The readings we just
finished about peer effects in social networks definitely resonated with the
way in which my life and social networks have changed over time. I am the type
of person to develop relationships out of convenience, rather than
compatibility, which I now come to realize is a large contributing factor for
the volatility in my behavior. I tend to spend more time with the people that I
happen to be around, and with this variance in who I spend my time with comes a
variance in my behavior and actions. When I was on co-op, I spent a lot of time
with my roommates because they were always around when I was home, and their
behaviors started to rub off on me, consciously and subconsciously. I made the
decision to go to the gym more often because I saw my roommates going
frequently, but I also realized I had started unintentionally buying the same kings of food as them. When I realized my habits, even around the smallest
things like what brand of yogurt I bought, were changing just because I was living with different people, I was
amazed me. I also realized that this was not the first time my behaviors had
changed based on who I was spending most of my time with.
When I was living with a
different group of girls last spring who partied all the time and never did homework,
I began to adapt their behaviors because I started to believe that because they
were going out all the time, it was fine if I did too. When I moved into my new
apartment, I saw changes in my study habits just as I had seen with my exercise
routine and eating habits. My immediate roommate is a biochemistry major, so
she is always studying which encouraged me to study more than I had in the
past. My experiences clearly correlate with Sacerdote’s findings on the peer
effects in social networks. Sacerdote concluded that a student’s grades are
greatly impacted by the grades of that student’s roommate, and through my
personal experiences, I can vogue for the validity in his findings.
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