As you already know, I love reading. I have been so busy haven’t had a chance to read as much as I intended to. I just finished reading Connected by Nicholas A. Christakis, MD. PhD & James H. Fowler, PhD. This book is different then the books I normally ready, I feel as though with ever page turned I learned something new, or was forced to question what I already knew.

The writers do a great job bringing concepts we are all familiar with to draw comparisons and analogies of how they shape our current world. Definitely not a book I read as fast as I normally do, there were so many concepts to grasp while reading. I found myself bringing up the topics in this book in conversations with people, which turned out to be great topics for debate.  Some people have no idea how their social networks affect them, or how their social networks are built. This books explains it all, in an easy to grasp method.

My favorite parts of the book

Six Degrees of Separation and Three Degrees of Influence

(all information below quoted from the book)

• This rule explains that through  “The Three Degrees of  Influence Rule”, all things we say or do have an effect through our networks, therefore having an impact on our friends (one degree), our Friend’s friends (two degrees), and even our friends’ friends’ friends’ (three degrees). Based on that notion if we are then connected by six degrees of separation, we can then influence everyone by three degrees

• This observation applies to how connected we are, the observation proves that there are three degrees of influence applied to how contagious we are. These properties, connection and contagion, are the structure and function of social networks

• Social networks have value precisely because they can help us achieve what we could not achieve on our own

• The powerful effect of social networks on individual behaviours and outcomes suggests that people do not have complete control over their own choices. Interpersonal influence in social networks therefore raises moral questions.

When I read this it made so much sense to me, when I looked at my life and my friends I found this to be true. I think this book is great to read it will make you think about your social network through a different perspective.

Read an excerpt of the book here

Buy a copy of Connected