Connected: The Suprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives — How Your Friends' Friends' Friends Affect Everything You Feel, Think, and Do

payal — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 08:00:00 +0000

By Nicholas A. Christakis, James H. Fowler

Connected is firstly an enjoyable read. There is something compelling about seeing the familiar, mundane details of our every day social life studied from a completely different perspective. Social networks are huge and for the most part we have no idea where we fit into them or just how far they reach. In a way this is Christakis and Fowler's point. What most of us think of as our social network are the people we know and see on a regular basis. In fact, the people who may have the most influence on us, the authors argue, are the people three degrees away in our network: friends of friends. And after three degrees the influence peters out. You are more likely to be happy if your friend's friends are happy than if you win the lottery!

Connected has been criticized for stating the obvious: we are more likely to be around people similar to us (“homophily” if you're a sociologist). But the argument the authors make is that we're not aware of the extent to which these relationships affect us, and most importantly how this impact could be used to better the world. If we are more likely to quit smoking because other people in our network have quit smoking than for any other reason, this is where anti-smoking resources should be directed. Similarly, politicians should focus on encouraging their supporters to recruit people in their networks to get involved rather than trying to reach out to individuals (and the authors argue Obama did this in the federal election).

The results of studies in this book are also sometimes unexpected, especially on the largely unstudied subject of social media. For example, a study was done on a small American town where sixty percent of the residents were given free wi-fi, and the other forty percent went internet free. After two years it was discovered that the households with internet developed deeper and broader connections to other residents, with more neighbourhood ties. Contrary to popular belief this suggests online communication might augment and improve real life relationships, not replace them.

The only issue I had with the social media chapter was that it already seemed a little dated, referring to sites like MySpace and iLike that have been mostly phased out. If anything this is a testament to how quickly changing our modern social networks are, as this book was only published in 2009. If you're ready to take a serious look at the influences that affect your life, most of which are probably beyond your control, read this book and prepare to have a whole new perspective.

Written by: Jennifer Burgess, February 2nd 2011

Politicking Online: The Transformation of Election Campaign Communications

admin — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:46:00 +0000

Edited by Costas Panagopoulos

Rutgers University Press

By now, we are all so familiar with the way the Obama campaign used technology to revolutionize politics that it almost seems cliché. Media coverage of the campaign’s strategy has made it seem as if Obama invented Internet campaigning. On the contrary, Politicking Online: The Transformation of Election Campaign Communications points out that “the digital pulse” of Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign was significant not for its innovative tech-savvy approach, but for its ability to synthesize lessons learned from a decade of web innovations and missteps.

For the politically minded, Politicking Online is a treasure trove of case studies, statistics, graphs, and clear-cut analysis of what works (Ned Lamont’s winning Connecticut’s Democratic primary nomination was due, in part, to his ability to gain support from the progressive blogosphere), what does not work (a candidate’s Facebook profile page means nothing if it doesn’t motivate voters to actually get out to the polls on election day), and what we are still unsure of (do websites boost civic participation among the politically indifferent, or just rile up those who are already engaged?).

Panagopoulos breaks down the nebulous term “technology” into a variety of sub-categories—blogging, online fundraising, Facebook, campaign websites, text messaging—without getting too nuanced and without skimming the surface of these topics. This ultimately results in a book that flows well from one topic to another without seeming fragmented. The reader is able to analyze website technology in congressional and state legislative campaigns before entering into a discussion on whether these websites have an impact on civic engagement, looking at how campaigns use other technology, such as email, text messaging, and online advertisements, to enhance their web presence. Politicking Online concludes with a discussion of blogging, Facebooking, and YouTube—technologies that, when used correctly, can enhance a candidates’ appeal and, when used poorly, leave candidates unable to retain control of their image.

Two of Politicking Online’s pieces focused on international examples of online communications in political campaigns. These two pieces, which looked at blogging in German electoral campaigns and text messaging in get out the vote efforts in Spain, left me simultaneously eager for more examples of how online communications worked on a global level and annoyed that it was not a more robust investigation. Panagopoulos would have done well to either examine this topic more wholeheartedly, or leave it out altogether. Two chapters in a book that otherwise focused on American politics seemed like a distraction.

Despite this, Politicking Online is a book that experienced campaign workers, aspiring politicians, tech-junkies, and part-time political wonks will find intriguing, informative, and definitely worth missing a few Twitter or blog updates to delve into.

Written by: Gwen Emmons, October 14th 2009

social networking

Connected: The Suprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives — How Your Friends' Friends' Friends Affect Everything You Feel, Think, and Do

Politicking Online: The Transformation of Election Campaign Communications