses, neither gets any money. Traditional economics predicts that player 1 will take $9.99 and give player 2 $0.01. However, often times the split was an even $5-$5. The authors don't simply take this as proof, but support for the idea that humans are hardwired to be altruistic. The authors do note that often times player 2 refused low offers (even though this was against his/her economic interest) and thus the equilibrium pushed towards $5-$5.
2) Dictator game- In this version of the game, player 1's decision was automatically taken. Traditional economics dictates that player 1 would take all $10 since player 2 was powerless. However, the equilibrium was established around $8-$2. Altruism indeed!
- Stanley Milgrim's 3 famous experiments were described: 1) 6 degrees of separation, which was replicated worldwide via email by other scientists, 2) developing a group following after looking up at nothing in particular, 3) the infamous Nazi-electrocution experiment.
- When study subjects took on online avatar identities via online gaming, they demonstrated The Proteus Effect in which the more attractive avataars were more dominant in the ultimatum game (described above). Whereas short avataars proposed $52-$48 splits of $100, tall avataars were closer to $61-$39.

(less)

like · see review

Adam Sobh Connected
Social Networks, we’ve all heard of them, many of us are linked to several of them, yet how much do we really know about social networks? Oft...more Connected
Social Networks, we’ve all heard of them, many of us are linked to several of them, yet how much do we really know about social networks? Often misunderstood and disliked by older generations but comprehended and loved by younger age groups, social networks such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter influence the decisions we make in our daily lives whether we realize it or not. Though some may find this statement hard to believe, the authors of Connected prove that it is very true. This is the main concept of the book Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives.
The authors of Connected (Nicholas A. Christakis and James H. Fowler) use real life examples to explain the many different ways in which social networks and relative strangers can affect aspects of our daily lives. For example, when describing how our social connections can affect the way we vote, Fowler and Christakis use a few lines from the speech that Barrack Obama gave on the night that he was officially elected president. These lines begin by describing how, when he first launched his election campaign, President Obama was not the strongest nominee due to his limited amounts of money and endorsements. However, thanks to the 600 million dollar donation that he received from over three million citizens, President Obama was able to keep his campaign alive. Looking at these enormous statistics, one may question how Obama convinced these three million people to donate all that money to his campaign. The answer to this question is actually fairly simple. Obama realized the power of social networking sites, so he decided to create his own (My.BarrackObama.com). This gave voters a feeling of "connection" with one another which in turn caused them to urge their family and friends to support Obama.
Social networks affect much more than simply who we vote for, they affect what we choose to display on our profiles, who we add to our friends list, how we view ourselves and even how others view us. In the days before social networks, to learn more about someone you would need to have at least one conversation with that person. These days however, people can learn everything and anything about you just by reading the information on your profile. They don’t even need to say hello! It gets worse, after finding out about your likes, dislikes, hobbies, interests, etc. many of these strangers will then use this information while gossiping to their friends and family about you. If you find this hard to believe, just ask around and see how many people have deleted information on their profiles, blocked someone, even taken their own lives because of what people said/did to them after reading their profile.
One of the main points of Connected is that being part of a group is much better than being alone. Evidence to support this theory comes from multiple sources such as the Bible. Christakis and Fowler use the story of Joshua and the Israelites working together to destroy the gates of Jericho (a task that would have been unachievable had they worked individually) as proof that an impossible task can be achieved if people work together in a group. While it is highly unlikely that each and every person in the group knew everyone else directly, they still influenced one another to join together and bring down Jericho as a group rather than individually.
Reading Connected was a long but enjoyable process for me. I love books and have read a great deal of them but never in my entire life have I had the pleasure of reading a book as interesting as Connected. The authors use a great deal of statistics, charts and real life examples to explain how social networks affect our daily lives. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys math and philosophy.

Works Cited
Christakis, Nicholas A., and James H. Fowler. Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives. New York: Little, Brown and, 2009. Print(less)
Nov 10, 2010 04:07pm

Mar 24, 2010 getAbstract rated it 4 of 5 stars

A report on the basic urge to connect

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 sw...more

like · see review

Aug 19, 2009 Bob Redmond rated it 3 of 5 stars

Written by an MD/PhD and an MD--practicing professors and social scientists--this book examines social networks from numerous points of view: historical, biological, political, technological.

