Deconstructing The Mystery Of Social Network

The first time I saw the phrase "social network" was about 20 years ago. Later, after reading Wang Dingding's lecture notes on behavioral economics, I really began to think about this concept. Recently, I saw a set of book "social network analysis manual", which comprehensively introduces the history, theory and method of this field, and introduces the relevant frontier applied research. It is worth consulting for friends who are interested in this field.

There are three dimensions to study human behavior: individual, group and network. This progressive process of understanding has accelerated with the expansion of the Internet. Not only sociologists, anthropologists, economists and political scientists, but even physicists have begun to attach importance to this methodology. We have risen from individualism to Cyberism. Social network analysis has become an interdisciplinary research field, and a scientific community has been formed. Since the 1970s, research results have increased exponentially.

The mathematical basis of network analysis is graph theory. It can be traced back to 1736 when Euler, a famous mathematician, solved the "Seven Bridges problem of gunnisburg". Social network analysis can be regarded as an application of graph theory. In addition, a lot of algebraic tools such as (community) matrix are used. Social life is carried out by relationships and relationship models. The focus of research is on these social relationship patterns, which have a well-known name "guannet". Zimmer once said that society is nothing else but network. No interaction, no society.

Human beings have evolved for millions of years, from the first gathering and hunting group (3-5 people), to the group gathering overnight camp (30-50 people), to the basic community (about 150 people), to the giant camp group (about 500 people), and finally to the tribe (about 1500 people). The relationship between people has expanded from close friends to close acquaintances and "Acquaintances" who only have one-sided acquaintance. In the Internet age, although the scope of people's communication has been expanded dozens of times, the social relations and social patterns have not changed basically, and these phenomena and laws are the key contents of "social network analysis".

The social relationship between people is still divided into two categories, one is based on the role of the division, such as relatives or teachers, boss, friends, etc., and the other is based on the emotional distance of specific individuals, such as understanding, like, dislike, etc. Only the modern interpersonal interaction and information flow mode has been greatly expanded. With the expansion of our network, it's hard to ensure that we meet our close friends once a week and get together with our friends once a year. However, we can chat online by voice and video at any time through the instant messaging tools we carry. You can even choose to let friends from wechat circle watch your private life 24 hours a day. However, social network researchers still find that the "small world" we live in has not become larger. The degree of close connection in the small circle is beyond the imagination of ordinary people. You inadvertently indicate that it may affect many people around you, and the people around you are probably acquaintances with each other. Therefore, some people will adopt the method of labeling, shielding some "sensitive" people around them every time. Sometimes, they will feel that strangers will make people feel more comfortable.

The essence of human society is network, which has the same structure as the Internet. Information or resources move point by point along the path composed of relationships, in which each person is a node and connected by these complex relationships. This network flow model is the common theoretical basis of social network analysis. Because the research in this field is very close to our daily life, the conclusion is often very interesting and enlightening. For example, we see different social circles as different sources of information. If you only work in your own circle and have no connection with other circles, your knowledge and information will be limited to a certain extent. For example, there is only one kind of relationship between the two groups. One conclusion of social network analysis theory is that the connection between circles is necessarily weak. So this weak relationship is the best possible source of new information. Of course, it's better to be a high-profile "key person" with other circles. You can understand that this is a super contact, but you don't need to be his or her closest friend. This explains why people often find jobs or get information about work through ordinary acquaintances rather than close friends. In this sense, people with more weak ties (i.e., more social capital) are more likely to succeed.

In addition to the network flow model, there is also a network architecture model, which regards the relationship as a link or skeleton to gather the network together, and other social systems operate around this basic structural unit. Based on the network flow and structure model, scholars summarize the four functions of social network from the perspective of social capital and social homogeneity. In short, capitalization is what we said above to obtain ideas, resources and opportunities through social relations in order to improve one's human capital; coordination refers to the concentration of all resources to achieve the goal under the premise of ability; infection refers to the individual's position in the network determines the characteristics he obtains, which can be used to understand the mechanism of transmission and similar behavior; and adaptation refers to individual People need to respond to or adapt to the requirements of their environment. The first volume of the book introduces a lot of interesting research and cases, and the second volume provides interested researchers with the necessary methodology, which is an important reference book in the field of social network analysis theory.

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