[P2P-F] weak vs strong ties as wrong dilemma

Thu Feb 3 16:00:39 CET 2011

http://technosociology.org/?p=178

the key contrast was, and remains, between bridge and non-bridge ties;
conflating them as weak and strong ties and then contrasting them as if they
were direct opposites is conceptually incorrect. In reality, people’s ties
range
from very strong to very weak. Strong-ties become weak over time and
vice-versa.
Weak ties and strong ties are not ontological opposites.

Zeynep:
Internet as a Key Resource for Tie-Formation
Which brings me to my final point; Given the decline of importance of place
and
family in providing people with strong ties (one’s very close ties used to
be
immediate family, kin, neighbors, etc), where do you think people will turn
to
if they are to regenerate robust communities composed of strongly-connected
individuals? Their weaker ties. All those Facebook friends that Gladwell and
others take turns making fun of? That is exactly where most people can
potentially draw stronger ties. Tweets/discussions about lunch and naps and
status updates about dates and breakups? Bedrock of sociality and of social
networks of stronger and weaker ties. Do we really think that strong
communities
spend their time discussing the finer points of flexible specialization in
the
labor process under post-Fordism? Research shows that adding online
connectivity
to an otherwise face-to-face space like a neighborhood increases the general
level of bonding because it increases the channels of communication (See
work
by Keith Hampton, Barry Wellman or Gustavo Mesch, among others). (Think of a
neighborhood mailing list – it lets neighbors connect even though they may
hardly have time to get together regularly given long-commutes and other
responsibilities – Internet allows asynchronous, rich communication freed
from
requirements of coordinating time and place).
Consequently, pools of weaker ties, organized around shared affinities and
interests, will likely become most people’s source for closer friendships.
As we
introduce people in our increasingly geographically-dispersed networks to
each
other, we can recreate the denser, closely-knit communities of
mutual-interdependence that do indeed give rise to social movement. Internet
and
social media will clearly be a key in this process because going back to
place-based ties is not only not possible, and more importantly, inadequate,
for
rising up to meet the global, multi-level, complex problems we as all of
humanity face today.
New movements that can bring about global social change will still require
people who interact with each other regularly, and trust and depend on each
other in somewhat dense networks. Or only hope is if those networks span the
globe in a tightly-knit, broad web of activity, interaction,
personalization.
Real change will come only if we can make friends we care about everywhere
and
we make bridge ties that cover the world in a web of common humanity that is
bigger and more powerful than a handful of corporations and the corrupt,
self-perpetuating class of politicians.
So, maybe seeing a tweet about what an war orphan in Afghanistan had for
breakfast (nothing), what a worker in a sweatshop in China had for lunch
(nothing because there is no lunch break), or where a survivor of one of the
increasing numbers of large-scale climate events like massive floods is
sleeping
tonight (on a wet piece of plastic) interspersed into our daily rhythms of
communication with our local friends and communities is exactly what we need
to
organize us into the “hive mind” that everyone is so afraid of when in
reality,
what is destroying our opportunities for individuality and creativity,
subverting us from realizing our human potential is not that we are tweeting
about trivialities, but that the governance of our planet has been taken
away
from us.

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