The first two thirds of the book are essentially a summary of studies, focused mainly on showing who affects us (friends of friends, more than friends themselves!), what they effect (sex, wealth, health, and social mores), and the power of those networks to change or reinforce behavior. The last third picks...more Written by an MD/PhD and an MD--practicing professors and social scientists--this book examines social networks from numerous points of view: historical, biological, political, technological.

The first two thirds of the book are essentially a summary of studies, focused mainly on showing who affects us (friends of friends, more than friends themselves!), what they effect (sex, wealth, health, and social mores), and the power of those networks to change or reinforce behavior. The last third picks up the pace, as the authors start to make their own conclusions.

The book aspires to Malcom Gladwellian levels of genius, using clever anecdotes and real-world applications of its data. Gladwell, however, uses anecdotes not merely as window-dressing but as metaphors. He has simmered down his chapters like my grandmother's marinara. His real-world data hits you at the end like a revelation: all the while he has been talking about a bigger picture (e.g. racism), and has laid it all out in a page-ripping narrative.

Alas, Gladwell this ain't. For 200 pages, the authors drag the reader through arcane terminology, formative studies (which, with the exception of those by Stanley Milgram, are stultifyingly boring), and other establishing material of main interest for academics, professional scientists, or compulsives like me who can't skip ahead, or even stop reading a book once begun. Note to the authors: we're not vetting this as a scientific paper!

By the last 100 pages of the book, the authors finally get interesting. In terms of television, online networks, and electoral politics, they discuss the _implications_ of the social networks they've described. We haven't evolved so much as a species, they say, but the classic categorizations of society (Adam Smith on one side, and Karl Marx on the other) need to be re-evaluated.

Further: because of the digital age, we have better access to data, and can understand and manipulate our social networks more effectively. Then the authors make two conclusions: one, humans are basically good (supported with data!); and two, we can use social networks to cultivate more of this goodness. Best of all, they even suggest how: by addressing the digital divide, by encouraging charity, by making health and welfare policy more effective.

It's a startling and constructive end to a book that might have done better to begin there. Saying that "we're connected!" is an anticlimactic argument. Saying what happens next, that would be revolutionary. These social scientists have done some prodigious homework but have barely begun to sketch the trajectory of their equations.

*

WHY I READ THIS BOOK: It was being promoted at the Book Expo this summer (it comes out next month on Little, Brown) and I was in the mood for some non-fiction. As it turns out, moreover, I have been wrestling with the question "are good works necessarily made by good people?" ... and if it's true that the right book chooses you at the right time, then this happened here. To say "c'mon people now, it's time to get together" is not a new conclusion (cf Jesus, Buddha, Dorothy Day, King Sunny Adé, the Youngbloods), but the authors have suggested some strategies I should consider in my work on various public programs. They say: "To reduce poverty, we should focus not merely on monetary transfers or even technical training; we should help the poor form new relationships with other members of society." Can a public festival help change the world? Stay tuned for the experience of reading Chris Hedges' EMPIRE OF ILLUSION (The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle)...

(less)

like · see review

Oct 24, 2009 Jj Kwashnak rated it 5 of 5 stars

Most people hold their family and friends important to their lives - that's a given. And many have played the Six Degrees of Separation (Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon) game. But how important those social networks has not been as well understood. Christakis and Fowler show us that it really is who we know and how we know them that is more important than we ever understood in our lives. Through our friends, and their friends and acquaintances, we amass a rather large collection of people who can hav...more

like · see review

Oct 25, 2009 Paulo O'Brien rated it 5 of 5 stars

We now live with humongous online social networks, but human beings have always had them -- in fact, it is one of the very things that defines being "human." Or says this book, which is a must read for understanding the power that social networks have had from the beginnings of human history and how that works.

