Thoughts on "The Social Structure of Competition"

From today’s readings, I would say that the one I found the most interesting was The Social Structure of Competition.  In it, it was stated that people tend to develop relationships with others who are like them. Of course this is true, and it is because these people are likely to be at the same places, thus increasing their probability of meeting. They also have shared interests, which can then be used to initially start a conversation and then a connection.

We can all recall a time when this happened. An example from my own life would be from when I went to China to study abroad this past summer. If I and the others who went with me did not have an interest in learning Mandarin and traveling to China to learn about the Chinese culture, we would probably not have met, considering we are all different years and ages. And although we have all now returned to the states, we do still keep in touch. In fact, 2 couples from this trip formed. One broke up, but the other just recently formed. Had they not gone on this trip, they would never have even been aware of the others’ existence.

Also from this reading, came the statement “size is a mixed blessing”, which refers to the size of networks, of course. We touched upon this topic in class today as well. Clearly, it is beneficial to have a large network, but if it is made up of all redundant nodes, then you are not exactly maximizing your benefits. The same goes for if you have a large network that lacks diversity. Therefore, what really matters is the number of nonredundant nodes. This is why many institutions, such as colleges and universities, always aim to diversify their participants.