評論
打印
Good morning. Today we're thinking about the way that technology is influencing our social structures and the way we interact with one another.
早上好。今天我們將思考科技是怎樣影響我們的社會結(jié)構(gòu)的，以及怎樣影響我們與別人互動的方式。
Humans, as we know, have always lived in groups; without this arrangement, our species would have died out long ago.
正如我們所知，人類是群居動物，若非如此設(shè)定，我們早就滅絕了。
But now, the way we see and define our group is changing.
但現(xiàn)在，我們看待群體，定義群體的方式正在發(fā)生改變。
I'd like to start by mentioning the research of American sociologist Mark Granovetter in 1973.
我想先提一下美國社會學(xué)家馬克·格蘭諾維特在1973年的研究。
It was Granovetter who first coined the term 'weak-ties', which he used to refer to people's loose acquaintances - in other words, friends-of-friends.
格蘭諾威特是第一個造出“弱連接”一詞的人，他用此詞來指代人們不太親密的相識——換句話說，就是“朋友的朋友”。
His research showed that weak-ties had a significant effect on the behaviour and choices of populations.
他的研究表明，“弱連接”對于人們的行為和選擇有重要影響。
And this influence was something highly important in the fields of information science and politics, and as you can imagine, marketing also.
其影響在信息科學(xué)領(lǐng)域及政治領(lǐng)域非常重要，你們也能猜到，市場營銷領(lǐng)域中也如此。
So, these friends-of-friends, people we might spend time with at social or work gatherings, might not be like us but they can still have a positive influence because we share the same sort of interests.
這些“朋友的朋友”，我們可能會在社交聚會或工作聚會與之相處的人，可能和我們一點都不像，但他們?nèi)匀荒墚a(chǎn)生積極影響，因為我們共享利益。
That's enough to make a connection, and this connection can turn out to be more beneficial than we might suspect.
這對于建立關(guān)系而言已經(jīng)足夠，而且這種關(guān)系往往比我們想象中更有益。
An example of this, an example of how the connection can influence us, is when our weak-ties get in touch and pass on details about job they think might be suitable for us.
舉個例子，一個關(guān)系如何影響我們的例子：我們的“弱關(guān)系”在發(fā)現(xiàn)有工作可能合適我們時，會聯(lián)系我們，告訴我們一些相關(guān)信息。
Well, since Granovetter first came up with this theory, his work has been cited in over 19,000 papers.
自從格蘭諾維特最初提出此理論以來，超過19000份論文都引用過他的成果。
Some of these studies have looked at how weak-tie networks are useful to us in other ways, and one thing that seems to improve as a result of weak-tie influence is our health.
一些研究探索了“弱關(guān)系網(wǎng)”在其它方面對我們有多大用處。人們發(fā)現(xiàn)，在“弱關(guān)系”的影響下，有一點得到了提升—我們的健康。