This book provides a magnificent explanation of how central our connections to others have always been, going back to the tribal. In addition, the authors posit that our need to be so conn...more

like · see review

Mar 20, 2013 Ariadna73 rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: sociology

This is a book about how the social connections we have actually affect our lives to extreme extents. For example, we can spread emotions as we spread germs; wealth and poverty are also contagious, as well as it is suicide. It shows a myriad of examples of outbursts of "trendy" illnesses, such as SARS, autism or IBD. People who get sick are not faking or making believe. They actually feel sick, but their condition was triggered by a social influence, not by the real germ or genetic disposition....more

like · see review

Feb 12, 2012 Dirk rated it 2 of 5 stars

The book is very interesting as it provides a readable and intelligible introduction into studies of networks and social networks. It has been written by two promoters of social network theory. Hence you won't find any critique of the theories they promote in this book. For example the transposition of the network concepts from the natural sciences onto the social sciences remains unquestioned although there is a 100year old history of studies that criticise such transpositions. In particular, t...more

1 like · like · see review

Oct 24, 2012 Arin Basu rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Everyone

Recommended to Arin by: Course site

Connected is a great book to start with if you are interested in the world of social network analysis or would like to study how social networks are analyzed and the mechanics of it, without getting too enmeshed in the nitty gritty of the math (which can get quite complex). Christakis and Fowler and have very carefully woven the tales of social network analyses with case studies and stories that begin each chapter and then in a very casual, lucid, and easy style delve into the details. It's quit...more

like · see review

May 24, 2010 Alexandra Graßler rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Wer wissen möchte, wie uns unsere ganz persönlichen sozialen Netzwerke beeinflussen, kommt an diesem Buch nicht vorbei. Es ist faszinierend zu lesen, dass die Reichweite - die Wirkung auf uns hat - bis zu den Freunden der Freunde unserer Freunde reicht.

Um ein Beispiel zu nennen: hören Freunde der Freunde unserer Freunde zum Rauchen auf, steigt die Chance (wenn wir auch rauchen) signifikant, dass wir auch aufhören zu rauchen! Von diesen Beispielen und Zusammenhängen gibt es viele zu lesen.

Die T...more

like · see review

Oct 03, 2009 Shinynickel marked it as to-read

Off this review:

Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives
By Nicholas A. Christakis and James H. Fowler (Little, Brown and Company)
The “dynamic duo” behind Connected has already made waves with the research that forms the basis for this sure-to-be blockbuster. Christakas made headlines with a study that showed obesity could spread from person to person like a contagious disease; Fowler had similar coverage showing how political beliefs might act in the sa...more

like · see review

Feb 12, 2011 Kat rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction-science-and-sociology

As work assignments go, reading a pretty interesting book and summarising it for marketers is not a bad one. Connected argues that personal behaviour is deeply affected by the social networks that people are involved in and that people one barely knows can have a profound impact on actions that we think are autonomous. They believe that social networks explain how society works and argue that they must be tended in order to enhance positive effects and mitigate negative ones. The authors back th...more

like · see review

Mar 26, 2010 Andy Oram rated it 5 of 5 stars

Most of the research in this book has already been widely reported in
the popular press--a sign of its value--but like the phenomena the
authors describe, the book is much greater than the sum of its parts.
The carefully build a view of life from many areas of social science
(while generally admitting that there are alternative ways to
interpret the phenomena) and end up with one of those "big ideas" that
publishers love. I'm quite willing to entertain this big idea: the
ways we informally connect to e...more

1 like · like · see review

Sep 28, 2009 Margie rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people with very short attention spans

Recommended to Margie by: GoodReads giveaways

Shelves: first-reads, society

I've read a couple of reviews by professionals, and have been really surprised that everyone focuses on the content, and no one mentions how poorly organized the book is.

