Last week’s edition of the New Yorker contained an article that got me thinking. “Small change: Why the revolution will not be tweeted” written by Malcolm Gladwell presented an interesting perspective on the nature of social networks, and why these networks are incapable of inciting true social, political or environmental change: “The platforms of social media are built around weak ties.” Weak ties? Really? I’m not a tweeter, but I am an avid Facebook user. After reading the article, I decided to do some math to reexamine my own personal Facebook network; I wanted to see if Gladwell was right, if my network was predominantly comprised of weak ties. One spreadsheet and a pie chart later, I discovered that Gladwell was more right than I thought he was, but still not totally right: at least about my network. I ranked my Facebook friends according to strong, medium and weak ties, based on how I was feeling at the moment (not exactly the tightest methodology!) and determined that 23% of my Facebook “friendships” were medium ties, 31% were weak ties and 46% were strong ties.

So what?

So nothing. So nearly one half of my network connections are strong ties. So maybe my numbers are the exception, not the norm. So what does my network have to do with networked social activism? Well, not a whole lot since I’m not a social networking social activist. But I think it is an interesting experiment in assumptions about people’s personal networks. Not all Facebook users have thousands of “friends” made up of family, friends, coworkers, acquaintances, friends of friends and complete strangers. The ties that comprise each person’s network are going to be as individual as the person. So if you can’t make the assumption that all networks are made up of weak ties, than why is it that real change won’t be made through online networking? I think it has less to do with the strength of the network, and more to do with the physical space and location. It’s a lot easier to sit behind a computer screen and type a tweet with the hashtag #iranelection than it is to sit behind a lunch counter for civil rights.

If you haven’t read Gladwell’s article, it can be found at

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/10/04/101004fa_fact_gladwell?currentPage=1