Social network is a concept of social structure that is made up of persons or organizations which are connected by one or more particular forms of relationships like kinship, friendship, sexual relationships, financial exchanges, beliefs, prestige, and common interests among others.? In the process of social network analysis, social interactions or relationships are viewed in terms of links or connections. The aspect of social network has been referred to as small world effect in the present world. This is according to the experiment that was conducted by Stanley Milgram in the 1960s. From this the concept of small world effect can be defined as a theory that can be stated as every person in the world can be reached through a short sequence of social connections (Miller et al 2010: 45-78). ?According to this research, it was found that two American citizens were tied by an average of six connections.? From the research it can be seen that, when 60 letters were sent to different recruits in Kansas and Wichita and they were instructed to the wife of a divinity student who was living at a particular location in Cambridge. The results of this experiment indicated that, only three letters reached to the destination. In the process of forwarding the letters, the participants passed them by hand using personal connections where one could give another person who he/she thought would be able to deliver the letter to the required target. In this case, friends and friends of friends were used in the chain which resulted to only three letters being able to reach the required destination (Miller et al 2010: 45-78).
The Milgram?s experiment indicates that there are different connections that tie different people in an area despite the factor of race or ethnicity. ?In this case, people get to know other people through their friends and hence creation of friendship is very important in any society. As indicated by Blass (2004:67-112), the concept of social network has been used by different people in relating to interpersonal and international issues. In any society social networks are established through kinship ties, friendships, relationships and so on where people get to know other people through others. These social networks are very important in the society as they help in solving different problems that one member of the society may be having. From an interpersonal perspective of social networks, communities have decreased the aspects of rivalry between them since different people in these communities have social networks in one way or the other (Kalat 2007: 521-550). ?
According to Milgram, mathematicians since they are a small community are connected by personal and professional connections. On the other hand, social scientists are able to communicate very fast through the internet and other technological devices. From this experiment it can be argued that it is possible for unrelated people to have friends through numerous connections. A good example is how actors come to establish networks whenever they meet in a stage. In this case, each one of them want to learn from the other and hence the need for the establishment of networks. Researchers in social sciences compare their results among them and as a result establishing social networks (Kalat 2007: 521-550).
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From scientists? point of view, the concept of social networks can be used in explaining how diseases spread. In this case, through sexual relationships an infected person from one area can spread a sexually transmitted disease to a number of people who he/she has established social networks with. On the other hand, friendship which is established as a form of social network is very essential in explaining the spread of skin diseases. Additionally, this concept can be used in explaining how people get jobs. In most cases, people are intro9duced to job opportunities by their friends, kins, and sexual partners among others. On this basis, when one want to send a message in a particular country the first question to ask is who he/she know in that country. As indicated by Wren (1999: 8-15), when police want to arrest a criminal social networks can be very essential in tracing the hideouts of this criminal. It is of important to note that, social networks as can be seen in the phenomenon of small world effect help individuals in the business field to get what they do not have. Businessmen will get advices from people they well know or from their friends (Blass 2004: 67-112). ?
As can be revealed from James (2006: 527-532), even if people are totally strangers through social networks they can be very close friends. In this case, one is in a position to shorten the distance between him/her with another person in matters relating to job opportunities through the use of friends and other connections. On this basis, when people are working together they are tied together by the aspect of work and hence their relatives are also made to connect with each other. In this relation the world which was once viewed as very large is now seen as very small as people from many economies have created friendships through social networking. On this basis, one person?s problems are usually termed as the problems of the other people in his/her social network and hence people have been sharing in times of joy and sorrow (Wren 1999: 8-15). ????
From a critical point of view of the Milgram?s experiments, it can be said that most of the participants that were used in the experiments were not is a position to know what to do. In this case, some of the people passed the letters to their friends without knowing whether they will deliver the letters or not. In this case, the concept of obedience was not the major factor. Critiques have been raised on the aspect of using human subjects in the psychological experiments. Additionally, the experiment conducted by Milgram where he randomly selected 96 people and asked them to send emails to their acquaintances; has been criticized by many people indicating that it was very small to yield reliable results (Kalat 2007: 521-550). As a result of this, a research was conducted by Peter Sheridan Dodds used 60,000 participants from 166 countries world wide. In this case, this experiment was found to yield more reliable results as the research population was large enough. ?Additionally, studies conducted refuted what was indicated by Milgram in his experiment that successful transmission of messages relies heavily on hubs. ?This is because when one is sending a message in America from United Kingdom, he/she does not think on the person with many acquaintances but who he/she knows in that country. ?It can be said that, this method can be used in planning evil things to others through the aspect of social networks (Kalat 2007: 521-550). ?
On the other hand, the concept of Six Degrees of Separation, Milgram?s experiment has been criticized for the selection of non-response bias resulting from the way people were recruited as well as high rates of non completion of the study. In this case, the participants were not randomly selected as they were selected from an advertisement that particularly required people who were well connected. Secondly, in this experiment the participants were requested to indicate a person they know who is most likely acquainted with the target individual (Miller et al 2010: 45-78). In this case, many people may be not sure of any individual who is well connected with the target individual and hence this experiment is biased. It is of importance to note that, the participants in the Milgram?s experiment may have sent their emails by not following the shortest path as they did not have a topological map of social networks. ??In this relation, there may be overestimation of the average number of connections that are required for two random people. ?It should be noted that, there are some communities which are completely isolated like Sentinelese and hence whey they are discovered, they are still distant in terms of social networks with other communities. As a result of this, these communities may be very insignificant in conducting a research on social networks (Miller et al 2010: 45-78).
Barabasi-Albert introduced the concept of scale free network. This is a particular form of network in which the sharing of connectivity is tremendously irregular. In this case, some of the acquaintances act as very connected than others using the power law distribution. On this basis, the process of distribution of connectivity is not equal as there are some of the connections that are stronger than others (James 2006: 527-532). In explaining the concept of scale free networks, it is of importance to consider the internet and the World Wide Web as well as other large scale networks. This is because someone who uses internet in finding friends and communicating with them through social networks like MySpace and Facebook is in a position to have more acquaintances than one who rarely uses internet as a social network. ?It can be argued that, some forms of links or connections are more connected in the World Wide Web than others. ?On this basis, sexually related individuals are more connected than with other people who they have no intimacy. In this case, a person will help his girlfriend or wife more than he can do to his friend or relative. This is because these two connections are not equal (James 2006: 527-532).
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Source: http://mjsuite.com/2011/09/05/case-studuy-on-social-networks/
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