The data is very interesting and compelling. And the authors aren't bad writers. But I'm simply stunned that people who talk about using visualization software to map the topology of social networks can't come up with some workable, organized map of how to present their findings. They seem to rely on having interesting anecdotes...more

4 likes · like · see review

Mar 24, 2013 Alex rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Connected is a clearly written, engaging book based on some seemingly tenuous conclusions about humans' tendencies to form and exist in social networks. It's an interesting read if you want to apply a basic systems thinking approach to our friendships and relationships.
The authors first explore some of the characteristics of networks, particularly the various ways that nodes (an individual in the network) and ties (the connections between two individuals) can be configured to form different vari...more Connected is a clearly written, engaging book based on some seemingly tenuous conclusions about humans' tendencies to form and exist in social networks. It's an interesting read if you want to apply a basic systems thinking approach to our friendships and relationships.
The authors first explore some of the characteristics of networks, particularly the various ways that nodes (an individual in the network) and ties (the connections between two individuals) can be configured to form different variations of networks. We are introduced to basic “rules” which lay the framework for the many examples of how networks have a “surprising power.” Social networks have various characteristics, including transivity, or how many of our connections are connected to each other, and flow, or the way that information or influence travels across the network. These characteristics and many others influence how, when and why we are affected by our social networks. The authors also posit that there is a rule of three degrees when looking at our influence in our networks. We are influenced and influence up to three degrees away - that is, our friend’s friend’s friend - but not farther.
One of my major criticisms of the book is the authors’ very light emphasis on research. This makes sense in a way - and the authors acknowledge that it is difficult to research social networks and the available information is sometimes lacking. However, the authors compensate for this with common-sense theories that, while they make sense on reading, are not backed up. For example, in talking about the rule of three degrees, after offering several possible reasons for the effect, the authors write: “It seems likely these factors play a role. But no matter the reason, the Three Degrees Rule appears to be an important part of the way human networks function, and it may continue to constrain our ability to connect, even though technology gives us access to so many more people.” “No matter?” “Appears?” “May?” When I see these words in regards to one of the main hypotheses of the book, it makes me less invested in the implications that follow.
That said, some of these implications were thought-provoking. Emotions are “contagious” across networks, which rings very true to my work in a small therapeutic school. When one or two students are off-track or have high energy, the effect seems to spread across the rest of the students relatively quickly. The authors attribute this to an evolutionary explanation in which we mimic others’ external states and thereby come to adopt their internal emotions. Happiness and loneliness can spread across networks. Social networks also help to facilitate romantic matchmaking, or on the flip side, the spread of STDs.
While these examples are compelling, the authors failed to convince me that the other explanations (outside of network spread) are irrelevant. These two factors are homophily, or the tendency of like people to gather, and confounding, or the possibility that an external force affects multiple people the same way. In different examples, the authors take this into account in different ways, for example, seeking futher data around whether friendships are mutual or not. Something about this didn’t ring quite true to me, however. Maybe it’s my own skepticism or maybe it’s a choice on the authors’ part to focus more on human-interest aspects than data, but some of the conclusions in Connected seem tenuous to me.
There were several examples, however, that rang true to me and helped me to think about groups in a different way. One such example was looking at politicians “weak ties” versus “strong ties” and how a politician or lobbyist with many weak ties is better off than one with a few close ties. This makes me think about my students and how we can encourage them to develop a variety of types of relationships, not just focus on the primary roles of friend, partner, or family member. Acquaintance, co-worker, and neighbor seem just as important. I would also recommend checking out the section on voting and how voters can influence an election through social ties.
Lastly, the authors address poverty through a reframing of the traditional narrative. The authors reframe social inequality as such: “situational inequality (some are better off socioeconomically)” versus “positional inequality (some are better off in terms of where they are located in the network).” In their view, your socioeconomic status doesn’t matter as much as your position within a network: whether you are highly connected to others and in a position to influence and be influenced by those in your network, or whether you have a less central position and could be cut off from the network by losing only one or two ties. I see this in my students and it reinforces the importance of the work we do at my school to help students get connected to resources and people in the community to strengthen their social networks.
I wouldn’t use this book as my primary source of information about social networks, but it certainly adds some interesting elements to inform my other knowledge. I was surprised that more of the book didn’t focus on social media and how it confounds or confirms the authors’ other findings, but after learning how little research exists on social connections in general, it doesn’t surprise me that even less exists on online social networks. I would very much like to pick up a second edition of this book if the authors chose to update it in a few years.
(less)

like · see review

May 15, 2012 Mieke Mcbride rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is a book of pop sociology, which I haven't read in a while. I read this book at the end of my three years of coursework in a sociology graduate program and three months of intense studying for my comprehensive exams, which covered a key concept in this book-- how relationships impact health. If I had read this pre-"that whole miserable process", it's possible that I would've given Christakis and Fowler four stars, not three. But ultimately, I saw this as a book with great potential, on a t...more

like · see review

Apr 04, 2010 Schmacko rated it 4 of 5 stars

So I’m a bit of a geek for these books. I read this one three times, for both good and bad reasons, which I’ll explain later.

