How My Little Pony Taught Me the Value of Networks

The odd thing about watching My Little Pony, for me and for the legions of other college-age male fans of the show, is how strangely applicable it can be to your real life. Two weeks ago, we covered small worlds, and the story of the “Six Degrees of Lois Weisberg” particularly struck me as familiar. I couldn’t put my finger on it until I watched the Pony episode the following Saturday that I finally could put my finger on it. She was Pinkie Pie.

Pinkie Pie, in My Little Pony, is a character who “knows everypony in Ponyville”. In Episode 18 (the one on the Saturday after we discussed this), she meets a character named Cranky Doodle Donkey who comes to Ponyville. Determined to cheer him up and make friends with him, she pesters him to be her friend for a while. Eventually, C.D. Donkey explains to her that the reason he’s always depressed is that he travelled all over Equestria (through Canterlot, Fillydelphia, Manehattan…) looking for a long-lost love that he met for one night in Canterlot. Upon hearing this, Pinkie finds his long-lost love in ten seconds flat. Thanks to the fact that Pinkie has such an extensive network, all she had to do was “put two and two and two together.”

So, why is this show, with a target market of little girls, showing the effectiveness of central hubs in a network? Actually, this isn’t at all out of place in the show, where the main pony Twilight Sparkle, a devoted empirical scientist, is told by the ruler of Equestria to study the “Magic of Friendship,” to which she responds as most average males would to the entire premise of watching My Little Pony. Disgust, disdain, how on earth is studying FRIENDSHIP going to help me? Eventually, she comes to realize that it’s the members of her network….oops, I mean, her friends (this is a show for little girls, after all) who give her the strength to overcome anything.

Thanks to this course, I’m starting to see the networks EVERYWHERE. Especially MLP. 

In the tradition of fans who write letters in the style of Twilight Sparkle’s “Friendship Reports,” explaining how the lessons learned in the show changed their lives for the better, here is my friendship report on the magic of networking.

                Dear Princess Celestia,

                Today I learned that if somepony extends their hoof in friendship, you should gladly accept it. Even though we can’t see the structure of their network, it’s a good possibility that through them you can acquire resources of social capital you wouldn’t otherwise have. Whether it’s finding friends that we thought we had lost, or finding bridges to new communities, you should always make time for anypony who wants to be your friend.

                Your faithful student,

                Nathan Hahn