Post You’re more connected than you think.
Weak Links, Strong Links and what this has to do with StreetSpark.
You’ve probably already heard of ‘the Dunbar number’- the size of the social network that an individual of any given species can develop and sustain. Apparently us humans can manage to have stable networks of about 148 people. Anything over that, and we’re just showing off.
These are termed as your ‘strong links/connections.’ Although it doesn’t mean that we talk to all of these people, all of the time. Those numbers are still in the high-tens to low-twenties. Unless, again, you’re just showing off.
And then there are your loose links or connections – those people who are friends of friends, the casual contacts and acquaintances that we collect like baseball cards on our social networks and that are actually more helpful to us than we think.
For one, the most valuable networking contacts in a job search are not from the ranks of close relationships, but rather from casual acquaintances and those known only indirectly through others.
These weaker links helps us gather knowledge about other worlds and experiences outside of our own. When they pop up on our Facebook walls we are curious about the lives they lead and what we might be missing. They introduce us to new events that neither we nor our friends will ever have within the comfortingly predictable confines of our own group.
We need both strong and weak links to survive. One gives us strength and reassures us about what we know, the other gives us opportunity to go beyond what we are familiar with, to something a little different. But still safely within reach.
StreetSpark is about taking those loose connections, exposing them, and seeing if we can’t turn them into something more. Not only because you have friends of friends of friends in common, but because you live and work in the same city. You like the same music and the same comedians and charities. Because you work in complementary industries and therefore have a lot to squabble about.
And most importantly, because it is time to meet someone new - to go beyond what you are already familiar with, to something a little different. But still safely within reach.
The inspiration and some of the material for this post was derived from this article by Rick Bookstaber. http://bit.ly/oonHC9. Thanks Rick.
You’re more connected than you think.