Humans are of course social animals. Almost all of us live in groups large and small; we have our work groups, our social groups, and our families. Connected explores how much of an effect these groups have on us. It looks at our closest family and friends, but it goes further, including friends of friends of friends, pinpointing how these larger meta-groups and intra cult...more So I’m a bit of a geek for these books. I read this one three times, for both good and bad reasons, which I’ll explain later.

Humans are of course social animals. Almost all of us live in groups large and small; we have our work groups, our social groups, and our families. Connected explores how much of an effect these groups have on us. It looks at our closest family and friends, but it goes further, including friends of friends of friends, pinpointing how these larger meta-groups and intra cultures affect us.

What Connected finds is a bit alarming. It seems that depression can be considered contagious; so can rage. Obesity and healthy living are constantly battling each other through our web of acquaintances. You’re most likely to marry a friend of a friend. Job searchers have a better luck if they know people connected in the seeker’s business field. People are usually only really emotionally close to four to eight people. We can only know about 150 people beyond just cursory knowledge, though language lets us converse with millions. In this case, our meta-group – our friends of friends – can be HUGE. Their effects ripple and wake through our meta-groups, constantly battling to influence our politics, our weights, our emotions, and even our incomes and educational levels.

So much of this is frustrating. People (like me) with nearly 900 Facebook friends can go thorough their list, trying to pare things down, and say, “Nope, I know him, and I know her, and I know…” In fact, we can recognize thousands of faces, including celebrities and historic figures. How many people can we know? How many can we utilize and operate with in our daily life, jobs, and families. Study after study says about 100 to 150.

What about the idea that we are not really in control of our own fates? Constant influence is bombarding our free will. Obesity is contagious. But so is healthy living. People we may not even know well are encouraging us to eat more, exercise, or try a new weight loss plan.

Your friend’s friends are changing your vote. (You are likely to hang around people who see things politically your way. In fact, socially, there is a MASSIVE gulf between the two major political thoughts in America, with almost nobody in the gap. The graphic on this is cool!) Politicians become more popular when they go on The Colbert Report; this phenomenon is called “the Colbert bump.”

Of course, when you think of it, you influence others, and in turn you allow them to influence you. Free will is a grey area, shaped by both conscious and subconscious thought. Choice is so elaborate, it’s impossible to ever claim autonomy over your decisions.

Connected explains a lot of this what happens and why it happens. They study a LOT of areas, showing the different aspects of social contagions and subtler influences. They detail this situation in minute points; it’s a somewhat thick read. Two things they found: one, if you’ve got the right looks and the right social skills, you’re going to be popular, and your influence is going to be greater. No kidding? The second obvious fact they state is that if you can find the most connected nodes and influence them, you influence a HUGE system. Really?

So, why did I read it three times? Well, I don’t read self-help books, but I do read books like these. I like to see what I can do with such knowledge. The book is crammed full of fascinating stuff, but this in-depth tome specifically argues that there may be almost nothing you can do as an individual, short of becoming prettier, wealthier, more connected, and more socially adept.

Also, you can think you’re influencing the group, but you’d be unaware as to whether it’s influencing you. You might start healthy living, hoping your friends catch on, but who knows if it does? Also, you don’t know what antagonistic forces you’re battling; your meta-group could be full of people dipping Oreos into cake frosting, meaning your weight loss plan is destined to fail! You can get people to vote, but you don’t know if others are doing the same. You can come up with a new way to bring about social change, but while you’re in the system, you will never know what you’re up against, or if you yourself have been influenced. Essentially, this thorough book is interesting, but it may not change anything.

