Our social network at Susan's 30th high school reunion
“Think of it as health Facebook-style.” –Dr. Nicholas Christakis, Harvard social scientist
Can you catch a case of happy? And can this sustain a healthier life? Time Magazine’s Alice Park’s “The Happiness Effect” explores a fantastic new report by Harvard social scientist Nicholas Christakis and University of San Diego political-science scholar James Fowler. The culmination of a 20 year study produced the following conclusions with world wide impact:
“. . . emotions can pass among a network of people up to three degrees of separation away, so your joy may, to a larger extent than you realize, be determined by how cheerful your friends’ friends’ friends are, even if some of the people in this chain are total strangers to you.”
New Paradigm Shift in Health: The Social Media Effect
The paradigm shift lies in not just how people get sick but more importantly how they stay healthy. The conclusion may mean:
- A person’s well being is related to behaviors and emotions
- A person’s well being is even more dependent upon “the way they feed into a larger social network.”
Collective Identity vs. Individual Identity
According to Dr. Christakis our health and well being depends upon the support systems aka networks we assemble throughout our life. The most valuable takeaways:
- We need groups of people and their support for a better life
- Social networks of positive happy people are most important to our health and well being
- Our individual identity is not as important as our “collective identity” derived from the networks of happy positive people we are connected to in a 6 degrees of separation scenario
Dr. Christakis’s Conclusion: How Social Media Networks Fit into Your Life
“We have a collective identity as a population that transcends individual identity,” says Christakis. “This superorganism has an anatomy, physiology, structure and function that we are trying to understand.”
Our Networks that Support Inner Architect
- Linkedin.com
- Blogosphere
- Facebook.com
- Twitter.com
- CSIX
- Marin Professionals
- Experience Unlimited
- My Presidio YMCA basketball buddies
- Our Speaking
- ActiveRain.com
