CONNECTED
Sep 15
Basically, We Rub Off On Each Other…
This means, watch who you hang out with - as THEY are, so will YOU be. In other words, it may behoove us to limit our associations with scamps and thieves…
My friend Diane just forwarded a New York Times book review to me that stated we all “influence one another’s health just by socializing.”
The same was true of bad behaviors - “clusters of friends appeared to “infect” each other with obesity, unhappiness and smoking.”
Evidently, there’s power in groups - the power to bring each other down, or raise each other up. And, in more ways than we might imagine.
This may seem self-evident. But if so, let’s consider…
Many of us (You? Definitely me…), act like we don’t believe this.
We isolate ourselves within our own bubbles and cacoons. We don’t know our neighbors and our friends are likely scattered to the 4 winds.
Modern society has lost person to person communing.
To compensate, it seems that we HAVE turned to social networking online.
That offers us a reasuring distance in our closeness, doesn’t it?
Is that just as effective?
I think it is. In our forum groups, we greatly enhance each other is marvelous ways as we support, advise, console and encourage each other.
~~~
Quote:
“…the people who were most tightly clustered in Framingham tended to be better off - healthier, happier and even wealthier.”
Thus, when even TWO people unite, uplift, propel and encourage each other, they become a force to be reckoned with. Imagine what happens with more than two.
Smart bad guys know this. Predators know this. And they use it.
~~~
Some people are born into a large family network. Others just naturally create intimate groups of friends and acquaintances. And, statistically, it seems these folks are “ahead of the pack” in happiness and success.
The reason is, when we DO work to elevate “the group” in a happy productive manner, good spirits rub off on one another. We get healthier together. And more successful together.
It seems to me that the trick is participating generously and sharing everyday experiences with one another on a regular basis. Daily, actually. Offline and on.
Not only do we affect each others’ success, but each others’ health.
So, be smart. Join a gang. In today’s parlance, social networks and forums.
Be part of a group. Share your everyday progress!
: )
ARTICLE:
Is Happiness Catching?
By CLIVE THOMPSON
Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler say your friends — and even your friends’ friends — can make you quit smoking, eat too much or get happy. A look inside the emerging science of social contagion.
Diane will be having a get together with author James Fowler, a UCSD professor whose new book “Connected” will be coming out in a couple of weeks.
This book will be very timely, considering the huge new Social Networking phenomenon that has taken over the Internet.
We have a new dynanic here on the Web… and it’s here to stay a while… perhaps, due to the information provided by this book, forever.
If I can attend, I will share what I learn.
~~~
New Scientist Review Article
By MICHAEL BOND
Connected: The surprising power of our social networks and how they shape our lives
by Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler
Quotes from the New Scientist Article:
“THE idea that everyone on the planet is separated by only an average of six degrees sounds a little too elegant to be true, and yet it seems to hold… The first experiment to confirm this came in the 1960s when psychologist Stanley Milgram asked several hundred people in Nebraska to send a letter to a stranger in Boston via someone they knew. On average, it took six people to get the letter to its destination. The experiment was repeated in 2002 by sociologist Duncan Watts on a global scale using email, with the same result. The world really is that small.
In their new book Connected, sociologist and physician Nicholas Christakis and political scientist James Fowler identify another immutable property of social networks that sits nicely alongside Milgram’s: behaviours, habits and other traits “ripple” along chains of friends and are contagious at up to three degrees of separation…”
Something so obvious… and yet, perhaps not. I personally believe this book substantiates a powerful concept - As we join together, our power grows exponentially rather than incrementally.
: )