That’s what I found after three reads. Reading at this stuff from a distance is interesting. However, trying to apply it to your own life is nearly impossible, fraught with too many unseen factors to be applicable. The facts of the book end up being just extraordinarily fascinating trivia.
(less)

like · see review

Aug 02, 2011 Anibal added it · review of another edition

This book is a mayor paradigmatic shift in the social sciences for two reasons. First one, it announces the beginning of a new era: the era of the "Homo dyctious". It´s true that human beings have always been connected with others but now we have the right tools to asses it properly.

Second reason, contrary to the two great traditions in the social sciences: methodological individualism Vs. methodologogical holism this book represents a third road which explains what the others miss: methodologic...more

like · see review

Sep 28, 2009 Kater Cheek rated it 2 of 5 stars

I bought this on spec (meaning, I didn't get it from teh library first and then decide it was worth buying) and I'm not sure it was really worth the $25.99 price tag. On one hand, it has a lot of fascinating information about everything from social networks, Milgram's experiments, Dunbar's number, and human evolution. On the other hand, it got a little dry at times. If you're not passionate about Sociology, as I am, you might not be able to finish it. And if you are passionate about Sociology, a...more

like · see review

Jun 07, 2011 Steve Heitkamp rated it 3 of 5 stars

It was good, but took me longer to read than I would have liked and I finished without feeling any 'wow' in my life. Perhaps it is because I am too interested in social networks to be shocked by the connections and too aware of the influences to see anything special in pointing them out. Are there people out there who do not think analyzing individuals as members of a social network is important to understanding who they are, the risks they face, and the future opportunities they are likely to e...more

like · see review

Jun 04, 2010 Richard marked it as to-read

Recommended to Richard by: NY Times Review

Shelves: cognition, non-fiction

Reviewed in the New York Times: You and Your Friend’s Friend’s Friends (October 1, 2009). this is the one that told us that we're more likely to gain weight if our friend's friend gains weight —or even if our friend's friend's friend does so, even if we've never met that person. And the correlation is often higher than weight gain between spouses. All due to social network and their intrinsic power upon the unconscious brain.

...more

like · see review

Feb 15, 2013 Joe rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

For some reason I thought this book might have something to say about how digital technology is changing our connections with one another. It doesn't. It's a popularized overview of network theory, written in a condescending tone. Some examples:

"This is called the Proust phenomenon, after the the author who described a poignant memory inspired by the scent of a cookie" (45).

"In many ways, our online connections resemble our offline ones, but in other ways, our online connections represent entire...more

like · see review

Jan 15, 2011 Liam rated it 5 of 5 stars

"If it were always beneficial to have a certain number of friends and a certain number of connections between our friends, then our social world would look like a boring, predictable lattice or the atoms locked in a salt crystal. We would all have the same kind of network." (235)

"If God were seen as a node on a network, large groups of people could be bound together not just by a common idea but also by a specific relationship to every other believer. People could perceive a specific social tie...more

like · see review

Oct 20, 2009 Cimuchowski rated it 4 of 5 stars

I bit dry but interesting book. The authors put forward convincing evidence that we are connect to nearly everyone on the globe thorough a chain of 6 people but that we can really only influence the first 3 people in that chain. That Also show that we are effected by the "friends of our friends of our friends".

They do little in the way of showing how we are to use that influence.

I did start to wonder, how many people did it take in the past to reach everyone in the world? Say before the telegra...more

like · see review

Oct 30, 2010 Efi rated it 2 of 5 stars

Intersting collection of research perspectives and observations from various areas (economics, medicine, psychiatry) that use social science modeling and theories.
This book is a Synthesis. It offers no new idea or perspective but adds to ones awareness on behavioral issues of groups, communities Etc.

It hasn't changed the way I operate but it reinforced spiritual beliefs on our connectedness and it reminded me what a joy it is to interact with people every day/ every moment. As if life is a boar...more

like · see review

title link	preview: Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives
avg rating	preview: Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives Goodreads rating: 3.68 (1050 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6494620-connected?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1344268393l/6494620.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6494620-connected?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives by Nicholas A. Christakis[/url]

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

Friend Reviews

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topic
Discuss This Book

combine
Other Editions (16)

Videos About This Book

Genres

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About Nicholas A. Christakis

Books by Nicholas A. Christakis

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website

Trivia About Connected: The Su...