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    Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives
    Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives
    Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives
    Audiobook10 hours

    Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives

    Written by Nicholas A. Christakis and James H Fowler

    Narrated by Nicholas A. Christakis

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    A colleague’s husband’s sister can make a person fat, even if they don’t know her. A happy neighbor has more impact on happiness than a happy spouse. These startling revelations of how much people truly influence each other are revealed in the studies of Drs. Christakis and Fowler, which have repeatedly made front-page news nationwide. Their work shows that six degrees of separation is a notion of the past. Now, there is what Christakis and Fowler call the “Three Degrees Rule”—individuals are profoundly influenced by people up to three degrees away from them.

     

    In Connected, the authors explain why emotions are contagious, how health behaviors spread, why the rich get richer, even how people find and choose their partners. Intriguing and entertaining, Connected overturns the notion of the individual and provides a revolutionary paradigm—that social networks influence ideas, emotions, health, relationships, behavior, politics, and much more. Connected will change the way listeners think about every aspect of their lives.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateSep 29, 2009
    ISBN9780743579117
    Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives
    Author

    Nicholas A. Christakis

    Nicholas A. Christakis is a sociologist and physician known for his research on social networks and on the socioeconomic, biosocial, and evolutionary determinants of behavior, health, and longevity

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    Reviews for Connected

    4/5

    123 ratings8 reviews

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    • 3/5
      A nice overview of research on social networks and how they affect the patterns and dynamics of the distribution of a huge variety of things, such as infectious disease, smoking and voting practices. It also looks at the effects of technology (particularly email and social-networking sites) on our networks. It's pretty light on the maths but explains core concepts clearly and with a lot of diagrams, and has a ton of citations to papers, books and newspaper articles should you wish to dig deeper into any of the topics covered.
    • 3/5
      Social networks intrigue me, so I enjoyed this book on the social networking level. The authors mentioned several studies to expound on their points, and most of that was interested, but some of it got a little dry. (I found myself skimming then.)

      I read this book on two differend e-readers borrowed from the library. Two weeks with a Kindle first, but I had to return the unit before I could finish the book. I finished the book on the Nook today, when it is due.
    • 3/5
      Interesting and timely ideas, though the authors sometimes belabor the obvious and their style is plodding.
    • 4/5
      You might have seen reporting on the phenomenon that weight gain seems to be contagious: having friends gain weight makes it more likely that you will, too, and this is even true if friends of your friends gain weight. A lot of other things work like this, to the third degree but no further, and Christakis & Fowler have some interesting stories to tell about how this affects both individuals and societies—it has implications for the spread of STDs as well as for the rationality of voting (your vote may not make any difference, but if you vote your friends are more likely to vote, as are their friends, and if birds of an ideological feather flock together then your vote can be part of a cascade that does make a difference). It’s an interesting read.
    • 3/5
      I had a hard time grading this book, as I had a bit of a love-hate relationship with it. The subject matter fits in great with the other memetics and social networking books I've been reading, but at times I found myself very disengaged from the reading and my mind wandering. This made the read much harder ... until the last few chapters. I had initially selected this book as I expected a lot of discussion on social media and the impact of the internet on human networks, and the author really waited a little too long to get around to it. That being said, I really enjoyed the last few chapters and am glad I made it through. Worth the read if you're into this sort of thing.
    • 5/5
      What happens to my friends, my friends' friends and my friends' friends' friends when I finish my review about this books which is about social networks? What happens when I say I recommend this book and state this on some social networking / social reading site? Can I affect 10 people? Can they affect 100 people in total? And can those 100 people affect about 1000 people? And what about simpler things such as my eating habits? Does my weight and lifestyle affect a much bigger circle of people than I thought? What about voting? Everybody knows that a single vote nearly never changes anything and rationally, economically I should not vote. But I do? Am I irrational or am I simply acting according to the hidden laws of social networks?You'll find many answers in this thought-provoking book. You'll ask lots of questions, too. And you'll never view your circle of friends with the same perspective again.The last 40-50 pages of the book seems a little bit out of focus, jumpîng from subject to subject without providing much context and connection but taking these imperfections into account I can still say this is one of the books that deserves to be categorized as "food for thought". I have marked lots of pages and references for further reading and pursuing a better understanding of why we do what we do.
    • 4/5
      How the friends of our friends make us happy and/or fat and/or suicidical. Interesting on both the benefits and problems with personnal connections. Good too about internet social networks like LT and Raverly not to mention Facebook.
    • 5/5
      Recommended. This is a very informative and engaging book. They should teach a class on it in schools. Excerpt from back cover: "If someone you barely know reads Connected, it could change your life forever."--Daniel Gilbert. Read this book to find out how. Discusses the Six Degrees of Separation and our Three Degrees of Influence.