I don’t know if you have discovered it. In fact, our life is just a network, a huge network.
Each of us is in a state of mutual connection and collision in this network. Even if the two people don’t know each other, friends must know each other, but this kind of acquaintance has a certain sense of distance.
is like people in the circle of friends. For us, some people may never contact us since we added friends; while some people are just in the state of complimenting each other in the circle of friends.
is not actually such a relationship that is not important, it is very important, and sometimes it can give us many unexpected surprises. So we must not let such a relationship stay in a state of "no chat or no contact". We must be brave enough to break this circle.
In this book "Breaking the Circle" written by British writers Richard Cock and Greg Lockwood, it tells us that we must break this vicious circle and attach importance to the power of links between people.
In the book, the author tells about three important components of the network: two distinct connections from others or other groups, and the groups we participate in ("hub"). Moreover, these three network elements did not appear in modern times, but have existed since the existence of human ancestors, but they have always existed in certain forms.
The first element of the network element is "strong connection". This is the existence of our strong relationship with those around us. They are relatives, friends, family and colleagues around us. For us, their existence is the most important thing.
is like a person. If he has no family or friends, it would be so lonely, and it is also a thing worthy of sympathy.
No person can survive in this world in isolation, and more or less he will have some social relations.
Although there is often a certain protagonist in TV series that is alone, it is a film and television drama after all. In real life, everyone will have some strong connections.
The second element of the network element is "weak connection". As the name suggests, it refers to people who are not that close to us, but have a large group, and are equally important to us. It's just that this importance is hard for us to detect.
But in fact, it won’t take much time and energy to maintain this “ weak connection to ” well.
For example, let’s continue to take the Moments issue as an example. Even if it’s a friend you haven’t contacted for a long time, one day he suddenly posted a Moments and you clicked a personal like.
Maybe next time you need help with something, don’t send a message suddenly. Otherwise, others will definitely find it strange and may not even think: "Do I know you very well? I'll ask me to help."
But if you take a little time to maintain it, your affairs may no longer be a problem.
Of course, it does not mean that you must deliberately please the other person. It just means that we should actively link each other when we can. But it is not just to contact me in order to find someone to help me in the future.
The third network element is "hub".
We can regard this "hub" as the junction point between strong connections and weak connections.
If you are a "hub", your family and friends in your circle of friends can also get to know each other through you.
You can choose to get along more with strong connections, or you can choose to chat more with weak connections.
Although the final decision lies with us, when we do something, whether we can succeed sometimes does not necessarily depend on ourselves. Maybe it also has the help from strong connections, and it also has the powerful power of weak connections.
In short, in this online world, strong connections are particularly important to everyone, but you must also remember that you must not ignore the power of weak connections.
Those who are unfamiliar to us or even somewhat strangers may also bring us great happiness and surprises.
