One of my biggest social networks here at Cornell is my dorm. I live in Bauer Hall (part of the Court Resort) on the second floor. Within the first week of school, I felt a very close bond with about half of the floor. Over the past few months, I have slowly developed bonds with every single person on Bauer 2. We do everything together: eat, go to class, do homework, go out on weekends, workout, and so much more. The people on my floor are my closest friends, my tightest network, and my strongest ties here at Cornell.
In the Bauer 2 network, there are both strong ties and weak ties. The people who live in my suite and the suite next to mine are my strongest ties. I have weaker ties with the people around the corner at the end of the hall. The strong ties that I have here show all of the features of a strong link: we have frequent contact, our network is dense, we have similar likes and dislikes (homophily), and we have access to the same resources and information.
Within this community, there is a lot of social capital. Besides the social network of ties, bonding, and relationships, there is also common ground and reciprocity between the actors in the network. For common ground, like in the Etzioni & Etzioni (1999) excerpt we looked at in class, the members of my community share the same commitment to our common values, mores, and social norms. The fact that we live in such close proximity and share common interests also goes back to Wallace’s (1999) attraction factors of proximity and common ground. Because we have these attraction factors, our bonds have grown, strengthening our ties within our network. The density of these ties and the strong bonds between the actors definitely contribute to reciprocity within Bauer 2.
This community isn’t so much affected by CMC as it is supplemented by it. For example, if I need to contact any of the people in the community, I can usually just walk down the hall. We do use Facebook if we want to give each other a message or inform them of something and the person is busy/asleep/at class. Most of our communication is face-to-face. However, if I’m leaving class and want to meet up with these friends for lunch, I can send out a bulk text message. Going back to the Media Richness Theory, this lean media is optimal because it is an unequivocal message. There are also several online spaces for our community, most of which are Facebook groups. First is the general “Court-Kay-Bauer: 2007-2008” group for the whole CKB community. More specific is “Bauer Hall: 07-08” which is just for people in Bauer hall. Finally is the group “Who’s who on Bauer 2,” a group just for the people in the community of people on 2nd floor Bauer. The people in my community use these groups, facebook messages, walls, and many, many text messages to keep in contact throughout the entire day!
2 comments:
Emily,
Overall I think you did a really good job explaining the different aspects of social network analysis. You covered strong and weak ties, social capital, common ground, reciprocity, and the effects of CMC on your community. I especially liked how you connected your points on CMC back to the Media Richness Theory when justifying your reasons for using bulk text messages rather than meeting your friends face-to-face. The only constructive criticism I have for you is that when describing what common ground and reciprocity are and when connecting them to the social network analysis I would have liked more specific examples. Rather than just explaining what the terms are, I would have liked to see you illustrating common ground within your group (for example stating that you all like the same band or food).
Good post!
Lauren
Emily,
It’s great that your floor has connected so well. My floor freshman year was a bit... tumultuous. It’s interesting how the strength of ties changes with distance from the suite. I wonder if that’s consistent through other areas of the dorm, or in other dorms. Nice job incorporating the various readings into your post. I’m curious how the Facebook groups functioned in terms of forming the groups. Like if the “who’s who” group was more for fun once everyone was friends, and therefore would serve a different purpose than the “court-kay-bauer” group which seems like it would be more impersonal.
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