Social networks and ties affect all parts of personal identity whether or not we recognize it at the time. A key part of understanding this unit is knowing that the relationship between personal identity and networks is cyclical in that, personal identity also reflects the networks that a person is part of. As people move through stages of life and move geographically, the networks they encounter change pieces of their identity.
In my life I have identified in many different ways: daughter, teenager, mother, wife, college student, widow and soon to be empty nester. Each time my identity changed a majority of my social ties; therefore, my social networks did as well. As a teenager, I attended a special school for children with an interest …show more content…
Although I did have friends in other groups, such as my neighborhood, my school social ties were the strongest. Giuffre (2013) describes balance theory in terms of friendship where people “prefer to make friends, for example, with people who share our dispositions, and we feel uncomfortable with people who don’t” (p. 103) essentially that we feel the most comfortable with people who are like us. The environment of my school, which included tight knit groups of people in each arts discipline with some crossover between the groups, is an example of the classic small-world structure. According to Giuffre (2013), in a small-world structure the nodes of a network cluster together while there are also some ties that join the individual groups (p. 184). In the case of my high school, the people within groups of art majors were the nodes while people who had interests in multiple arts tied the individual groups together. I was …show more content…
It was during this period where I was maturing that I began to connect to networks specifically looking for support. Giuffre (2013) mentions five different forms of social support discussed by Wellman and Wortley: emotional aid, small services, large services, financial aid, and companionship (p. 55). The type of social support given or received depends upon the nature of the relationship between the social actors. As a young mother, I sought both companionship and emotional aid from other young women in a similar position to me because they understood how I felt at that time and could share how they were coping with motherhood at such a young age. I also sought support from outside my peer group, from older women who had successfully raised children. Within both groups of women, I formed relationships with both strong and weak ties; these ties gave me access to other forms social support such financial aid and small services that enabled me to become a successful mother and
In my life I have identified in many different ways: daughter, teenager, mother, wife, college student, widow and soon to be empty nester. Each time my identity changed a majority of my social ties; therefore, my social networks did as well. As a teenager, I attended a special school for children with an interest …show more content…
Although I did have friends in other groups, such as my neighborhood, my school social ties were the strongest. Giuffre (2013) describes balance theory in terms of friendship where people “prefer to make friends, for example, with people who share our dispositions, and we feel uncomfortable with people who don’t” (p. 103) essentially that we feel the most comfortable with people who are like us. The environment of my school, which included tight knit groups of people in each arts discipline with some crossover between the groups, is an example of the classic small-world structure. According to Giuffre (2013), in a small-world structure the nodes of a network cluster together while there are also some ties that join the individual groups (p. 184). In the case of my high school, the people within groups of art majors were the nodes while people who had interests in multiple arts tied the individual groups together. I was …show more content…
It was during this period where I was maturing that I began to connect to networks specifically looking for support. Giuffre (2013) mentions five different forms of social support discussed by Wellman and Wortley: emotional aid, small services, large services, financial aid, and companionship (p. 55). The type of social support given or received depends upon the nature of the relationship between the social actors. As a young mother, I sought both companionship and emotional aid from other young women in a similar position to me because they understood how I felt at that time and could share how they were coping with motherhood at such a young age. I also sought support from outside my peer group, from older women who had successfully raised children. Within both groups of women, I formed relationships with both strong and weak ties; these ties gave me access to other forms social support such financial aid and small services that enabled me to become a successful mother and