Nicholas Christakis: The hidden influence of social networks

25 comments

Posted on 26th July 2010 by IBobz in Social Support

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www.ted.com We’re all embedded in vast social networks of friends, family, co-workers and more. Nicholas Christakis tracks how a wide variety of traits — from happiness to obesity — can spread from person to person, showing how your location in the network might impact your life in ways you don’t even know.TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world’s leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the “Sixth Sense” wearable tech, and “Lost” producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at http Watch a highlight reel of the Top 10 TEDTalks at www.ted.com

25 Comments

  1. roidroid says:

    @TheLogicJunkie
    Breathing air is “good”??? Bullshit.

    Pick up a copy of Russ Baker’s “Family of Secrets”, and find out just how the Bush-Yale-CIA uberclique has used its air breathing network system as a covert doomsday weapon over the past century, to completely ravage the USA and the world.
    Air is a WEAPON, and nothing more.

    26th July 2010 at 11:07 am

  2. freshhug says:

    @roidroid
    Scream about things I thought everyone allrdy was consious about.

    26th July 2010 at 7:09 am

  3. freshhug says:

    Jeez,.., this guy is a real idiot. he really didn’t know this before…LOL.

    26th July 2010 at 10:02 am

  4. GavinPalmer1984 says:

    Consider the governments that mandate religion and/or nationalism. Think about the clusters that emerge independent of other clusters.

    26th July 2010 at 9:26 pm

  5. jharrod123 says:

    Thank you Nicholas…You display an excellent power of observation of the obvious. Is this guy really trying to pass off this idea of social stratification as his own by simply renaming it? Wow…he’s got balls.

    26th July 2010 at 9:52 am

  6. PR0peace says:

    @victor1eremita lol, what’s your problem?

    26th July 2010 at 2:25 pm

  7. HamOnCan says:

    obesity, 1st Visible sign of the general breakdown of our health. as acid rain had trees die back in the ’80′s. Trees that lived to 500 years when we first came to this land now are lucky to survive for a hundred years in the city. Most die from a disease, fungus carried by saws and clogged pores. We are as sick as the distance we live from nature’s green belts, compounded by the trail of our toxic exhaust
    Like wise I

    26th July 2010 at 2:03 pm

  8. LordSplendid says:

    Bowling alone…

    26th July 2010 at 9:36 am

  9. victor1eremita says:

    @kokopelli314 fucking retards think “memes” are a new concept.

    26th July 2010 at 12:06 am

  10. creamypouf8 says:

    Funny how quick people think about Facebook when the talk is about friends.

    26th July 2010 at 10:11 am

  11. neoflyboy says:

    @Ikar1 perhaps the barrier of feeling personal threaten should be solved before all the mirror neurons enter the game. If you smile in front of a baby it smiles as far as I tested. It detects eyes+your teeth and reflects. There is a video in youtube called “monkey see monkey do” that explains it. If I say in my office, family or friends “I want to tell you something… ” while smiling and self interrupting me they do return a smile. Of course that the stress inhibits that.

    26th July 2010 at 6:44 pm

  12. DimitriRytsk says:

    Does it mean that if get fat Facebook friends you will get fat too?
    How about other diseases and addictions? Do they spread by text messages?
    How positive qualitys spread relatively to negative?

    26th July 2010 at 10:27 pm

  13. Ikar1 says:

    @chuckinator13 You are talking about “how sould it be”, not “what it is”. My point is that Christakis took an example that doesn’t look to be very… realistic? I guess that the fact is that, in most countries today, nobody replies with a smile.

    26th July 2010 at 7:01 pm

  14. chuckinator13 says:

    @vraciudude funny, most of the people in my facebook were or still are REAL friends
    in a real life. thats why there is 200 not 2000

    26th July 2010 at 6:46 am

  15. chuckinator13 says:

    @cryptoprocta finally something that actually makes sense

    26th July 2010 at 8:28 am

  16. chuckinator13 says:

    @Ikar1 It’s also natural for us to try to kill each other too. Try smiling. then you won’t get bits of bone and brain on you…..

    26th July 2010 at 12:22 am

  17. chuckinator13 says:

    @trentschirmer
    instead you have people sqrewing each other over like it was some kind of sport…..10 years and no-one can agree on what to build on the twin towers site….meanwhile Dubai has built a whole City…..i digress

    26th July 2010 at 8:08 am

  18. MHerskind says:

    @vraciudude Take into account, the use of electronic communication, especially the use of texting as a substitute for personal interaction. The use of emoticons suddenly serves as a direct link to our emotions and how we feel about certain situations. It is as if we have neglected the need of personal communication and found a way to replace it by electronic communication. Facebook, texting, twitter, email etc all fall under this.

    26th July 2010 at 7:57 pm

  19. Ikar1 says:

    @neoflyboy In that case I smile because he looks funny or the show is actually good, not for a kind of neuronal reflex from his own laugh. Is not the same if an unknown guy smiles you in the subway.

    26th July 2010 at 7:12 am

  20. dryan22 says:

    The intensity with which he speaks works against comprehension.

    26th July 2010 at 8:49 am

  21. neoflyboy says:

    @Ikar1 and if you see a clown on the street? like an art or acting student? It is supposed that there are some mirror-neurons (neuronas espejo) that throw the smile like a reflex.

    26th July 2010 at 12:38 am

  22. trentschirmer says:

    @Ikar1 I agree. The more densely populated an area is, the less smiling and other courtesies occur. If you lived in New York and followed the policy of smiling at everyone you make eye contact with, you would be grinning all day like an idiot.

    26th July 2010 at 1:20 am

  23. Ikar1 says:

    I have serious doubts about the example of people smiling in the NY subway. At least in Chile, where I live -hardly I could talk about other places-, if someone smiles you, you probably will return him a kind of WTF-expression. I tend to think that in the “modern society” that’s the natural behaviour of a normal human being, not to smile.

    26th July 2010 at 3:40 am

  24. bavwill says:

    @bavwill He’s right though in one sense about getting connected. It creates more options, helps to expand people’s awareness of things and softens some people’s fear of different lifestyles.

    26th July 2010 at 12:49 am

  25. bavwill says:

    @Invaishir : omarly666 He does have a point though.

    I’d disagree that aggression and violence cuts ties especially where politics, religion and business are involved but I’m not trying to twist his words. You could replace the word “obesity” with any word, say “bigot”, and the results, I reckon, would be very similar. His argument is positive if not a bit simplistic. Maybe he should have had more time. He seems a bit rushed.

    26th July 2010 at 9:39 am

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