Networks are the language of our era – explaining, among other things biology, information flow, disease transfer, financial market failure, and political structures underlying public voting records. A recently published text – Connected – addresses how networks influence our lives on a daily basis. From a promotional article on the book: Obesity, politics, STDs flow in social networks
Examining years of research of their own and from others, the authors conclude that social networks, both offline and online, are crucial in understanding everything from voting patterns to the spread of disease.
People have profound influences on each other’s behavior within three degrees of separation, the authors find. That means that your friends, your friends’ friends, and your friends’ friends’ friends may all affect your eating habits, voting preferences, happiness, and more.
I’m interested in how networks influence learning. To date, this has received too little attention from researchers. Yes, I know, disease research generates more funds for universities. For that matter negatives like disease, obesity, and other challenges confronting humanity provide greater motivation than pursuing positives like learning and development. Maybe that is part of the research problem…