Small World

Through the Gephi analysis of Facebook I realized a lot about the connections in my social network. I enjoyed seeing all this data but it definitely surprised me how connected my networks were. I had two prominent networks with many ties in between them. One was from high school and one was from college. Usually when people to go college their life is very separate from what it was in high school, but not for me.

My roommates and my closest friends from home are at the center of my network diagram. They are what create the biggest bridge between my networks. This is because many of my friends from home have come to visit me at school. Once they meet my roommates and my friends at school they typically friend each other on Facebook. Whenever I meet one of my friend’s friends from school I friend them on Facebook because I like to know the people my friends are friends with and it is another way to keep up with what my friends are doing. I think that my friends have this idea when they friend my friends from school. Through me, they all expand their friend networks, and help connect my networks.

Another reason I think my networks are so closely related is because geographically they are close. My high school is only about a half hour from here so a lot of people I went to high school with go here now, or know people I go to school with now. Also, I am friends with many people in surrounding towns from where I live, that I met sports and other activities. Many of these friends either go to Northeastern or have friends that go to Northeastern. Sometimes people from Northeastern friend me just because they see that I am from a surrounding town from them.

All of these connections and overlaps in my network make me realize that this is a small world. It is surprising of me how many people I know from various places that know each other. A lot of people I have mutual friends with I have no idea how they know each other. It is funny to see how much my home and school life cross.

Another surprising thing I found out is that someone is this class is from my hometown. Even though we are from the same high school our networks looked nothing alike. This was interesting because I thought geographic location had a lot to do with my connections. I guess not. I think this is because my connections from home are all strongly connected to each other, but maybe not as connected to other connections in my town.  I think the same thing goes for Cassie’s network. It is funny to see that from such a small town we have such little connections and our networks are so different. Age difference could have a lot to do with this or just that we know completely different people from our hometown. I am even just surprised that I realized a new connection just in this class. I feel like as I meet more people through school or in any situation the world keeps getting smaller and my network keeps getting more connected.