homophily part II - Social Capital
Below are some extracts from NY Times Blog http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/15/is-myspace-good-for-society-a-freakonomics-quorum/ "social capital", a concept that describes the benefits individuals receive from their relationships with others. Bridging social capital reflects the benefits we receive from our "weak ties" — people we don't know very well but who provide us with useful information and ideas. As our social networks are becoming increasingly more geographically fragmented, social network sites are a useful way for us to keep in touch and seek social contact with our friends. When many students begin university, they find themselves with a group of ready-made acquaintances. Given people’s preferences for people who are like them, it could be that friendship networks become increasingly homogeneous. Is this a bad thing? It might be if, by choosing potential friends via their Facebook profiles, it means that folk cut themselves off from ser