In our social networks, many different factors have a significant influence on who we deem as part of our personal network. Following an analysis of and discussion about who I see as important in my life, I have found that context and institution are especially relevant to my social network. Surprisingly, I have noticed a slight heterophily in my social network in regards to context, education, occupation, and age of those in my social network, and a homophily stemming from the gender and means of communication.
Since I have lived in the Vancouver area my whole life, almost all who are in my social network reside or have resided in areas close to me. However, many friends I hold in my social network are not friends from childhood, but friends I met when I was in high school. I was formerly close to some people who I met in elementary school, but grew apart due to the fact that we attended different high schools. Prior to attending UBC, I attended an all-girls private school on the west side of Vancouver, which explains the strong homophily in my social network in terms of the gender of those in it, since I am mainly friends and am comfortable around other females. It was a very close-knit community, and many of the friends I made there shared the same values I did, such as the importance of getting a post-secondary education. From this knowledge, I found that with the context of knowing many people in my social network from this community, there is a strong correlation between the categories of institution, education level, and occupation. Many of those in my social network who I became acquainted with in high school went on to enrol in universities as full-time students, creating said correlation. Another prominent, common factor in my social network that causes this correlation is privilege. Although many of those in my social network would not define themselves and their families as “rich”, it does require some privilege to be able to attend a private school in one of Vancouver’s most affluent neighbourhoods. The experience I had and the friends I gained while in high school had a great influence on who I am and what my goals are.
Another prominent attribute in my social network is the means of communication I employ to talk to each member. When analyzed in my social network, the attribute of “means of communication” had an E-I Index of -0.3, indication a somewhat strong homophily. I noticed that instead of online methods of communication and offline means of communication, I tend to communicate with those in my social network using a mixture of online and offline methods. In addition, those I deemed to have the strongest relationship with me were the ones more comfortable to talk to me while in person, as opposed to someone I can only have online communication due to them not see very occasionally.
Further discussion in my group assisted in confirming my thoughts. We had significant similarities in our data sets. Each of us had high homophily levels in terms of the genders of those in our social networks, and similar education levels.
Overall, I think my social network says a lot about who I am as a person. It shows that I tend to gravitate towards those who share my same priorities and need for success in life.