Nick Christakis is a sociologist and medical doctor who found that the influence of social networks goes far beyond who we see on a daily basis. Read an excerpt here."Renowned scientists Christakis and Fowler present compelling evidence for our profound influence on one another's tastes, health, wealth, happiness, beliefs, even weight, as they explain how social networks form and how they operate."
Here is Christakis explaining his research at TED:
This is a link to my post about Gephi, a social network visualizer which is especially useful for Facebook and Twitter.
Here are 2 samples of what Gephi can do:
Here is research from The American Sociological Review about how Master Status can be so difficult to change and a powerful influence on an individual. Here is an explanation of the research on The Society Pages.
