“I think that in terms of stimulation in terms of getting new ideas in terms of talking to people who come from different backgrounds from yourself, and think differently. Those are mostly going to be your weak ties, and they just make your life more interesting. You just learn so much more from them.” - Mark Granovetter
In Pursuit of…
The nature of weak ties has changed and it’s about to change again, into something we can’t quite anticipate yet.
That was one of the aha moments when I recently had the opportunity to chat with Mark Granovetter, currently the Joan Butler Ford Professor and Professor of Sociology at Stanford University. With over 57 years in the field of sociology, he’s the author of two of the three most cited papers in Sociology, “The Strength of Weak Ties” (1973) and “Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness” (1985). Last checked, he’s amassed over 127,000 citations according to Google Scholar.
A bit of a celebrity in his field, I was recently talking to a University of Michigan sociology professor when I name-dropped Mark Granovetter, and his eyes widened and lit up with excitement.
A quick background… you’ve probably heard that it’s the weak connections in our lives that are the most effective way to find new opportunities.
“Studies show how weak ties can be a more important determinant of your professional success than strong ties. They allow you to learn of new opportunities and ideas across siloed social networks and across economic and demographic divides. That seems especially important now.” - Dev Patnaik, Forbes
In contrast, strong, i.e. close, relationships play a different role than weak connections. Mark describes strong relationships as:
“Your close friends are people that you rely on, but we rely on them for something different, not to get completely new ideas or new ways of thinking, but for emotional support for people that you really want to talk to when you've got a problem, when you, there's something you want to deal with that you wouldn't be able to talk to somebody who's a weak tie about.”
Where we find close and weak ties have been evolving these past decades with social media, enabling friendships to be formed from anywhere, as simple as sliding into someone’s DM. Because of where he’s at in life, Mark admits to having established most of his relationships in person, and then using social media to retain those relationships. Whereas, people in their 10’s and 20’s might be starting relationships with people they’ve never met in person… and maybe never will.
“For people who are younger and just beginning to get into social media. They may be meeting people for the first time that way. So it's a little different, I think, when you get to be my age than it would be for someone who's, let's say, 16 or 17. The people they know are from high school, but they don't know people all over the country yet. And if they do, chances are they'll meet them through social media.”
Now, enter the age of AI, where entire relationships are artificial. New industries and services have been created to cater to our innate human need to connect. Perhaps they’re tapping into Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which doesn’t specify if that sense of security, love, and belonging has to come from a real person.
“Replika says it has 2 million total users, of whom 250,000 are paying subscribers. For an annual fee of $69.99, users can designate their Replika as their romantic partner and get extra features like voice calls with the chatbot, according to the company.” - Anna Tong, Reuters
Whether AI relationships prove to be part of our new social construct or a temporary fad, the nature of relationships remains the same. There will be strong and weak ones, offering varying levels of ideas, stimulation, perspective, and, who knows, maybe even job references. Imagine listing Siri or Alexa as a reference on your resume!
I’d venture to say we don’t need to get too caught up in the what-ifs of the future and how to navigate the new methods of relationships. In talking to Mark, there’s comfort and happiness in hearing about a life that’s full of all kinds of relationships.
“I think people are the way they have always been. It doesn't matter what technology you are talking about. Of course, so many people's social relationships now are carried out on social media instead of face-to-face. But most of the people that I interact with on social media are people I have known face-to-face.
I'm mostly not trying that hard to meet new people, because I know enough people and there are days when I feel like I know too many and that's why I generally don't go to professional meetings, because, I don't want to get over saturated with social contact. I'm happy to see them when I see them, which is typically on social media. Sometimes it's in-person, but like everybody else, a lot of social contact is through social media these days.”
TAKEAWAY
Mark has given us profound insights dating back 50 years ago, still does today, and has plans to continue contributing with an update to his 2017 book, Society and Economy: Framework and Principles. He’s an example that it’s a balance of weak and deep relationships, buoyed by a lifetime of nurturing relationships and a pursuit of our passion, that fulfills. Although Mark may have some trepidation about a major lifestyle change going into his retirement chapter, I’m confident it’ll once again be filled with more profound insights.
(more from Mark)
➩ Society and Economy: Framework and Principles. “Underlying Granovetter's arguments is an attempt to move beyond such simple dualisms as agency/structure to a more complex and subtle appreciation of the nuances and dynamics that drive social and economic life.” (Harvard University Press)
➩ Getting a Job: A Study of Contacts and Careers. “This is the study where the famous "Strength of Weak Ties" paper came from -- IMHO, the best named social science paper ever! Worth the price just to understand the importance, and use, of "weak ties" in our social networks.
This book is a mix of academic and practical. I have recommended it to several clients and friends who don't mind the academic prose to find pearls of wisdom here. Very useful for people trying to understand how the knowledge-worker job-finding process works.” - Amazon Reviewer (Amazon or Bookshop)
➩ A causal test of the strength of weak ties. “The authors show that the weakest ties had the greatest impact on job mobility, whereas the strongest ties had the least. Together, these results help to resolve the apparent “paradox of weak ties” and provide evidence of the strength of weak ties theory.”
Interview with Professor of Sociology Mark Granovetter, author of "Strength of Weak Ties"