Weak Tie Theory derives from Mark Granovetter's 1973 article "The Strength of Weak Ties," which was about the spread of information through social networks. For new information, opportunities and ideas, weak ties are more important to us than strong ones
The Science
Granovetter surveyed 282 Boston-based workers and found that most of them got their jobs through someone they knew. But only a minority got the job through a close friend; 84% got their job through those weak-tie relationships – meaning casual contacts whom they saw only occasionally.
As Granovetter pointed out, the people whom you spend a lot of time with swim in the same pool of information as you do. We depend on friendly outsiders to bring us news of opportunities from beyond our immediate circles – and so the more of those acquaintances we have, the better.
Weak-tie interactions happen when we are out and about, particularly when we’re taking part in an activity of some kind, like singing or cycling. A 2016 study, for which psychologists recruited respondents from Italy and Scotland, showed that regardless of nationality or age, people who were members of groups such as sports teams or church communities enjoyed an increased sense of meaning and security. And the more groups of which they were members, the better.
Definition
Granovetter categorized interpersonal ties as strong, weak, or absent.
A strong tie is someone within a close circle of family and friends. Strong ties are essential for real community but they are typically groups with a great deal of similarity and, as such, less likely than more tenuous connections to carry new information and perspectives to their groups.
Social media influencers are prime examples of individuals that possess many weak ties. They typically have large groups of followers and their impact is also distributed among the networks of those followers. (Weak ties that connect social networks are sometimes called bridges.)
Absent ties are connections that might be expected to exist but don't. For example, it might be assumed that two prominent writers in a given genre would be connected. An absent tie is the lack of a connection between such people.
As a rule, an absent tie can be transformed to a weak tie fairly easily. Similarly, an absent tie or a weak tie could become a strong tie through interaction.
https://imgur.com/a/fvW0TZQ
References:
https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/weak-tie-theory
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200701-why-your-weak-tie-friendships-may-mean-more-than-you-thin
Context:
Tags: #index#WIP